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?

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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.