I quite realize that Trusty is waay old but it is my normal working hard drive which has all the apps that I need and the apps keep track of documents, etc. which are on an external HD.
However, to the point, the printer stopped printing which I assumed was toner level.
I checked the toner level as best as possible and then just put in another toner cartridge and it still did not print EXCEPT for a "smudge" in the middle of two sheets.
A "smudge" in the middle of sheets OR that the printer was running through a ream of paper and only printing a few lines ,has always been a warning to me that an incorrect driver was being used, this from experience decades ago having to manually install drivers.
So, I checked the driver and it was HP CUPS 18.5.2 hmmm so I looked on my nifty little piece of paper that I keep attached to the hardware and it was supposed to be...3.12.2 ... so apparently an infrequent update had changed the driver. There aren't many updates but sometimes I install a new app and it is involved with printing and I assume that is when the change was made.
Problem is that the old driver is not listed in setup so I switched to HP Laserjet 6P-cups+ Gutenprint V 5.2.10 - pre2 and it worked.
So, the point here is that if someone is using old hardware and suddenly it stops working but the ink is ok and one had an update or something and had the a latest CUPS installed sans Gutenprint, maybe try working up through the drivers and installing +Gutenprint.
I do not think this is a bug, it is just that the newer drivers are "supposed" to be backwardly compatible but there is just so much backward looking one can do and the HP Laserjet 6P really is ancient, kind of like the old woodsmoker!
If there are any questions please ask.
woodsmoke
However, to the point, the printer stopped printing which I assumed was toner level.
I checked the toner level as best as possible and then just put in another toner cartridge and it still did not print EXCEPT for a "smudge" in the middle of two sheets.
A "smudge" in the middle of sheets OR that the printer was running through a ream of paper and only printing a few lines ,has always been a warning to me that an incorrect driver was being used, this from experience decades ago having to manually install drivers.
So, I checked the driver and it was HP CUPS 18.5.2 hmmm so I looked on my nifty little piece of paper that I keep attached to the hardware and it was supposed to be...3.12.2 ... so apparently an infrequent update had changed the driver. There aren't many updates but sometimes I install a new app and it is involved with printing and I assume that is when the change was made.
Problem is that the old driver is not listed in setup so I switched to HP Laserjet 6P-cups+ Gutenprint V 5.2.10 - pre2 and it worked.
So, the point here is that if someone is using old hardware and suddenly it stops working but the ink is ok and one had an update or something and had the a latest CUPS installed sans Gutenprint, maybe try working up through the drivers and installing +Gutenprint.
I do not think this is a bug, it is just that the newer drivers are "supposed" to be backwardly compatible but there is just so much backward looking one can do and the HP Laserjet 6P really is ancient, kind of like the old woodsmoker!
If there are any questions please ask.
woodsmoke