Installation Troubleshooting

Issue 1: 'hp-makeuri' fails to find my network printer

Solution:

1. Determine the IP address of your printer by printing out the network configuration page (or if you know it or can determine it in another way)
2. Run:

$ hp-makeuri <ip-address>

For example:

$ hp-makeuri 192.168.1.1

3. This will result in a device URI printed to the console. For example:

hp:/net/Officejet_9100_series?ip=192.168.1.1

4. Copy this device URI
5. Open the CUPS UI:

http://localhost:631

(or YasT, etc) and install the printer by pasting the generated URI.

Issue 2: There is no listing in CUPS or my printer installation tool for the exact model number of my printer.

Solution:

1. Check to see if there is another model in the list that is in the correct "series". For example, a "DeskJet 5510" will use a "DeskJet 5500 Series" driver. In general, you "round down" the model number that appears on the case of the printer to the next lowest number that is available in the software.
2. If this doesn't work, visit this page and follow the instructions to download and install a new PPD file for your printer: http://linuxprinting.org/

Issue 3: I've plugged in my USB printer, but it doesn't show up in the CUPS interface.

Solution:

Restart CUPS. There are two basic methods: (Note: You must be root to execute these commands)

# /etc/init.d/cupsd restart

or:

# killall -HUP cupsd

Issue 4: I can 'ping' my network printer but 'hp-makeuri' won't generate a device URI for it.

Solution:

1. Check to make sure SNMP is properly installed. Check your distribution documnetation on how to do this.
2. Check your network firewall and make sure it is configured so that access to port 9100 is not blocked.
3. Make sure the printer is powered on, and that the network cable is pluged into the printer and configured correctly.

Issue 5: I am sharing a printer from another Linux machine using CUPS and I am unable to print to it.

Solution:

This configuration is currently unsupported in HPLIP. To print in this configuration, use HPIJS only.

Issue 6: I am sharing a printer from a Windows machine and I am unable to print to it.

Solution:

This configuration is unsupported currently in HPLIP. To print in this configuration, use HPIJS only and the SAMBA backend (smb:)

Issue 7: I am trying to setup my printer in SUSE using CUPS and am having problems.

Solution:

To install on SUSE, unless you have created a CUPS admin, you must use YaST. Otherwise, printer setup using CUPS will fail. Follow the YaST instructions in the Installation Instructions section.