HP Laserjet won't print

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The 6 year old Samsung printer died so I got a new HP M102 Laserjet for my Linux desktop. It didn't come with Linux drivers for the Lubuntu 14.04 LTS (10 yr old machine with 2.4 GHz procie and 2 GB RAM). So I downloaded a third party driver - hplip - and it installed without issue.The system shows the new printer is installed as the default printer and shows its icon with a fat green check mark. But if I try to print anything, the printer's green online LED starts to blink (indicating data transfer is ongoing) but doesn't do anything else. Doesn't even pull the bond paper into the machine. After a minute the LED blinking stops and the LED now glows steadily. No error messages are displayed.

I thought maybe it needs a more updated OS so I installed a more recent Lubuntu release: 16.10 version. But I got the same no go situation. I asked an IT guy for help and he suggested use the Terminal functiob and with the printer on and the desktop connected to the internet, type: sudo apt-get install cups, then press . It downloaded a bunch of things but still no joy.I still get the same printer behavior and no print. What to do next?
I know it's not the printer at fault because I tried it on a Windows machine and it works fine there.
 
This is why a free OS hasn't taken over the world by storm, that it "kinda" works and "maybe" things like hardware drivers work, but maybe not.

It seems fairly clear, you need to make a windows box your print server... unless you just enjoy running against the wind.

I'm no microsoft fan, but it is what it is. It's an example of why I find it annoying that MS manipulated the market and screwed consumers with a lasting effect over 20 years later.
 
hplip is one of those unpleasant bits of software that has to be "just so". It *is* the "official" HP driver for Linux, but like most drivers written by manufacturers it's quite brittle. Unless you are compiling from scratch you seem to always need exactly the right versions to make it work. Cups is generally much nicer if it supports your printer.

Not much help, but before I buy hardware I always have a poke around to see how well it is supported. HP printers are usually pretty good but printing and scanning can be pretty fragile unless you know your way around the subsystems.

Oddly enough a quick search shows loads of people having issues with that model on Windows also. Again, brittle vendor drivers requiring just the right versions.

Is it too late to pack it up and return it?
 
in the hplip software, I think it's in the last tab, make sure your printer is not stopped. That happens from time to time, at least on my machine with openSuse and a HP Color Laser.
 
Originally Posted By: Dave9
This is why a free OS hasn't taken over the world by storm, that it "kinda" works and "maybe" things like hardware drivers work, but maybe not.

It seems fairly clear, you need to make a windows box your print server... unless you just enjoy running against the wind.

I'm no microsoft fan, but it is what it is. It's an example of why I find it annoying that MS manipulated the market and screwed consumers with a lasting effect over 20 years later.

On the contrary, HP is well supported, but that printer in particular is plagued with driver issues, on a Linux OS AND Windows.

I have an old Laserjet Pro 1102w that works great with both cups and hplip.
 
Return it and buy a Brother HL-L2340D. If you have an Ethernet network consider the 2360 or 2380. All have excellent Linux compatibility though you will need to plug the USB into a Windows machine or go through a bunch of menus to set up the wifi on the 2340.
 
First thing I would try is delete the printer while it's plugged into the PC, then add it back in manually. That worked perfectly for plug and play for my older HP, in both Ubuntu and Mint, and got rid of a couple minor issues. Of course, your printer may be different. There is an HP site that lists functionality for their various printers when it comes to Linux.
 
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