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Printing using Raspberry Pi  ???

wallarug

Has anyone successfully printed.  I am looking to send a print job from the RPi to a Windows 7 machine that has the printer plug-in to a USB port.  I can set-up this printer on windows but I can't do it on the RPi.  I read this post: http://linuxmafia.com/faq/Debian/printing-setup.html that says to use smbclient or CUPS but they are not installing when using the apt-get.  Can someone help or shead some light on alternatives for printing over a network?

Parents

  • Well I don't have quite the same set-up as you but I have managed to print to a HP PhotosmartC4580 printer connected wirelessly to my router so I'll pass on how to do this in case it helps someone.

     

    To install a HP printer on Wheezy Raspbian (2012-09-18 version)

    sudo apt-get update

    followed by

    sudo apt-get install hplip 

    (hplip stands for HP Linux Imaging and Printing)

    This takes a while to download so you’ve got time for a cup of tea! ;-)

    Make sure the printer is on, then

    sudo hp-setup  -i

      follow the on-screen instructions – that’s it!

     

     

    Hope that helps!

  • in reply to wallarug

    I'm afraid my confidence was misplaced although I do now have a fine collection of printer test pages! image

     

    I have kept trying though and have found a method that works for me and I have placed the instructions at:

     

    http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4897143/RasPi.htm

     

    My apologies for any inconvenience caused by my earlier post - I hope my latest efforts will prove more successful and would appreciate any feedback.

  • in reply to Former Member

    Alas this didn't work for me.

     

    I have an HP Officejet 6500A and when I use CUPS (http://localhost:631) my printer is setup correctly, all communications are good, it also reads my fax settings correctly... but when I try to print a test page all I get is "**** Unable to open the initial device, quitting."

     

    I confirmed pi and root are part of lp and lpadmin groups. I also ran hp-check --fix and everything is good except the cups-ddk package doesn't exist.

     

    Any ideas would be appreciated.

     

    Thanks

  • in reply to ianmcalpine

    Ian

     

    I assume you're using the latest version of Debian?  When I was setting up my printer under this I noticed a few changes from my earlier instructions (haven't got around to updating them - sorry!).  In particular I was 'offered' a CUPS driver and a HP driver.  I tried the CUPS driver but it didn't work (I didn't get the same message as you though) so I switched to the HP driver (long id ending in hpijs.ppd) and that worked fine.  Can you check which driver you're using just in case it's something like this causing the problem?  If not I'll take another look (at least to the extent of updating the instructions on what worked for me) but I should emphasise that I'm 'just another user' and no expert in this area.

     

    Regards,

     

    Alan

  • in reply to Former Member

    Hi Alan,

     

    Yes, using the very latest of everything (did and apt-get update/upgrade). I tried both the hpcups and hpijs drivers. The latter is the one that appears to set up correctly but then just prints the "**** Unable to open the initial device, quitting." message.

     

    The CUPS website recommends using hp-setup -i for HP printers which I used. the hpijs driver was automatically chosen for the printer while the hpcups driver was automatically chosen for the fax machine.

     

    If you can update your instructions that would be great. I may to a purge/uninstall at my end and start again. This is so close to working.... I'm sure it will be a rights/settings issue.

     

    Thanks

    Ian

Reply
  • in reply to Former Member

    Hi Alan,

     

    Yes, using the very latest of everything (did and apt-get update/upgrade). I tried both the hpcups and hpijs drivers. The latter is the one that appears to set up correctly but then just prints the "**** Unable to open the initial device, quitting." message.

     

    The CUPS website recommends using hp-setup -i for HP printers which I used. the hpijs driver was automatically chosen for the printer while the hpcups driver was automatically chosen for the fax machine.

     

    If you can update your instructions that would be great. I may to a purge/uninstall at my end and start again. This is so close to working.... I'm sure it will be a rights/settings issue.

     

    Thanks

    Ian

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