Printing Rant! Why is this so hard?

WasPentalive@lemmy.one to Linux@lemmy.ml – 54 points –

Debian 12. HP Laserjet Professional P1606dn

If it prints at all, it prints the top inch of the test page or just random binary. I have tried the recommended driver, the driverless driver, the Generic PCL 4/5 driver, the Generic PCL 6 driver. And probably others I am not remembering.

I am trying to print over Ethernet, but I am about to drag the printer over near my desk and print via USB.

Fortunately, I don't have actual critical printing to do right now and I am only setting up a printer after installing Debian 12. BTW this means it is a fresh install of Debian 12 too.

I have been helpdesk support at a data center. I would not consider myself a dummy, but this is getting ridiculous. A task that should have taken all of 10 minutes has taken over 2 hours so far.

How are we ever going to get "The Year of Linux on the Desktop" if simple printing is and continues to be such a pain?

49

You are viewing a single comment
View all comments

You're supposed to use hplip for HP printers. There's a Debian package for it in the main repositories.
edit: You can look up the printers and supported features with hplip here. Looks like your printer is perfectly supported (as long as you let hplip's tray program install their proprietary driver plugin).

I will try that. Thanks! I am not sure what features I don't get to use because of the USB/Generic PCL printer setup I have now.

That was worse - the test page failed with "filter failed", went back to "Generic PCL Laser Printer", and was able to print a full Debian test page again.

Did you use hplip over USB or Ethernet? It might not be meant for use over USB.

I am using "Generic PCL laserprinter" and it seems to be working well enough now.

Have you installed the plugin within hplip, or rather, the hplip-GUI program? Have you removed the old printer from CUPS before trying?

I don't really understand the CUPS web interface at localhost:[cups port] but I am removing the printer from the control panel and ensuring it disappeared over a reboot. I installed the hplip package using apt. I don't know if it brought a GUI along with it. I have been interacting with things using the settings app.

What settings app? hp-toolbox is the program to use (which might in your applications menu as "HP Device Manager"), alternatively hp-setup to set it up from the CLI.