I can print from any application but LibreOffice

Linux Support
1

I am running Peppermint 3 on a Dell D505 laptop and have an HP Photosmart C7200 series wireless printer (and a broken Epson).

When attempting to print this morning, it failed.
Opening the HP GUI showed that the device was not connected.
Switched the printer off and on.
Still shown as not connected
Installed HPLIP on a newly installed Ubuntu 14 desktop which found the printer immediately (wirelessly) and did a test print. So the printer is OK.

Back on the laptop:
In the HP GUI, removed the printer/fax and attempted to find it again (wirelessly). Failed to find the printer.
Uninstalled HPLIP via the terminal
HPLIP still shown in Package Manager so removed from there, too.
(Although the printer is no longer shown in Settings/Printers it does still appear in the printer list if I attempt to print a document.
Reinstalled HPLIP via the terminal (and added the GUI via Package Manager). Then…
Using the GUI Add Printer:
Using “Setup Device” still fails to find the printer
Using CUPS Web Interface, it found and installed the printer (but not the fax utility)
But HPLIP GUI still does not list it (should CUPS have added it?)

Tried to print a test page from CUPS: Success!
Used CUPS to set it as default printer: OK. (and it modified /etc/cups/printers.conf)
Tried to print a document from LibreOffice: Failed
“lpq” shows nothing in the queue.
Tried to print a test page via Settings/Printers/: Success!!
Tried to print a text file via “lpr <textfile.txt>”: Success!
Tried to print from Thunderbird: Success!

So I can print wirelessly using CUPS, Settings/Printers, Thunderbird and the terminal, but not from LibreOffice.

At wits end.
It may be that I haven’t uninstalled/reinstalled HPLIP sufficiently thoroughly. Your advice would be welcome.

2

How odd…

I know this isn’t an answer to your question but whilst I think about it, is there any reason you’re still on Peppermint 3 as opposed to 5 ?

I’m 99.9% sure Peppermint 5 will run on the Dell D505’s Celeron M processor … though it “probbly” needs the forcepae kernel boot parameter adding.

3

Errmmm…Well… mostly inertia, I suppose.
I gave away my P5 machine so my memory is a bit hazy but I seem to remember a couple of irritating things:

  • The “Main Menu” item - used to allow one to move an application by click & drag, not only within its group but across groups, too. Now items are movable only by clicking the up/down arrows within the group. My elderly friends like to have their favourite applications near the top of relevant headings.

  • LibreOffice now has a dire base page with huge icons with their path-names squidged up onto four lines. With P3 I can use File/Recent Documents (or Alt+f+u) to see a list of the last ten documents. So much more informative, easy to read and nicer to look at.

etc. etc. I have been considering writing a post about all this under General Discussion but felt a bout of heresy coming on.
All very Luddite, I know, and I’ll have to change one day.

4

If printing works in everything but LO, have you tried uninstalling / reinstalling LO ?

5

No, I hadn’t got around to that, BUT…

I thought I would have a go at using the “temporary USB” method of installing a printer via the HPLIP Device Manager.
Before starting Device Manager I took the laptop to my “printer room” (it’s a very small home!), plugged in the USB cable and… “Printer and fax added” it said.
So I started Device Manager and there they were! Being of a doubting turn of mind, I disconnected the cable to see if wireless printing was a goer but no.

I then tried the “temporary USB” method of creating a wireless connection. Device manager finds the printer OK but fails at the final hurdle: “Your printer has not been connected to the wireless network” but it keeps trying. The wireless key is fine (worked with the other PC).

[edit] Do you still reckon re-installing LO is the best option?

6

does

hp-check

give you any errors ?

Are you having any other networking issues ?

7

Sorry for the delay - I had to go to work.
The hp-check command produced lots of errors. I sent the o/p to a file, but some of the errors were still directed to the screen. I attach the former and here are the latter:
keith@D505 ~ $ hp-check > hp-check.txt
warning: peppermint distro is not found in AUTH_TYPES
warning: linuxmint-0.0 version is not supported. Using linuxmint-15 versions dependencies to verify and install…
warning: HPLIP-Installation: Auto installation is not supported for linuxmint distro 0.0 version
warning: Printer is not HPLIP installed. Printers must use the hp: or hpfax: CUPS backend for HP-Devices.
warning: Printer is not HPLIP installed. Printers must use the hp: or hpfax: CUPS backend for HP-Devices.
error: ‘libdbus-1-dev’ package is missing/incompatible
error: ‘libcups2’ package is missing/incompatible
error: ‘openssl’ package is missing/incompatible
error: ‘libjpeg8-dev’ package is missing/incompatible
error: ‘python-dev’ package is missing/incompatible
error: ‘libcups2-dev’ package is missing/incompatible
error: ‘cups-bsd’ package is missing/incompatible
error: ‘cups-client’ package is missing/incompatible
error: ‘libsane-dev’ package is missing/incompatible
error: ‘libusb-1.0.0-dev’ package is missing/incompatible
error: ‘libcupsimage2-dev’ package is missing/incompatible
error: ‘libsnmp-dev’ package is missing/incompatible
error: ‘libtool’ package is missing/incompatible
error: ‘avahi-utils’ package is missing/incompatible
error: ‘xsane’ package is missing/incompatible
error: lp groups need to be added for keith user
keith@D505 ~ $

Am I having any other networking issues ?: No, everything else is working fine.

8

I take it at some point you’ve installed a later version of hplip from somewhere other than the default repo’s ?

AFAIK, 12.04/Peppermint 3 should not have hplip 3.13 … it should still be on 3.12

9

That rings a bell somewhere. I seem to remember the HPLIP Device Manager inviting me to upgrade to a newer version, so I expect I did, assuming that this would be the right thing to do. But it must have been some time ago.
Is it possible to regress, as it were?

10

what’s the output from:

dpkg -l | grep hplip

[EDIT]

What I meant was - have you ever had to download a more recent version of hplip than the one that was in the repos ? … from here:
http://hplipopensource.com/hplip-web/downloads.html

11

keith@D505 ~ $ dpkg -l | grep hplip
ii hplip 3.13.9-1ubuntu0.1~ubuntu12.04.1 HP Linux Printing and Imaging System (HPLIP)
ii hplip-data 3.13.9-1ubuntu0.1~ubuntu12.04.1 HP Linux Printing and Imaging - data files
ii hplip-gui 3.13.9-1ubuntu0.1~ubuntu12.04.1 HP Linux Printing and Imaging - GUI utilities (Qt-based)
keith@D505 ~ $

I would not have upgraded via the Package Manager - I’m fairly sure I simply clicked on the invitation link that appeared in the HPLIP Device Manager. Direct from HP, I guess. There may well be a post of mine about it here somewhere - I’ll try to find it.

12

I have found my post:
http://linuxforums.org.uk/index.php?topic=11343.msg90382#msg90382
But it looks like I didn’t choose that path at the time. Though I can’t remember upgrading it later, although I clearly have done.
Sorry I can’t be more specific.

Is this another case of a re-installation being the easiest option?

13

You wanna try installing the latest version of hplip from the website first ?

Don’t ask me if this’ll help,but currently I don’t suppose it can make matters worse.

I suppose another workaround my be to try Kingsoft Office.

14

I would like to try the latest version as a first solution, but if P3 is designed for V3.12 of HPLIP, I wonder if that’s a goer.
Any advice before I take the plunge?

15

Run:

sudo apt-get install build-essential linux-headers-generic dkms

then

mkdir ~/hplip-temp

then

cd ~/hplip-temp

then

wget http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/hplip/hplip-3.14.10.run

ok, before attempting to run that let’s edit “lsb-release” to con it into thinking it’s installing on Ubuntu 14.04 (we’ll undo this after installation)…

run:

sudo gedit /etc/lsb-release

and make it read:-

# DISTRIB_ID=Peppermint
# DISTRIB_RELEASE=5
# DISTRIB_CODENAME=trusty
# DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Peppermint Five"

DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=14.04
DISTRIB_CODENAME=trusty
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 14.04 LTS"

SAVE the file and exit gedit

Make SURE no package managers are open, and you have an active interweb connection…

Back in the terminal run:
sh hplip-3.14.10.run
choose “a” for automatic
choose “y” for yes it’s Ubuntuu 14.04
enter your root password
hit “Enter” to continue
choose “i” if it says another version is installed - to “Remove and Install”
choose “y” to check for updates
choose “y” to update plug-ins
choose “u” for GUI mode

in the GUI window select “Download and install the plugin from an HP authorized server”
and hit “Next”
Agree to the license and hit “Next”
Click “OK”

As it’s a wireless printer, choose “i” to ignore/continue the USB restart/replug

choose “u” to enter the GUI (hp-setup) and add your printer

If you now get:

/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/gtk-2.0/gtk/__init__.py:127: RuntimeWarning: PyOS_InputHook is not available for interactive use of PyGTK set_interactive(1)
in the terminal, just hit Ctrl+C to exit back to a prompt .. and close the terminal.

Any other errors report them here

No errors … undo the changes you made to lsb-release:

sudo gedit /etc/lsb-release

and make it read

DISTRIB_ID=Peppermint
DISTRIB_RELEASE=5
DISTRIB_CODENAME=trusty
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Peppermint Five"

SAVE the file and exit gedit.

To uninstall, and go back to the Peppermint default version, run:

cd ~/hplip-temp/hplip-3.14.10

then

sudo make uninstall

then

sudo apt-get install hplip hplip-gui
16

There were indeed errors at the very start:
[i]RUNNING PRE-INSTALL COMMANDS

OK

INSTALL MISSING REQUIRED DEPENDENCIES

warning: There are 6 missing REQUIRED dependencies.
note: Installation of dependencies requires an active internet connection.
warning: Missing REQUIRED dependency: python-devel (Python devel - Python development files)
warning: Missing REQUIRED dependency: cups-devel (CUPS devel- Common Unix Printing System development files)
warning: Missing REQUIRED dependency: libusb (libusb - USB library)
warning: Missing REQUIRED dependency: libtool (libtool - Library building support services)
warning: Missing REQUIRED dependency: cups-image (CUPS image - CUPS image development files)
warning: Missing REQUIRED dependency: libjpeg (libjpeg - JPEG library)

INSTALL MISSING OPTIONAL DEPENDENCIES

warning: There are 6 missing OPTIONAL dependencies.
note: Installation of dependencies requires an active internet connection.
warning: Missing REQUIRED dependency for option ‘network’: libcrypto (libcrypto - OpenSSL cryptographic library)
warning: Missing REQUIRED dependency for option ‘network’: libnetsnmp-devel (libnetsnmp-devel - SNMP networking library development files)
warning: Missing OPTIONAL dependency for option ‘network’: avahi-utils (avahi-utils)
warning: Missing REQUIRED dependency for option ‘fax’: dbus (DBus - Message bus system)
warning: Missing REQUIRED dependency for option ‘scan’: sane-devel (SANE - Scanning library development files)
warning: Missing OPTIONAL dependency for option ‘scan’: xsane (xsane - Graphical scanner frontend for SANE)[/i]

… but guessed that these would be rectified by the installation.
It began the un-installation of the old HPLIP at about 3:15 and is still going - hasn’t got to the "check for updates yet…

17

.
.
.choose “i” if it says another version is installed - to “Remove and Install”
choose “y” to check for updates
choose “y” to update plug-ins
choose “u” for GUI mode
.
I got as far as choose “y” to check for updates then I was given a choice restarting the printer (r) or ignore/continue (i) etc. but it didn’t mean printer and rebooted the PC. It looks like it had omitted a few of your lines so I chose the wrong one.
I am now at the point of requiring the GUI plugins.

I think I’ll start from the beginning again tomorrow.

18

Sorry I was waiting for you to say ok it’s completed now.

Yeah just try again.

Obviously you need an active interweb connection for it to get the plugins.

19

I have got as far as this output (and my responses):
[i]
HPLIP UPDATE NOTIFICATION

Do you want to check for HPLIP updates?. (y=yes*, n=no) : y

RESTART OR RE-PLUG IS REQUIRED

If you are installing a USB connected printer, and the printer was plugged in when you started this installer, you will need
to either restart your PC or unplug and re-plug in your printer (USB cable only). If you choose to restart, run this command
after restarting: hp-setup (Note: If you are using a parallel connection, you will have to restart your PC. If you are using
network/wireless, you can ignore and continue).

Restart or re-plug in your printer (r=restart, p=re-plug in*, i=ignore/continue, q=quit) : i

PRINTER SETUP

Please make sure your printer is connected and powered on at this time.
Do you want to setup printer in GUI mode? (u=GUI mode*, i=Interactive mode) : u[/i]

Note that there was no offer of “choose “y” to update plug-ins”, but went straight to the the GUI invitation, where I have selected GUI mode. At this point, I am presented with the usual HPLIP Device Manager / Device Discovery window which does not offer “Download and install the plugin from an HP authorized server” option.
Any ideas?

20

it may not need any plugins … is the printer discovered ?

or try running:

sudo hp-plugin

and selecting “d” to download