Arch Linux

mcloaked

Member

From: Yorkshire, UK

Registered: 2012-02-02

Posts: 1,360

HP Laserjet printer started printing garbage

My trusty HP Laserjet Pro M402dne has been working without any problems at all until today (though I hadn't printed anything for about a week) - today it printed garbage text - on localhost:631 trying to print a test page also produced garbage print.  I re-installed the printer using hp-setup, and it set the printer up it seems, or at least no errors visible in the setup process, but it again then produced garbage text instead of a test page.  I have hplip, cups and cups-pdf installed as always, and I am up to date. 

Logging in to the printer directly from a browser and running a test page from the printer works fine - so the problem is directly connected to a change to one or other package - is it possible that a python package update has broken either CUPS in some way?

Has anyone else had a problem with an hplip printer and is there a workaround?

Thanks.

Last edited by mcloaked (2020-03-07 16:48:39)

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Mike C

mcloaked

Member

From: Yorkshire, UK

Registered: 2012-02-02

Posts: 1,360

Re: HP Laserjet printer started printing garbage

There does seem to be an error when running hp-setup:

$ hp-setup
/usr/share/hplip/base/utils.py:2061: SyntaxWarning: "is" with a literal. Did you mean "=="?
  if weburl is "" or weburl is None:

HP Linux Imaging and Printing System (ver. 3.20.2)
Printer/Fax Setup Utility ver. 9.0

Copyright (c) 2001-18 HP Development Company, LP
This software comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
This is free software, and you are welcome to distribute it
under certain conditions. See COPYING file for more details.

/usr/share/hplip/installer/core_install.py:2074: SyntaxWarning: "is" with a literal. Did you mean "=="?
  if home_dir is "":

Maybe this is indicating the primary problem?

Edit:

There are recent hp printer bugs in arch:

https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/65681?

https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/65697

and I have put in a new one:

https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/65735

Last edited by mcloaked (2020-03-07 18:07:04)

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Mike C

fabertawe

Member

From: Lloegr

Registered: 2009-11-24

Posts: 282

Re: HP Laserjet printer started printing garbage

I have a HP_ColorLaserJet_MFP_M278-M281 with the same problem. I downgraded hplip to 3.19.12-1 and I'm working again.

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Ryzen 9 5950X, X570S Aorus Pro AX, RX 6600, Arch x86_64

mcloaked

Member

From: Yorkshire, UK

Registered: 2012-02-02

Posts: 1,360

Re: HP Laserjet printer started printing garbage

I took an alternative approach - adding a printer in the cups interface without using hplip at all led to a working printer. Since I need the printer for the next few days, I will stick with the working interface. But it does seem that hplip is broken currently.

My pacman log shows:

[2019-12-15T14:49:01+0000] [ALPM] upgraded hplip (1:3.19.11-7 -> 1:3.19.12-1)
[2020-03-02T09:03:41+0000] [ALPM] upgraded hplip (1:3.19.12-1 -> 1:3.20.2-1)

and since the printer was working fine until a week or so ago, it would appear that hplip version 1:3.19.12-1 was good, but that 1:3.20.2-1 is broken.

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Mike C

mcloaked

Member

From: Yorkshire, UK

Registered: 2012-02-02

Posts: 1,360

Re: HP Laserjet printer started printing garbage

I put in a report for this at:

https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/65735

and also upstream relevant is: https://bugs.launchpad.net/hplip/+bug/1866291

Last edited by mcloaked (2020-03-08 09:38:00)

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Mike C