The nightmarish problem of installing a printer

[dan]

On 19.09.2010 13:34, Jerry wrote:
> On Sat, 18 Sep 2010 23:27:13 +0200
> dan<glimp at live.com>  articulated:
>
>> 2 - HP Photosmart C3180.
>> Once I installed HPLIP and adjusted some permissions I used a hp sw
>> tool to update the CUPS printers' database (all with the __default__
>> 8.1 kernel). I then Succesfully printed a test page and successfully
>> tested the device as a scanner (blank scanning of the plate).
>>
>>
>> The "annoying" and computer-time-consuming part was recompiling gtk
>> and qt with CUPS support, that was not the default when I first
>> installed everything.
>> In the end, CUPS was also easy to use to share the 1st printer in our
>> small and simple network.
>
> I used the HPLIP port in conjunction with CUPS to get my home c6180
> printer working. The FAX portion sucks, and probably always will. I
> just FAX from one of my Windows machines when the need arises. The
> printing thought is adequate. I still have not figured out how to get
> the CF, XD, etc ports to work with FreeBSD. They do work with Windows,
> so I know that they are working correctly. Luckily, I rarely utilize
> them anyway.
>
> I was wondering what "hp sw tool to update the CUPS printers' database"
> you are referring to.
>

Sorry :-) The statement is obviously a bit ambiguous - if not incorrect.
I used "hp-setup" (one of those kde applications included in HPLIP): it 
tries to discover printers on the usb bus and then a suitable ppd file 
for the printer one chooses to install. Later, when all the required 
data are collected it adds the chosen printer in CUPS (like if one 
selects "Add a printer" in CUPS - Section Administration).

There are many hp tools installed under /usr/local/bin - including a 
device manager that seems to work fine with kde4. This last one is so 
"in love" with this system that even if it has not been asked to do so 
every time I start up kde I find it always loaded.

For a test SD card that I had and I wanted to read: I turned off the 
printer, inserted the card and then I turned on the printer (stupid, eh 
? :-) ). After these huge efforts ;) I found the card (ready to be 
mounted) under /dev/msdosfs/ .

daniele