problem installing "binary plugin" for HP printer [solved]

[mimosa]

I've just bought an old printer on Ebay (HP Laserjet Professional p1102) and it's giving me some trouble.

I've tried using CUPS and also with hplip.

It says it needs a "binary plugin" which appears to be this:
https://developers.hp.com/hp-linux-imag ... lugin.html
(which is a bundle of all of them). It appears to install successfully, but then goes back to asking for the binary plugin.

One mistake I made early on was to run the script (hp-setup, or hp-plugin) as root ... because it doesn't like sudo ... so I created a password for the root account. It may be I left something undesirable behind, by initially running as root.

One suggestion I have found online is to add a symlink from python to 2.7, but I haven't tried that as it sounds like a terrible hack.

Here is some output:

Code: Select all

mimosa[~]$ hp-setup

HP Linux Imaging and Printing System (ver. 3.20.5)
Printer/Fax Setup Utility ver. 9.0

Copyright (c) 2001-18 HP Development Company, LP
This software comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
This is free software, and you are welcome to distribute it
under certain conditions. See COPYING file for more details.

Searching... (bus=usb, search=(None), desc=0)
 
HP Linux Imaging and Printing System (ver. 3.20.5)
Plugin Download and Install Utility ver. 2.1

Copyright (c) 2001-18 HP Development Company, LP
This software comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
This is free software, and you are welcome to distribute it
under certain conditions. See COPYING file for more details.


HP Linux Imaging and Printing System (ver. 3.20.5)
Plugin Download and Install Utility ver. 2.1

Copyright (c) 2001-18 HP Development Company, LP
This software comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
This is free software, and you are welcome to distribute it
under certain conditions. See COPYING file for more details.

Checking for network connection...
Downloading plug-in from: 
Receiving digital keys: /usr/bin/gpg --homedir /home/mimosa/.hplip/.gnupg --no-permission-warning --keyserver pgp.mit.edu --recv-keys 0x4ABA2F66DBD5A95894910E0673D770CDA59047B9
Creating directory plugin_tmp
Verifying archive integrity... All good.
Uncompressing HPLIP 3.20.5 Plugin Self Extracting Archive..............................................................

HP Linux Imaging and Printing System (ver. 3.20.5)
Plugin Installer ver. 3.0

Copyright (c) 2001-18 HP Development Company, LP
This software comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
This is free software, and you are welcome to distribute it
under certain conditions. See COPYING file for more details.

Plug-in version: 3.20.5
Installed HPLIP version: 3.20.5
Number of files to install: 64

note: Using PyQt5
qt.qpa.xcb: QXcbConnection: XCB error: 3 (BadWindow), sequence: 511, resource id: 7257816, major code: 40 (TranslateCoords), minor code: 0
 
Done.
 Plug-in installation successful 
qt.qpa.xcb: QXcbConnection: XCB error: 3 (BadWindow), sequence: 689, resource id: 7257235, major code: 40 (TranslateCoords), minor code: 0
qt.qpa.xcb: QXcbConnection: XCB error: 3 (BadWindow), sequence: 817, resource id: 7259279, major code: 40 (TranslateCoords), minor code: 0

Done.
error:  The device you are trying to setup requires a binary plug-in. Some functionalities may not work as expected without plug-ins.  Please run 'hp-plugin' as normal user to install plug-ins.   Visit  http://hplipopensource.com  for more infomation. 
qt.qpa.xcb: QXcbConnection: XCB error: 3 (BadWindow), sequence: 719, resource id: 7259743, major code: 40 (TranslateCoords), minor code: 0
qt.qpa.xcb: QXcbConnection: XCB error: 3 (BadWindow), sequence: 778, resource id: 7251135, major code: 40 (TranslateCoords), minor code: 0

Done.
mimosa[~]$ 

[djemos]

try this and see if helps

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sudo hp-plugin -i

or run

Code: Select all

hp-toolbox

[mimosa]

Thanks djemos, those just seem to take me down the same rabbit hole.

[DidierSpaier]

Thanks djemos, those just seem to take me down the same rabbit hole.

Next time you go there, say hello to Alice for me -- sorry, I couldn't resist. By the way the initial title was "Alice underground" (I downloaded one from the British Library a while ago).

[mimosa]

I think I have installed it successfully in another distro. But I can't be sure, because the paper jams every time it tries to print. This is probably a hardware fault, but it's difficult to be certain.

The HP website for the binary plugin includes a list of distributions (not including Slackware) that should work out of the box.

[gapan]

Mimosa, do you have PyQt5 installed?

And a different idea: doesn't this printer work with some generic postscript or PCL driver? Most HP laserjets do I think.

[mimosa]

Yes PyQt5 is there.

Since I apparently managed to install the printer to MX's satisfaction, I am leaning towards the view that as well as the difficulty getting Salix to swallow it, there is a hardware fault (paper jam whatever I print, including the test page).

However, before sending the printer back, I'd like to try the generic method you mention; but I'm not quite sure how to go about it ... is it the option in CUPS where it asks you to choose your printer model "or provide a PPD file"? I did try something I had found somewhere but it didn't do the trick.

[djemos]

mimosa, try this last
install system-config-printer
sudo slapt-get -i system-config-printer
and then run it and add printer and choose your printer model and see if it works. Of course hplip is also needed which is installed already in your system.

[mimosa]

Thanks djemos, that appeared to work perfectly, but the paper still jams, and also, after some time a dialogue from hplip pops up telling me I need to install the binary plugin.

My guess is that there is a hardware fault causing the printer to jam (so I need to return it to Ebay) and a separate difficulty about installing it on Salix.

I tried with this ppd file:

https://github.com/koenkooi/foo2zjs/blo ... P1102w.ppd

which is part of the "foo2zjs" driver. But it says something called "foo2zjs-wrapper" is needed.

Apparently this printer is eccentric both in its use of a weird format or encoding "zjs", and in its normal installation method under Windows, where it pretends to be a CD when the USB cable is plugged in.

Since I still don't know whether it has an independent hardware fault, I am leaning towards returning it.

[mimosa]

I am pleased to report that I have (more or less) got it working!

Key steps:

1 I opened the cover, removed the toner cartridge, and extracted a piece of scrunched-up sellotape floating around in there

2 I actually installed that foo2zjs thing, rather than just copying some of the files into /usr/local/bin

3 When installing the printer with the system-config-printer script, I chose the "USB" option rather than the "hplip" option

However, when it ran out of paper, it froze and I had to uninstall and reinstall it. There was some error with part of foo2zjs that was called and found absent. So it's a work in progress.

Thanks to gapan and djemos for your input (and Didier for encouragement)!