HPLIP update

[pchristy]

I've just installed Mageia 6 on my sister-in-law's computer, after a Windows 10 update bricked it! Everything works fine, but I'm having some issues with printing. Her Lexmark all-in-one printer is designated a "paperweight" on the Linuxprinting.org website, and although Lexmark offers drivers for it, they are for RedHat and Debian only. I tried to install them anyway, but couldn't get them to work and ended up removing them.

I've persuaded her that she really needs a more up-to-date device, and suggested HP, knowing that their Linux support is generally pretty good. However, all the ones currently locally available (and within her price range) need HPLIP-3.17.7 minimum. Mageia is currently stuck on 3.17.4! The current version of HPLIP is 3.17.11.

I tentatively tried to install the HP version, but Mageia is not on the list of supported distributions. Mandriva is supported, and I thought it might work, but it complained so I aborted the installation.

I'm sure I can't be the only one having problems because of this! Is there any chance of an update - preferably sooner rather than later? Or any other suggestions about how to install the latest version? I'm reasonably Linux literate, my own distro being Slackware, but I've installed Mageia on my wife's machine and now my sister-in-laws as it is easier for them to manage.

TIA,

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Pete

[doktor5000]

You can follow https://bugs.mageia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=21945
Sadly I didn't find the time to push an update candidate for this yet, as the maintainer currently seems absent.

[pchristy]

Ah! Thanks for the reply, though it doesn't sound too hopeful. It looks like HP provide a manual install method from a tarball. I'm wary of doing that on systems that have a semi-automated update system, like Mageia, but in this instance I don't think I have any choice. I may also have a look at rebuilding from SRPM, though its not something I've tried before. Luckily I have an old machine I can experiment on before deploying a solution onto Sister-in-law's machine!

Cheers,

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Pete

[wintpe]

building an srpm is relatively easy

make sure package rpm-build is installed, it will pull in all the other requirments

then rpmbuild --rebuild hplip.version.srpm

it will tel you where it has written it to.

also quite easy to reverse engineer an srpm and replace the the tarball it has inside it with a new updated one.

happy to share those steps if you want, but some quick hints of the process here

you need

rpm2cpio|cpio -id

rpm -q --info

rpm -q --scripts

and that will give you all you need to reverse engineer.

regards peter

[pchristy]

Thanks Peter,

I do recall looking into rebuilding another rpm from srpm a couple of years back, and as I have a spare machine with Mageia installed, I'll "prototype" on that before committing it to Sis' machine! I've had a quick look for the SRPM for HPLIP, and found references to it, but not the actual file. Will have a closer look this afternoon....

Thanks for the pointers, and I may be back for help!

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Pete

[wintpe]

this might be the one, not sure about the version

https://www.mirrorservice.org/sites/dl. ... 28.src.rpm

made for fedora, may build directly under mageia or may need to pull it apart and put back together with some changes

[doktor5000]

You can follow https://bugs.mageia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=21945

As a followup, I've submitted an update candidate for hplip 3.17.10, if you want to help test it ...

[pchristy]

Many thanks for that Doktor!

I managed to build 3.17.11 successfully on my test machine, but was unable to create an RPM! Even checkinstall borked with a "build rpm failed" error, without explaining WHY it failed!

I'm away from home for a few days, but I'll try your test version on Monday, when I get back.

Cheers,

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Pete

[wintpe]

pete theres a newer version of hplip in the updates testing now.
would be great if you can try it
ive already tested it as have many others
regards peter

[doktor5000]

Uhmm I think he already understood that and will test on Monday

[wintpe]

yea i did not follow the thread close enough,
regards peter

[pchristy]

First of all, my apologies for the delayed response! I've been away from home, and had difficulty logging in since my return. Many thanks to the admins - Maat in particular - for sorting my problem out!

I've installed the updated HPLIP on my test machine and it functions perfectly with my older HP printer. There is a slight delay with my sister-in-laws machine as her grand-daughter has come home from school with some dreaded lurgy, and they are all in quarantine at the moment! School-kids are lethal!

She's hoping to get her new printer early next week. I told her to hold off until I was reasonably sure it would work! As soon as she has it and I have set it up for her, I will report back.

Many thanks for your efforts!

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Pete

[petechristyuk]

Apologies for the much delayed update! I've been having severe problems logging in to the website, and have had to create a new username to work around them! Also we are currently under a severe weather warning, and being advised not to go out unless absolutely necessary, so I am unable to get to my sister-in-laws to complete tests for the next few days.

Many apologies for the delays here, but they are outside of my control!

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Pete