[solved] sharing an HP printer

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I'm trying to share my HP printer on the network. Specifically, trying to get a Macbook Pro to be able to print to it.

I followed these instructions:

http://www.zaphu.com/2008/04/29/ubun...omment-8553201

and everything worked. In fact, the Mac sees the printer, can send stuff to it as it goes to the printer queue on the Mac and then disappears. So I'm sure it's working on that end, however, at the printer hooked up to my Kubuntu 8.10 machine, still no joy, the printer doesn't spit anything out.

I think I've traced it to a sharing issue. I'm using HPLIP drivers (ver. 2.8.7 -- see attached dialog box: hp_device_manager) which seem to work in conjunction with KDE --> System --> Printing as there are settings that I change in HPLIP that affect the KDE printer config.

The crux of the issue appears to be in the KDE printer config for my printer, under the policies tab, I cannot check the 'shared' box as it's grayed out (see attached screenshot: kde_printer_configuration). I've even tried running: kdesudo system-config-printer-kde from command line which makes me put in my password so it's as if I'm running as root but still, the shared box is grayed out and can't be checked.

I did a search in all of the Kubuntu 8.10 are of the forum but didn't find anything related so I must have somewhat of a unique problem.

Sorry for such a long-winded, detailed explanation but hoping someone can shed some light on this for me.

Thanks!

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Re: sharing an HP printer

If you've got avahi set up correctly on the host you should be able to set up the printer from the client using the cups interface from the client. Therefore, on the client side, try entering the following in the browser

server_name:631

What gives?

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Re: sharing an HP printer

I think you're on to something. I was able to load CUPS from the browser on both the host and the client. When I 'published' the printer, the 'shared' box went from gray to checked (on the host). Unfortunately, it's still not printing. I messed with allowing users and some other things but nothing coming out on the printer yet. Still acts like it goes from the client (Mac) but the printer just sits there idle.

Must still be missing something. Probably simple too!

Thanks!

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Re: sharing an HP printer

Can you print from the command line on the client? Also check whether the job actually reaches the host (either using the cups interface or lpq on the CLI). afaik you have done the difficult bit - agree with you that it can't be too difficult from now on

Keep thinking, trying and check every move you make. You'll stumble over it

Oh, and please let us know if/once you manage to get it working!

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Re: sharing an HP printer

Thanks for the reply! I can print from CLI just like from Word or Safari or anywhere on the Mac, it gets to the queue (on the client) and then disappears. But it never makes it to the queue on the host and thus never gets to the printer attached to the host.

So I honestly don't think the job is getting to the host and I don't know why. It's very frustrating!

I'm going to keep putzing and hopefully will stumble upon the solution. Persistence! It has always paid off for me in the past (almost 4 years of using Linux exclusively on the desktop now!) so I know I'll find the answer eventually.

Thanks again and I'll post here when I finally figure out the problem!

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Re: sharing an HP printer

I was just for the first time looking at the thumbnails you posted (BTW, where did you find the printer settings dialogue?) and noticed that you hadn't enabled sharing on your printer. This would explain why it refuses point to blank to have anything to do with jobs from elsewhere.

I'm still banging my head against the wall trying to enable avahi on my box - will give the link you posted a whirl...

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Re: sharing an HP printer

I tried to explain that in my initial post. The KDE printer settings are here: KDE --> System --> Printing

Check out the attached screenshot now. After your tip to check CUPS via browser, I simply 'published' the printer from the host and the shared button became checked. It was grayed out before no matter what I did. So CUPS was holding that setting captive. >

But, even with the printer now shared, I still can't print from the Mac. I have a Windoze box on my network so maybe I'll see if it can see the printer and print. Windoze uses a different protocol (SMB?) so not sure if that's an apples to apples (no pun intended) comparison or not!

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Re: [solved] sharing an HP printer

Umm, upgrade to 9.04?

I'm not exactly sure what I did to resolve this problem as I did numerous things including upgrading to Kubuntu 9.04. But in all honesty, I think it was simply a matter of creating a new user on my host (Kubuntu) machine. It was my wife's MacBook Pro we were trying to print from and prior to this, I only had one account on the Kubuntu machine (mine). So I added another account in her name (identical to the one on the MacBook), made sure the printer was shared (published in CUPS) and WALA! it started working!

The KDE --> System --> Printer Configuration dialog has been tweaked in 9.04 as has the HPLIP interface (drivers) as they both look a bit different in 9.04 but I don't think either of those were the issue, it was just a matter of making sure everything was shared and the proper accounts were in place.

Anyway, once again, a happy Linux camper here!

Thanks!