Person intimate with Kub's implementation of CUPS to solve my printer problem?

[RLynwood]

Having discovered it a couple of years ago, I've installed HP's printer support suite, outsourced to hplipopensource.net a few times, always successfully. That is, I get a printer and printer fax icon (two) in the Settings/Printers dialog, both of which have context menus available, and an HP icon put in the System tray whose context menu yields a Device Manager and a Settings dialog.

Four people here have told me in response to my question of how to get the same thing via Kubuntu's automatic detection and installation system in the Transitioners section that that should be the case naturally, i.e., as part of the system. But I never get it. They've directed me through the process a number of times (but I've known how to do that anyway and done it, repeatedly), but still get a grossly incomplete installation. All I get is a printer icon in the Settings/Printers dialog with only three bits of functionality and no context menu to it: NO system tray icon, NO Device Manager, NO Settings button, NO printer fax icon.

I do know how to use the Package Manager and have done it quite a few times now in trying this installation.

Is there anyone here sufficiently intimate with Kubuntu's implementation of the hplip software to help me find the source of my incomplete printer installation procedure? I'd rather use the distro. software than the independently installed version, complete and functional as it is, if possible. Otherwise, I'll stick with the hplipopensource version. Thanks.

[claydoh]

A brief but precise summary of what you have done might help here, including which version of Kubuntu you are using, so folks can know what is going on.
(I will admit I have not been active much, with 2 jobs and other things going on, so I am not up to speed)


I'll start with what I remember:

1)You installed HPLIP from a package downloaded directly from HP
2)You uninstalled this
3)You installed some unspecified HPLIP packages using Muon, so that you can have the Ubuntu provided HPLIP software
4)Something is missing or does not work.

All I get is a printer icon in the Settings/Printers dialog with only three bits of functionality and no context menu to it: NO system tray icon, NO Device Manager, NO Settings button, NO printer fax icon.

If I am reading this correctly, what you are looking at is the Printers section in System Settings, correct? There is no HP toolbox or other HP related items anywhere in your Kmenu at all ? This makes me think that something necessary was not actually installed, and is why the specific packages you do have installed are important.

[Qqmike]

If I am reading this correctly, what you are looking at is the Printers section in System Settings, correct? There is no HP toolbox or other HP related items anywhere in your Kmenu at all ?

OMGosh! I totally missed this, if it is correct: you were referring to System Settings > Printers, and not HP Toolbox in the previous thread? That explains your "Maintenance" tab. I'm sure you did * type * this out for us. As I said in the previous thread, I'm not a Real Helper^TM, and so will step aside, at least awhile; just to say that with HP printers, I don't think I've ever used System Settings > Printers, not that it might not be helpful ...

[RLynwood]

A brief but precise summary of what you have done might help here, including which version of Kubuntu you are using, so folks can know what is going on.
(I will admit I have not been active much, with 2 jobs and other things going on, so I am not up to speed)

Kubuntu 14.10, mostly stock but w/ all updates.
Hardware, though irrelevant: White-box unit w/ Asus Gryphon Z87 mainboard, Intel i7-4790 processor, 32GB G.Skill, 1866 DDR3 ram (w/ XMP set in bios to accommodate its speed exceeding 1600), one as-yet unused 512GB SSD, and four Ubuntu-variant OSs, including Kubuntu, on a Seagate 512GB Momentus hdd, and another, so-far unused 512GB Momentus hdd.

I'll start with what I remember:
1)You installed HPLIP from a package downloaded directly from HP
2)You uninstalled this
3)You installed some unspecified HPLIP packages using Muon, so that you can have the Ubuntu provided HPLIP software
4)Something is missing or does not work.

Essentially correct, not less than two times each. Here's the recap.:
When I install the hplip software using HP's outsourced site, hplipopensource.net, following their instructions precisely, using a download then a series of command-line entries in a terminal, I get two icons in System Settings/Printers, one for the printer function and one labeled Fax. And I get an HP icon in the System tray that contains a contex menu that contains Device Manager and Settings entries. Clicking on the Device Manager yields a dialog/window that has two panes, left and right. The left pane has an entry for the printer and one for the fax. Clicking on each yields a slew of tabbed pages in the right pane, each with loads of configuration information. And, right-clicking the printer icon in System Settings/Printers yields a context menu that has a Properties entry. That gives more information, which I've forgotten now.
One thing more: when I look in Muon Package Manager, it says that much of the software that I KNOW is installed from the hplipopensource site because all the features are available is NOT there, i.e., not installed.

When I follow the uninstallation command (I'm not sure now what it is, maybe hplip uninstall), it successfully removes all software and the System Settings/Printers entries and System tray icon. Then, if I use Kubuntu's printer installation protocol (System Settings/Printers' "Add" (printer), followed by the unit discovery sequence), I get ONE printer identified (as an icon) but with no context menu (and therefore no Properties), NO fax icon, NO system tray icon, NO Device Manager or comprehensive Settings dialog, and it doesn't know that it's an all-in-one unit. (The hplipopensource protocol identified my exact unit down to the detail.) In short, there's almost nothing, only a working, printing printer. This part DOES work; I can print both the Kubuntu test page from the System Settings/Printers button labeled Maintenance (print a test page is ALL it does) and any page from my hdd or a web site. That is, printing itself works.

If I am reading this correctly, what you are looking at is the Printers section in System Settings, correct?

Yes, exactly.

There is no HP toolbox or other HP related items anywhere in your Kmenu at all? This makes me think that something necessary was not actually installed, and is why the specific packages you do have installed are important.

There seem to be two components to installing the printer Kubuntu's distro. means. One is the simple procedure described above, the other seems to have to do with installing hplip software with Muon Package Manager. I did that, too, installing in separate attempts (a) everything hplip except a dev. pkg and one other that looked like it had nothing I'd need, and (b) only the two packages hplip and hplip-gui. But regardless of which of these I've done (I've done them both), I still wind up with essentially what I've described above--except that I do get an "HP Toolbox (Device Manager)" icon in the K-menu. But clicking it yields absolutely nothing; nothing happens. So, I've used K-menu's menu editor to remove that entry.

Lots of words again, but I've tried to be as complete as possible while still summarizing.

[claydoh]

I don't recall ever seeing HP-specific entries in KDE's System Settings before, maybe that is something new? I don't have a 14.10 box to check things out on. I have the HP toolbox on my PC, recently upgraded to 15.10, and I am 100% positive I never saw any HP icons in System Settings itself. Would be cool if it does that now

My thinking is perhaps the menu entry created by the direct-from-hp installer did not get removed when it was uninstalled,and that the paths HP's used is different from what Ubuntu uses for standard filepaths.
Open a Konsole window and type in the command hp-toolbox, my guess is that it will run. If it does, it may just be a simple fix to purge the package hplip-gui and reinstall it, to hopefully bring the menu items back.

[RLynwood]

I didn't say that there was an HP icon in System Settings/Printers; it gets put in the System tray. What was missing from System Settings/Printers is the ability to right click the printer icon and get a context menu that contains a Properties link.
You definitely are right about the indirect-from-HP installer uses different file paths than the Kubuntu/CUPS software does. I said that in my last post and in a few others. I know that because, after I've installed the from-hp printer software, all of the software is there, Device Manager and all, but Muon Package Manager says it isn't installed. So, obviously it's installed either by different names or in different places.

You say you have the HP Toolbox on your PC. Where is it? How did it get there? That's exactly what I'm looking for. Obviously, you had to have used the Kubuntu software to install it since you had to ask about the indirectly hp-installed software's file location(s).

I've attached a screenshot showing the results of my running hp-toolbox. I hope you can read it.

[claydoh]

Ok
Please copy and paste the text from terminal output in the future, instead of a screenshot. It makes it so much easier for readers to then copy and paste things for search purposes.

When I install the hplip software using HP's outsourced site, hplipopensource.net, following their instructions precisely, using a download then a series of command-line entries in a terminal, I get two icons in System Settings/Printers, one for the printer function and one labeled Fax.

and

it successfully removes all software and the System Settings/Printers entries and System tray icon.

These do strongly imply that there are/were 2 System Settings icons that were not there before.

From a quick search, it may be that for some reason the package libsane-hpaio did not get pulled in when installing the package hplip-gui, or it became corrupted.
(libsane-hpaio provides the libraries that Linux's SANE scanning backend needs for scanning support)
Please try [re]installing that, and see if that allows the toolbox to run. As I mentioned before, it may be a good idea to reinstall the package hplip-gui in order to reinstall the menu icons that seem to have gone missing, maybe even uninstalling it with the Purge option in Muon, then reinstalling.




hplip-gui is the package in Ubuntu/Debian type distros that contains various graphical parts of the hplip software, including hp-toolbox



In a default (K)ubuntu install, the only HP specific things installed are mostly the drivers, and some libraries and backend tools



When I needed to add a wireless HP Officejet printer, I just installed the package hplip-gui, which gave me the toolbox in the menus and the tray icon, as well as the fax menu.
personally, after playing with it for a bit, I uninstalled it as the ink monitors were grossly inaccurate, and ink is expensive enough already, so I just use the printer's panel to warn me. I also found the OS's print options to provide me with everything I need.

Since then I have inherited an older HP printer/scanner, and once I plugged that one in, it was automagically detected and set up for me. I just had to go into system settings and share it so I can print from my laptop.

[RLynwood]

I think I have quite a bit more problems than just this printer software installation. I'm not getting updates properly. When I check for updates, I keep getting the first error message "The last check for updates was over a week ago," even when it was just a few minutes ago, then "Please click 'Check for updates' to check." When I do that, I get the error message "Could not download packages" with a Details button that yields nothing. When I do have updates, after I click the OK button on that last message, I get the display of updates, which do download. So, I think that, before I bother you all any further, I will play with my hardware--I could have a bad optical drive--and perhaps reinstall Kubuntu and see how things go from there.

Thanks for all the help. I will cut-and-paste terminal output from now on. And I'll recheck all the advice I've gotten through this odyssean conversation before I post again. I've hated to think about taking the time to reinstall Kubuntu, but I'm pretty sure now that that's what I'm going to have to do.

[Qqmike]

And I know you know, but don't forget to check the shasum or md5sum or whatever checks you see at the Kubuntu download site. In addition to that, when you run the live DVD, there's an option to "check this disk." IOW, cover all bases, which it sounds like you are throrough at what you do, just reminding you here.

[RLynwood]

Yes, I do know to check both the MD5Sum and the SHASum, and I've done that with the distribution that I want to look at in Live DVD form. Both checked out perfect, yet I can't get a good DVD from it; K3b runs into an error at 97-98% complete, even before verifying--three times. That's why I'm thinking that the optical drive may be bad (it was given to me). I'm glad for your reminding me to use the "Check this disk" feature of the burned DVD or flash-drive iso. What I'm going to do is learn how to make a bootable flash drive and boot and/or install from that, bypassing the optical drive. I've been needing for a long time to learn that; I've just been putting it off. Now's the time.

[vinnywright]

What I'm going to do is learn how to make a bootable flash drive and boot and/or install from that, bypassing the optical drive. I've been needing for a long time to learn that; I've just been putting it off. Now's the time.

that is as simple as opening "startup disk creator" in kickoff>system>startup disk creator and pointing it at your .ISO ..........leave the flash drive FAT-32

VINNY

[jlittle]

...
I've attached a screenshot showing the results of my running hp-toolbox.

Those missing files belong to the package hplip-data. My reading of apt show hplip-data

 $ apt show hplip-data
Package: hplip-data
...
Task: ubuntu-desktop, ubuntu-usb, kubuntu-desktop, kubuntu-active, kubuntu-active-desktop, kubuntu-active, edubuntu-desktop, edubuntu-usb, xubuntu-desktop, xubuntu-core, lubuntu-core, ubuntustudio-desktop-minimal, ubuntustudio-desktop, ubuntu-gnome-desktop, ubuntukylin-desktop
APT-Manual-Installed: yes
...

suggests that it comes with kubuntu-desktop, and is not marked as a dependency of hplip-gui, which provides hp-toolbox.

 $ apt show hplip-gui
Package: hplip-gui
...
Depends: hplip (>= 3.14.6-1ubuntu1), dbus-x11, python-qt4, python-qt4-dbus, gksu | kdebase-bin (<< 4:4.4.0-1) | kde-runtime | kdebase-runtime | kdesudo | ktsuss
...

Perhaps when you uninstalled lots of hplip stuff, you took out stuff which comes with Kubuntu. IMO this should have been ok, because IMO hplip-gui should have hplip-data as a dependency.

I have on 14.10:

$ apt list --installed '*hp*'
Listing... Done
flashplugin-installer/utopic-updates,utopic-security,now 11.2.202.451ubuntu0.14.10.1 amd64 [installed]
hplip/utopic,now 3.14.6-1ubuntu1 amd64 [installed]
hplip-data/utopic,now 3.14.6-1ubuntu1 all [installed]
hplip-gui/utopic,now 3.14.6-1ubuntu1 all [installed]
kde-touchpad/utopic,now 0.0+git20140305-0ubuntu1 amd64 [installed]
libhpmud0/utopic,now 3.14.6-1ubuntu1 amd64 [installed]
libsane-hpaio/utopic,now 3.14.6-1ubuntu1 amd64 [installed]
printer-driver-hpcups/utopic,now 3.14.6-1ubuntu1 amd64 [installed]
printer-driver-postscript-hp/utopic,now 3.14.6-1ubuntu1 all [installed]

Ignore the flashplugin-installer and kde-touchpad, they are spurious hits. You might ensure you have the rest.

HTH. If someone who actually understands APT could indicate a better way to trace this stuff, I'd be very interested.

[Qqmike]

jlittle, I think your method seems good. Another is to actually use Muon Package Manager (at least two people recently do that), where you chase down dependencies, installed files and such in the tabs. And another is to investigate /var/log/apt/history.log (or similar logs like history.log.1.gz, history.log.2.gz) directly, recently illustrated here: https://www.kubuntuforums.net/showth...l=1#post369175 by Wheel Inventor (and myself).