On Thu, Mar 10, 2011 at 03:45:35AM -0000, Meg wrote:
> I don't know if this will help, but -
>
> I have a different model, but my HP is also a 3-in-one. I've found that on Linux there is no one program for both printing and scanning the way there is in Windows. "hplip" will get my printer to print - most of the time - but it won't do a thing for scanning. I've been using Simple Scan for that and it works OK - most of the time.
>
Interesting. One major problem with many distributions is that their
developers assume that the user will be using a particular desktop.
Often, I've found that I've had to install hplip from source, because RH
distributions leave out libsane-hpaio. Apparently Gnome installs it and
the developers only tested with Gnome.
However, hplip is, as far as I know, more of a set of drivers for the
various printers. After installing it, one then uses cups to print
(though it might be a back end, that is, something that isn't obvious to
the user), and xsane or simple scan to scan.
> The reason I say "most of the time" is that the print driver stops the print process if it thinks one of the cartridges is low on ink - even when there's plenty of ink left.
I've seen things like that, but it's usually been the printer's, rather
than the driver's, fault. One can check by going into the printer's web
interface--the majority of them have one--and checking what the printer
says.
It's reading the things on the side of the cartridge, of course, just like the driver does in Windows, but instead of just giving me a message that I can click out of it stops the entire process. This means that I have to boot into Windows if I want to print anything, until I replace the cartridge with a new one.
>
Ok, I don't think I've run into that. IMVAO (VA as in very arrogant)
printing is something that whether due to the vendors worrying more
about Windows, or something else, that Windows really does better than
most other systems, and I include Apple in that--I remember upgrading my
wife's machine to Apple Snow Leopard, and printing stopped working.
(Apple by the way, now owns cups, which is what the vast majority of
Unix like systems now use for printing.)
> As for Simple Scan - it will periodically just close when I try to start the scanning process. This seems to be related to stopping a prior scan before it had finished (for example, if I had something small on the glass and wanted to save time). As long as I don't do that it seems to work fine. I think it may actually be easier on the motor than the Windows driver, because it needs only one pass; there's no prescan. But then Simple Scan has no way to make adjustments; you just scan, then crop and save.
>
Xsane is a more sophisticated program. Most of the time, the more
sophisticated drivers are for Windows and Apple, (and sometimes just
Windows, with Apple, as well as Linux, being a step child), and one will
find that while Linux will scan, it won't be able to use various
features.
> I need to mention that I'm using Mint and not Ubuntu, but I understand that they are related; I can use Ubuntu programs in Mint, so I'm hoping that what I've talked about here is also available in Ubuntu. If I'm wrong about that, then I apologize. (I do think that "hplip" is a sort of universal driver for Linux. Anyone with more knowledge about this, please correct me if I'm wrong.)
>
No, you're correct--if anything, Mint pays even more attention to the
user experience than does Ubuntu--Mint is also less worried about
including proprietary drivers, making it somewhat easier to install them
than does Ubuntu.
> If Ubuntu has a Software or Program Manager or Repository you might want to check there for something like Simple Scan or to see if "hplip" is installed, and if not try installing it from there; I'm no good with terminal commands and this way seems easier. You may still need to get the system to recognize your printer; I think I did, but I'm sorry - I don't remember how.
>
Ubuntu, and Debian from whence it originated, doesn't have the same
problem as RH based distros with hplip. In fairness, the Fedora
developer at least, is trying to get this fixed--it's an easy fix,
adding one line to a spec file (the file used to build an rpm), so I'll
leave off sarcastic comments about how perhaps the RH developers could
ask the developers from any other of the hundreds of available
distributions how they do it.
--
Scott Robbins
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Buffy: Why?
Angel: 'Cause I could see your heart. You held it before you for
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