Anyone else lose their printer after

[GreyGeek]

the kernel updates yesterday and today?

After yesterday's kernel update my HP LaserJet Pro 1606dn failed to print. I ran the hplip-3.17.10.run application, then turned off both my laptop and my printer, and unplugged my printer. After turning them both on and plugging the printer (USB) back in it printed again.

Today, another kernel update did the same thing. Yesterday's procedure failed to work so I used the latest driver, hplip-3.19.11.run and its plugin. IF I use the HPLIP GUI when I get to the point of installing the plugin after installing the printer I have three choices. Download the plugin from a website. That fails because the certificate key won't install. Install the plugin from a local file (after downloading it). That, too, fails because the installer does not see the key in gpg's keyring and can't add it. In either the first or second case the installer fails to populate the HPLIP GUI, so no printer is available.

Using the konsole interactive mode produces the same results.


The third method is to not install the plugin, which means that I won't have the duplex mode. The result is that a sheet of paper is cycled through the printer but nothing is printed on it.

So, I reverted to CUPS. Printing a test page in CUPS results in a sheet of paper cycling through the printer but without print.

I've also totally purged HPLIP and reinstalled it. Then reran all the above methods. Same result. Either the printer does not recognized or it cycles a blank page.

Running the diagnostic after the CUPS installation produces the only clue:

HP_LaserJet_Professional_P1606dn
--------------------------------
Type: Printer
Device URI: hp:/usb/HP_LaserJet_Professional_P1606dn?serial=000000000QQ099CYPR1a
PPD: /etc/cups/ppd/HP_LaserJet_Professional_P1606dn.ppd
[COLOR=#ee82ee]warning: Failed to read /etc/cups/ppd/HP_LaserJet_Professional_P1606dn.ppd ppd file[/COLOR]
PPD Description: 
Printer status: printer HP_LaserJet_Professional_P1606dn is idle.  enabled since Wed 13 Nov 2019 08:43:50 PM CST
Communication status: Good


--------------
| PERMISSION |
--------------

USB             HP_LaserJet_Professional_P1606dn Required        -        -        OK       Node:'/dev/bus/usb/003/009' Perm:'  root  lp rw- rw- rw- rw- r--'
 

Checking for Configured Queues....
[COLOR=#ee82ee]warning: Fail to read ppd=/etc/cups/ppd/HP_LaserJet_Professional_P1606dn.ppd file
warning: Insufficient permission to access file /etc/cups/ppd/HP_LaserJet_Professional_P1606dn.ppd
warning: Could not complete Queue(s) configuration check[/COLOR]


Checking for HP Properitery Plugin's....
No plug-in printers are configured.

The pdd file is owned by root and is in the lp group. It has permissions of rwxr----- and I changed it to rwxr--r-- but that had no effect. I have not added myself to the lp group. I removed apparmor but that didn't help. The 5353 UDP port in my firewalls are open to HPLIP.

I have not reverted to the previous kernel that worked, and I doubt that I will. I just may install 20.04 and go with it instead.

This represents the first time in 10 years that I am unable to install my laser printer. I suspect that the problem is kernel incompatibility, but time will tell.

[jlittle]

Using a USB connection for a printer is not very common these days. I expect printers on sale today to be able to connect to Wifi. AFAICT the 1600 series can do a wired ethernet connection, so if you can place it near your router, or near a jack that can be patched to a jack near the router, and connect it that way, you may have less trouble.

[jglen490]

So far so good with my HP DJ 3755. I've booted since the last update, though.

[GreyGeek]

Using a USB connection for a printer is not very common these days. I expect printers on sale today to be able to connect to Wifi. AFAICT the 1600 series can do a wired ethernet connection, so if you can place it near your router, or near a jack that can be patched to a jack near the router, and connect it that way, you may have less trouble.

The p1606dn can do a wired ethernet, and I've had it configured that way in the distance past, even though the manual says that configuration is supported only by Windows, meaning that they won't supply the Linux version of the HP installer. My DHCP starts at *.100 so back then I set the IP to *.99, otherwise it would change depending on the order our workstates & the printer booted up.

I played with it most of the day yesterday to see if I could meet the challenge. I couldn't So, I did the easy thing this morning and used BTRFS to roll back to the day before, when the printer worked fine. Then I opened muon to locked the kernel but it said it couldn't open until the "other software manager" closed. When muon was able to open I locked the 66 kernel version. Then a msg on the system tray said a reboot was necessary. My first thought was "uh oh". I rebooted and uname said I was running the 70 kernel. Strangely, the 66 kernel is still locked but the background update installed the 70 kernel, apparently before I locked the 66 kernel. With fear and trepidation I printed a test page. It came out ok! My assumption is that the 69 kernel is not compatible with HPLIP, but the 70 kernel is.

Printers printing a blank page is a problem that goes back 10 years or more. There were various solutions on the web and I tried them all, if possible, to no avail. However, this episode is the first time since I switched to using USB 10 years ago that the printer failed to sustain its configuration or to properly reconfigure. Usually the printer would install but when I attempted to install the duplex plugin the gpg key would never validate. I could install it without validation but it wouldn't even print. If I canceled validation it just cycles blank pages instead of printing the test page.

Usually, when doing a new install when I plugged in the printer it auto-configured and I never had to touch a thing. It just worked "out of the box". When I shut down the laptop and the printer, and then unplugged the printer so the its motherboard returned to factory defaults (or I restored factory defaults manually) and then booted up the laptop, and after I got the desktop, when I plugged in the printer it still would auto-configure. It still does that, and the printer queue recieves the page and then says the page is printed, but nothing comes out of the printer. Adding the unverified plugin causes the printer to cycle a blank page.

[jglen490]

My HP DJ 3755 works well with either USB connection or wireless. And it will switch back and forth as demand requires. I don't know about older HPs or those that are not in the Deskjet series, but I know of many that work that way, in both Windows and Linux.

Maybe I'm just lucky that way

[Grave Digger]

got the kernel update yesterday as well and just checked the printer, and all looks good hear.