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From: Boyd Stephen Smith Jr. on 10 May 2010 17:40
On Monday 10 May 2010 15:36:41 Kent West wrote:
> Boyd Stephen Smith Jr. wrote:
> > On Monday 10 May 2010 14:16:21 Kent West wrote:
> >> Something I've never figured out with Debian is how to know which
> >> package to install to get a certain printer driver.
> >
> > I suggest just installing all the packages listed from (aptitude search
> > '- ppds$').
> >
> > This should catch more printers than most users need.
>
> I may resort to that, but it sure seems messy.

It's only a few packages.

> >> I know I've printed to this HP Color Laserjet CM3530 from a Debian box
> >> before, but I have no idea what package I had installed to do so, nor
> >> what driver I chose (since I can't find the CM3530 listed in my
> >> web-based CUPS setup (localhost:631)).
> >
> > For HP printers, I suggest using the hp-toolbox which can be found in the
> > hplip-gui package. If the cups web interface is more comfortable for
> > you, the printer drivers provided by hplip (HP LInux Printing) project
> > are in the hpijs-ppds package.
>
> I tried installing hpijs-ppds, but I still don't see the CM3530 listed;
> I do now see a Color Laserjet 3550 (without the CM, and not the 3530),
> but who knows if that'd work? Not me.

Rarely are PPDs for a *specific* model. They are usually for a model family.
I have a HP PhotoSmart C8150 and it uses the PhotoSmart C8100 driver. This
isn't different in MS Windows or OS X.

You could always *try* a test page. If it doesn't work would can always
choose a different driver.

http://hplipopensource.com/hplip-
web/models/color_laserjet/hp_color_laserjet_cm3530_mfp.html indicates that you
need hplip 2.8.10 or better and it should have it's own driver. Lenny has
2.8.6; backports, testing, and Sid have 3.10.2.

> The hplip-gui package is already installed, but running "hplip-gui" did
> nothing. "man hplip-gui" did nothing (I thought all Debian packages are
> supposed to have a man page, even if it does nothing more than point to
> some other documentation?). (Looking in /usr/share/doc/hplip-gui would
> have eventually maybe clued me to the hp-toolbox, but thankfully you've
> already pointed me to it so I didn't have to dig blindly.)

All binaries under /bin, /usr/bin, /sbin, and /usr/sbin should have a manpage,
per the policy. Often packages will be named after one of those binaries, but
not always. When they are not, the package name does not have to have a
manpage associated with it.

> The hp-toolbox said no device is set up, and to run hp-setup (as root).
> It failed to automagically find my printer, but I chose to use the
> Manual button and enter the printer's IP address, and now it presents me
> with a list of six possible PPD drivers, none of which have names very
> close at all to my printer (cm4730, cm6030, cm4730, and Postscript
> variants of those).

Likely one of those will work but with reduced functionality. One is probably
the predecessor of this device.

HP did not release a driver for this specific device prior to the Lenny
freeze; newer hardware sometimes requires support that is only available in
testing or Sid.
--
Boyd Stephen Smith Jr. ,= ,-_-. =.
bss(a)iguanasuicide.net ((_/)o o(\_))
ICQ: 514984 YM/AIM: DaTwinkDaddy `-'(. .)`-'
http://iguanasuicide.net/ \_/
From: Boyd Stephen Smith Jr. on 10 May 2010 17:50
On Monday 10 May 2010 16:17:32 Kent West wrote:
> Brad Rogers wrote:
> > On Mon, 10 May 2010 15:36:41 -0500
> > Kent West <westk(a)acu.edu> wrote:
> >
> > Hello Kent,
> >
> >> I tried installing hpijs-ppds, but I still don't see the CM3530
> >> listed; I do now see a Color Laserjet 3550 (without the CM, and not
> >> the 3530), but who knows if that'd work? Not me.
> >
> > In Testing, the CM3530 is listed. You might try pulling the hplip-data
> > package from there, or wait for it to migrate.
>
> Okay. That scares me. This box used to run Sid, but then one update
> killed my dual-monitor setup, and after about 6 months of fighting
> trying to get it back, I finally rebuilt the box back to stable.
>
> I don't mind pulling in a package or two from Testing, but I'm unsure
> how to do it without doing a wholesale dist-upgrade to Testing.

It's generally referred to as a "mixed" system. Most "mixed" systems are
neither tested nor officially supported. They can still be quite useful.

Adding backports as a source is *almost* supported. Backports is not an
official service for Lenny, but I think there was some work to make it
official for Squeeze or Squeeze+1.

In practice, using stable/backports is _vastly_ superior to trying to use a
mixed stable/testing system. Unless you've already been playing with pinning,
you should simply be able to add backports to your sources.list. Only the
packages you specifically request from backports will be installed.

> putting the testing lines below the stable lines so
> the stable will still be the default,

The order the lines appear in the file does not affect what versions of a
package will be installed. (It *might* affect which mirror is tried first,
but I don't think even that is guaranteed.)

You'll want to look into (man 5 apt_preferences) if you want to run a mixed
system. I also have some information at
<http://www.iguanasuicide.net/node/4>.

> then running "aptitude update",
> then "aptitude install +testing hpijs-ppds" or something similar. Right?

You should probably know how to do this before you consider moving to a mixed
system. There's (aptitude -t testing hpijs-ppds) and (aptitude hpijs-
ppds/testing) which seem fairly similar but can do very different things.
--
Boyd Stephen Smith Jr. ,= ,-_-. =.
bss(a)iguanasuicide.net ((_/)o o(\_))
ICQ: 514984 YM/AIM: DaTwinkDaddy `-'(. .)`-'
http://iguanasuicide.net/ \_/
From: Boyd Stephen Smith Jr. on 10 May 2010 18:10
On Monday 10 May 2010 16:50:47 Kent West wrote:
> Kent West wrote:
> > So you mentioned backports. Reckon I'll go research how to configure
> > my sources.list file to do that, and how to use it.
>
> Wait! I've gotta digest all this in 15 minutes?!
>
> http://debian.ethz.ch/pub/debian-backports/utils/Backport-HOWTO.html

Nope. That's for doing it yourself.

There's a lot of backports already maintained by existing DDs and DMs. Check
out <http://backports.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=instructions>. Just add one
line to your sources.list and then (aptitude install hplip/lenny-backports)
should do it.

It's currently an unofficial service, but I think Debian wants to do something
like it as an official service during the lifetime of Squeeze or Squeeze+1 and
future releases.
--
Boyd Stephen Smith Jr. ,= ,-_-. =.
bss(a)iguanasuicide.net ((_/)o o(\_))
ICQ: 514984 YM/AIM: DaTwinkDaddy `-'(. .)`-'
http://iguanasuicide.net/ \_/
From: Camaleón on 10 May 2010 18:20
On Mon, 10 May 2010 14:16:21 -0500, Kent West wrote:

> Something I've never figured out with Debian is how to know which
> package to install to get a certain printer driver.

Uh? Openprinting should be the first step to check :-)

http://www.linuxfoundation.org/collaborate/workgroups/openprinting

> I know I've printed to this HP Color Laserjet CM3530 from a Debian box
> before, but I have no idea what package I had installed to do so, nor
> what driver I chose (since I can't find the CM3530 listed in my
> web-based CUPS setup (localhost:631)).

If you cannot locate the PPD for your printer, download the tarball of
HPLIP from HP site and extract the PPD for your concrete printer model.
Then you can add a new printer in the standard way with CUPS. Being a
Postsript printer, this should be straightforward.

> I'm unsure if I don't have the right package installed, or if I used a
> different driver in the past. Google and the Debian search engines are
> not helping me one whit.

If you have a multifunction device, you can also install HPLIP package,
for using the scanner and fax facilities.

> I've never really understood the relationship between printer drivers
> for general use and printer drivers for gutenprint (whatever that is),
> or the relationship between those and/or cup-driver-gutenprint and/or
> cupsys-driver-gutenprint (and the descriptions are less than helpful),
> so any help would be appreciated.

Gutenprint-footomatic is a set of drivers that work for some printer
models (not all). In fact, you can have as many printer instances
installed in CUPS as you like, for example, one instance being associated
with a different driver, whether available. Every driver has its own
advantages and/or glitches, so some provide high quality printings (but
are very slow) and other are faster (but you get a stantard or poor
quality output, suitable for drafts).

Greetings,

--
Camaleón


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From: Charlie on 10 May 2010 19:00
On Mon, 10 May 2010 14:16:21 -0500 Kent West <westk(a)acu.edu> shared
this with us all:

>Something I've never figured out with Debian is how to know which
>package to install to get a certain printer driver.
>
>I know I've printed to this HP Color Laserjet CM3530 from a Debian box
>before, but I have no idea what package I had installed to do so, nor
>what driver I chose (since I can't find the CM3530 listed in my
>web-based CUPS setup (localhost:631)).
>
>I'm unsure if I don't have the right package installed, or if I used a
>different driver in the past. Google and the Debian search engines are
>not helping me one whit.
>
>I've never really understood the relationship between printer drivers
>for general use and printer drivers for gutenprint (whatever that is),
>or the relationship between those and/or cup-driver-gutenprint and/or
>cupsys-driver-gutenprint (and the descriptions are less than helpful),
>so any help would be appreciated.
>
>Thanks!

Maybe hpijs is what you need?

HTH

--
Registered Linux User:- 329524
......................................................

Predictions are hard, especially about the future.
______________________Niels Bohr

......................................................

Debian GNU/Linux - just the best way to create magic


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