Printer keeps "disappearing"

[bitzbox]

Kubuntu 10.04 LTS (32-bit)
KDE 4.4.5
HP Officejet Pro 8000 (connected by ethernet)
HPILP 3.10.2

I know very well that my printer is installed and configured but .....

Sometimes when I boot Kubuntu, my printer has "disappeared", sometimes it's there.
When it's disappeared, I look in the HP Device Manager and it tells me "No installed HP Devices found".
I then look in "System Settings" -> "Printer Configuration" and there's no printer listed.
I have my router configured to assign a static IP to the printer, so it can't be that.

This is becoming a tad irritating and I would greatly appreciate some ideas/suggestions.

Thanks .....

[askrieger]

Re: Printer keeps "disappearing"

Please define connected by ethernet. Do you mean that you have a printer attached to another computer on a home network, or that your printer itself has a network connection? the two situations are different. Personally, when the printer on one of my computers died, I started to just use ssh to login to the other computer, transfer the file to ~/printkluge/, print the file on the other computer, then go upstairs to get the printout when I felt like it or when my wife wanted to use her printer (whichever came first).

Obviously, you don't have to use ssh. You could use any other protocol that you like. I just don't like getting into the habit of using insecure protocols, in case I ever have to transfer something to a computer that's NOT on my home network.

[bitzbox]

Re: Printer keeps "disappearing"

The printer is connected directly to the router with an ethernet cable.

Regards .....

[askrieger]

Re: Printer keeps "disappearing"

Can you connect the printer directly to a specific computer via another type of connection e.g. USB? This would distinguish between a network (or cable) problem and a software problem. Also, are you using CUPS or just hplip?

[oshunluvr]

Re: Printer keeps "disappearing"

I would suspect a network problem since it works sometimes and not others.

1. Check the cable (always #1) - often just looking to see if the little activity lights are flickering is enough.
2. Next time it's not "there" - check the router. Not knowing your router - usually you can log onto the router as admin by typing the router IP address into a browser URL. See if your printer shows up on the router IP list. If not - could be the router or printer interface. If the router shows it IS there...
3. Launch cups and see if it sees it. If you have cups installed and running, open a browser window and type "localhost:631" in the URL bar. Your printer should be in listed in the printers tab.

let us know what you find

[bitzbox]

Re: Printer keeps "disappearing"

After booting into Kubuntu this morning, my printer wasn't there so I followed your list:

1. Cable is OK
2. Printer IP is listed in router.
3. Can't browse to http://localhost:631

Hmmm, so I then had a look to see if CUPS was running - nope!
So I then did a sudo service cups start
Printer is now "there".

I've discovered that on the occasions that my printer is "there", CUPS is running but when it isn't "there", CUPS is not running. So, the question now is, why doesn't CUPS always start during the boot process?

Regards .....

[oshunluvr]

Re: Printer keeps "disappearing"

Make sure it's not a network problem:

look at /etc/network/interfaces and verify it looks like:

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback



As far as cups goes, you should have a script in /etc/init.d called cups - make sure it's executable

ls -l /etc/init.d/cups

-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 3095 09.04.2010 09:59 cups*

[bitzbox]

Re: Printer keeps "disappearing"

Make sure it's not a network problem:

look at /etc/network/interfaces and verify it looks like:

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

Yes, it looks exactly like that.

As far as cups goes, you should have a script in /etc/init.d called cups - make sure it's executable

ls -l /etc/init.d/cups

-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 3095 09.04.2010 09:59 cups*

ls -l /etc/init.d/cups
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 3095 2010-04-09 16:06 /etc/init.d/cups

Regards .....

[oshunluvr]

Re: Printer keeps "disappearing"

Next time it doesn't come up - look in /var/log/cups/error.log and see if there's anything there. In fact - might be something there now...

[bitzbox]

Re: Printer keeps "disappearing"

Also, are you using CUPS or just hplip?

I know what CUPS and hplip are but I don't understand the question. Could you please expand a little, thanks.

Regards .....

[oshunluvr]

Re: Printer keeps "disappearing"

hplip is HP's linux driver and software package. Usually, you don't need it unless your printer is attached directly to your machine and you want more than the basic functionality.

CUPS = Common Unix Printing System, allows your computer to act as a fully functioning print server.

Either choice will work with your setup - but how you trouble-shoot each differs. Plus you can use both simultaneously for maximum function and flexibility.

[bitzbox]

Re: Printer keeps "disappearing"

That makes things much clearer, thanks.
I now have another question

I have 2 PC's and the HP printer connected directly by ethernet to the router. HPLIP and CUPS are running on both PC's and I can print from either PC - Do I actually need CUPS in this situation and if not, how do I take CUPS out of the equation?

Regards .....

[askrieger]

Re: Printer keeps "disappearing"

I've discovered that on the occasions that my printer is "there", CUPS is running but when it isn't "there", CUPS is not running.

I think that tells you why you need CUPS.

The real question is whether HPLIP is actually working properly, or not. HPLIP is the CUPS driver for HP printers. Without HPLIP, your printer's capabilities are limited. I wonder whether your situation would improve if you reinstalled HPLIP (and all its dependencies).

Personally, I use HPLIP with all the recommends (which are installed auto-magically), but without the GUI frosting from the suggested list. In this case, since you need to do some troubleshooting, you might want to install the GUI stuff, as well.

[oshunluvr]

Re: Printer keeps "disappearing"

hplip has command line utilities to check your installation. I think the package is hplip-dbg and the program is hp-check. I'm not sure if this works at all if you're using a network connection.

CUPS will let you administer and control your printer from any computer on the network. I think you really want it running.

[askrieger]

Re: Printer keeps "disappearing"

From Synaptic (but you can use some other package manager, if you wish):

hplip-debug
This package contains debugging symbolic information for all the
binaries and libraries in the hplip and hpijs packages.

It is useful for generating backtraces using debuggers like
gdb and to get better information from tools like ltrace.

versus
hplip-gui

HP Linux Printing and Imaging - GUI utilities

This package contains utilities with graphical user interface (GUI) for
HPLIP: HP Toolbox, HP Fax, ...

You may also have to install hplip-doc, if you don't have it, already.

hplip-doc
This package contains the full documentation for the HP Linux
Printing and Imaging System for off-line reading. It includes
the documentation for the HPIJS IJS driver as well.