HPLIP includes HPIJS, which is the basic printing driver that supports CUPS, LPD, PPR, and other spoolers.
You can make pretty photo prints, send and receive faxes, make copies, and churn out reams of endless monochrome prose just like a real computer user. So you can actually have a multifunction device where everything works on Linux. HPLIP supports inkjet printers, laser printers, photo printers, and multifunction devices. So there is nothing sneaky no antique, buggy binaries, no silly wailing about protecting precious eye pee, no funny “you can download it if you can find it” games.
The code is released under the GPL, MIT and BSD license. HPLIP is a genuine FOSS project hosted on Sourceforge. You don’t need it if you’re not running any HP printers.
Most Linux distributions these days install HPLIP by default.
These are all supported by the HPLIP subsystem, which depends on CUPS.
It also has a Sourceforge site with detailed information. It even make it easy to find them (unlike the others) as this handy page shows. Hewlett-Packard has the most extensive line of well-supported Linux printers, scanners, and multi-function devices of any printer manufacturer. Visit Linux Foundation Open Printing for more information. But it’s cheaper than buying a new printer.
Yes it sucks to pay extra for drivers when they should be included with the printer, especially when most of them support Mac OS X, which uses CUPS just like Linux. I have a special fondness for the TurboPrint drivers for color inkjet and photo printers, which are often better than even the Gutenprint drivers. Using vendor’s drivers doesn’t always translate to better quality: You’re often better off using CUPS’ Foomatic or Gutenprint drivers. Some support only a few models, and some are more generous. Linux-Friendly PrintersĪ number of printer manufacturers are now Linux-friendly to varying degrees – Samsung, Brother, Epson, Konica/Minolta, and Canon all offer their own Linux drivers, or support CUPS (Common Unix Printing System). I would also wish an itchy pox upon Linux users who don’t research their purchases a bit more carefully.īut I don’t really want anyone to have itchy poxes (well, almost no one), and reality is what it is, so today we’re going to look at the excellent Hewlett-Packard Linux Imaging and Printing subsystem for Linux (HPLIP). I would wish an itchy pox upon the lot of them if I were less saintly. The recalcitrance of so many hardware manufacturers to support Linux and other non-Windows platforms still baffles me–is there something about us that repels them? They take our money happily enough, without feeling any obligation to deliver any actual value in return. Hope this helps.Printing on Linux has traditionally been possible mainly thanks to the efforts of heroic Linux developers, with little support from printer manufacturers. Bold white foreground lines are packages that are currently installed and not changed and dim white are un-installed ones available but not installed. Red background lines are problems/warnings (but only if on something that needs to be installed or you want installed) Green lines are packages to be installed Purple lines are packages to be uninstalled and Cyan lines are packages (on the preview tab) that will be updated (on other tabs there will be a purple/green pair of lines).
Use - t to access the menu and don't forget to do a - t U to update the package list (aptitude and apt-get are two separate utilities and each needs to have it's lists updated to keep their idea of what packages are around up to date.) Here is a capture of the information for that package on my Debian (Wheezy) PC (not a Pi!):Īny line in an aptitude tab beginning with - can be expended by selecting that line (with / arrows) and hitting and -\ lines collapsed in the same way. If that seems to be the case (the previous paragraph did not solve your problem) try running sudo aptitude - without any arguments aptitude runs as a text-mode application and it can show you the interrelation between packages and if there is a problem it offers an interactive means to fix things. The problem you are experiencing is that the extra package you have requested is later than the ones already installed but apt-get does not know (without running the "update" instruction) that new versions for all the interconnected packages have become available.!įailing that it may be that (temporarily) one or more packages have not been updated on the servers so that there is a mix of updated and un-updated both on the server and you have got a mix of both. You have just done a: sudo apt-get update first haven't you (things can change on a daily basis) then try the sudo apt-get install cups-driver-gutenprint again. I would check that you really have an up-to-date list of packages available from the servers that you are using.