What is involved in writing a Printer Driver? - SOLVED

[mw1649]

My 2 cents.

I only recommend HP printers for people I convert to MX-xx.

Personally I would check HP list of printer support here:
https://developers.hp.com/hp-linux-imag ... ices/index

Also I try to avoid the models that require a plugin as I had some issues with one but that was some time back.

Happy printing!

Mikew

[Falcon]

Mike,

Thanks for the pointer to the listing of HP printers. I noticed that under "Support", some printers say
"Full (End of Support)". Would I be better off choosing a printer that does not have this caveat?

[mw1649]

Best from the horse's mouth.

https://developers.hp.com/hp-linux-imag ... Level.html

"Full - End-of-Support":
The HP product has reached the end of support life, meaning the HPLIP solution is considered “As-is”. No further HPLIP code changes will be implemented by HP. While monitoring of Launchpad posts by HP personnel will continue, follow-up by HP personnel on these products will be extremely limited. Community members are encouraged to assist others with issues on these printers. Patches provided to HP to address issues on these products will be considered (but not guaranteed) for inclusion in future HPLIP releases. As of the end-of-support date, device functions and features available from the product and available from HPLIP should continue to function but cannot be guaranteed to continue to work in subsequent HPLIP releases.

So I don't recommend buying one of them.

[Falcon]

Mike,

Thanks. I will be sure to stay away from printers that have this designation.

[CrackMeUp]

HP OfficeJet (non-Pro are more affordable) models are excellent ... when you search the HP database from https://developers.hp.com/hp-linux-imag ... ices/index, use the FF--->Edit--->Find function to highlight all the HP OfficeJet entries on the page. You'll notice the ones that match your needs by their content ... e.g. HP OfficeJet 6960 All-in-one shows you "YES" in all categories of functionality. Also shown is the recommended HPLIP driver version ... in the above-mentioned example, HP requires 3.16.9 ... MX-18 (Debian Stretch) comes with 3.18 after MX updates (greater than the 3.16.9) so it's an automatic up-to-date recognition by your system in this case.

For those HP OfficeJets (based on your purchase choice) that require more recent versions of HPLIP (3.19), simply read about/download the Linux driver (Debian), follow the Walkthrough guide on the page below and you're all set. BTW, this latest driver covers ALL recent/past HP printers (except, of course, those that are no longer supported on the database). HP ALWAYS provides the latest HPLIP version for it's products as new printers go to market. Here is the link ...
https://developers.hp.com/hp-linux-imag ... /downloads

[JBoman]

FWIW I have used HP, Canon, and Epson printers in the past with few problems but not always full functionality. My most recent printer since the first of this year is a Brother MFC-J485DW multifunction printer and everything works as it should. I did have to download the drivers from Brother for it and it took a bit of trial and err to get everything working including the scanner but overall I consider it the best printer I have run so far and everything works as it should. Also the ink cartridges are about half the cost of other printer inks I have used. Just my 2cents.

[Falcon]

CrackMeUp,

I finally found and bought an HP 9015 printer that was on sale at Sam's Club with a 35% discount. I brought it home and went through the initial set-up. I found that it needed the 3.19 driver. I went to the installation page referenced by you and attempted to use the Automatic install. Unfortunately, during installation I got the messages that automatic installation was not supported for "unknown" distro. I was instructed to perform a manual installation, instead.

Part of the manual install requires me to run a terminal command that's dependent upon the version of Debian; either version 5.0x or 6.0x. I don't know which version of Debian MX is based upon. Running Quick System Info shows:
base: Debian GNU/Linux 9 (stretch). If "Linux 9" means Linux 9.0x, then I don't know where to go from here. Any suggestions?

Thanks.

[m_frank]

The stable repo has version 3.18.12+dfsg0-2~mx17+1, unfortunately.
Which leads to your search...

But the MX Test Repo may provide a packaged solution.

Code: Select all

MX Test Repo:
============
  hplip		3.19.6+dfsg0-1~mx17+1
  hplip-data	3.19.6+dfsg0-1~mx17+1

Use the MXPI (MX Package Installer),
select the MX Test Repo tab,
enter hplip in the filter box (top right),
select the hplip packages you need, hplip & hplip-data should be marked as upgradable,
select the Upgrade button at the bottom right.

[Falcon]

Thank you. I will try this tomorrow morning.

I took a quick look at the Test Repo and found the package that you mentioned. There are four packages shown:

hplip
hplip-data
hplip-doc
hplip-gui

You mentioned that I should select the packages in the Test Repo and then click Upgrade. I do not have any of the HP software installed on the system at this time. Do I need to install the software in the Popular Applications and Stable Repo first, and then use the Test Repo to upgrade to the latest level, or can I just install the HP software directly from the Test Repo using the Upgrade button?

[Falcon]

Since the original topic of this post was about writing a printer driver, but it has now progressed to a question about installing software for an HP printer, I decided to mark it SOLVED and then I opened a new thread called "Setting Up a New HP Printer". I hope this conforms to forum protocol.