How to set up a HP printer in Ubuntu

[wolfman]

Adding a HP Printer:

Make sure that the printer is connected to your PC with a USB cable and is switched on and powered up!. (Don't try wireless set-up before you run the USB set-up, there is a warning, see pic 2!)

Firstly, update your system fully per this guide if you haven't already done so!:

Ubuntu Mate Update Guide

These are my own setting preferences, use at your own risk!. AN IMPORTANT NOTE FOR LINUX BEGINNERS. WHEN YOU ARE IN RECOVERY MODE, THE KEYBOARD DEFAULTS TO US ENGLISH, IF YOU HAVE ANY OTHER LANGUAGE KEYBOARD OTHER THAN US ENGLISH, WHEN YOU TYPE "Y" (FOR "YES"), IT MIGHT SHOW UP AS A DIFFERENT LETTER, ON MY KEYBOARD I MUST PRESS THE "Z" KEY WHICH EQUATES TO "Y" AS I HAVE A GERMAN KEYBOARD, JUST PRESS "BACKSPACE" AND HIT A DIFFERENT KEY UNTIL YOU SEE THE "Y" SHOW UP!. Click on "Subscribe…

Secondly, install the package (after finishing updates!) "hplip-gui" and make sure your printer is connected and powered up.

sudo apt-get install hplip-gui

It can also be installed using Top Panel > System > Welcome > Getting Started > Drivers > Printers:

Open the app "HPLIP-Toolbox" which you will find under System > Preferences > Other and start the app, it will guide you though the set-up process.

Pic 1: Click on "Setup Device".

Pic 2: In device discovery, select "USB".

Pic 3: Now select your Printer from the list, there should only be one printer showing!.

Pic 4: In "Setup Device", click on "Add Printer".

Pic 5: Now you should see the pic below, done!.

Also check in Control Center that there is only one printer showing and it is also set to default!:

Also please note that some devices need installation of special binary proprietary driver plug-in.
You can check this in the special table on HPLIP site (see in Driver Plug-in column).
Driver plug-in installation is possible by running hp-plugin command.

See manual set-up here:

http://hplipopensource.com/hplip-web/install/manual/hp_setup.html

See also:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HpAllInOne

https://developers.hp.com/hp-linux-imaging-and-printing/about

20.04 users might want to take a look at the following thread which presented both the OP and me with problems installing a HP printer in 20.04!.

Hplip missing files

I have upgraded to 20.04LTS and I am having great difficulty in getting my HP Laser jet Pro 1217 MFP and HP Color Laser Jet Pro 252 to work I have installed the latast hplip 3.20.3 but am getting the error that I am missing the following : usr/lib/cups/filter/hpcups. Some advice would be appreciated

Hope it helps!.

[kuvanito]

i have an hp printer myself and all i have to do is click control center/printers/add and bang! by magic my printer shows up/forward/apply or finish and i am done oh and my printer is wifi too

[wolfman]

Hi kuvanito,

yes; you can do it that way too but you won’t get the HP Device Manager and if you have already set-up your printer in your router, you won’t have to worry about WiFI!. HP recommend themselves to use a USB cable first when doing an initial install!.

One very important aspect I would like to mention is the “Supplies” which shows the ink levels, if you simply use the Add Printer function, you won’t have a clue as to how much ink is left!, or do you know a command that will show the cartridge levels without the need to install HPLip-Toolbox?.

[kuvanito]

i am too lazy
all i wanna do is print
i find out ink levels are low when colours fade
but you are absolutely right, the way you explain it is the proper way and THANK YOU for teaching us the proper way Kudos to you!!!

[wolfman]

Hi kuvanito,

I get where you are coming from but like you say, it is the right way, especially for people new to Linux!.

[Remmy700P]

I’ve installed/re-installed my wi-fi connected HP Laserjet CM1415fnw Color MFP multiple times in different distributions and have never required a USB hard connection to do it. I’ve found that the most painless way to do it is to go to HP’s HPLIP site (http://hplipopensource.com/hplip-web/downloads.html) and download and install the most-recent HPLIP .run file (currently 3.15.4). This completely takes the place of running any ‘add printer’ routines through the OS. It walks you through the entire setup/update protocol.

It’s the only way I’ve found that the HPLIP Status Service and HP Device Manager gets installed correctly, can read print cartridge supply levels properly, etc.

I’ve never had a problem completing the entire setup routine over wi-fi.

• Note that there is a CLI dialogue to go through, so it isn’t a set-it-and-forget-it routine.

[wolfman]

I know it works that way too but even HP tell you to use a USB cable for the initial install, see the device discovery page and the wireless connection hint (3rd item in the connection type list):

[Remmy700P]

I run my install using the 2nd selection in the list “Network/Ethernet/Wireless network”. It finds the device on the network via simple IP address scan. Works like a charm.

I have no idea why one would want to go through the headache of running a USB cable if it isn’t absolutely necessary. And, for HP products at least, it doesn’t appear to be.

[wolfman]

Maybe HP can answer that one themselves, I wrote the guide for beginners and stuck to HP’s recommendations!.

[Remmy700P]

On another note, the newer version of the HPLIP driver/plugin (3.15.4) indicates better support for Ubuntu 15.04 (and Linux Mint 17.1). The MATE 15.04 release only includes the 3.15.2 version.

[wolfman]

Isn’t Mint 17.1 based on Ubuntu 14.04?.

[gdccpl]

Hi

I need a help…

I have HP Laser Jet 1020 Plus printer installed on my RPI board, Printer is detected and When I fire a print it say Job successfully completed. But I don’t get any print out from printer. My Printer is working fine with Windows XP and Ubuntu 14.

[wolfman]

Hi,

did you try using the HPLip-Toolbox tool and see if you can open the file to print through that?.

[gdccpl]

Hi

I tried but still no luck. My printer is detected on USB ports drivers are installed. While printing the test page it says processing, Job successfully completed but still printer is not printing any page.

[ianorlin]

I usually acutally use another way to setup hp printers is through sudo hp-setup -i which does this without installing anything extra but is command line based but asks the same questions in a terminal. IF you have a need to print without a printer setup and say your interent was down this would work without that but it might not be quite as beginer friendly without a gui.

[CGB]

I had to install a HP printer for my mother-in-law a few days ago. I had to build the driver though from HP’s open source site before HPLIP would detect it. It was a multifunction device i.e. printer/scanner.

Not idea (it really put her off) but I was pleased they released the driver as open source

[MbV93]

Excellent! Now I can install my home printer in my new Ubuntu MATE OS.

[asterisktec]

Question to everyone, we have a large number of the “old faithful” HP Laserjet 1020 Printers and for the most part they are rock solid and work perfectly however I have this really annoying situation that I’m hoping someone can help me shine some light on…

I’m replacing Windows XP with Ubuntu Mate on all of our workstations (Dell E560’s) and as part of the pilot project I’ve migrated 2 of them over with a 95% success rate. Ubuntu Mate works really well on these machines with the exception of 1 thing … PRINTERS!!

The default foomatic HP PPD works perfectly for this particular printer however when I use Remmina to connect to our Windows 2012 Terminal Server (for our accounting system) the print redirection works BUT it registers as a COLOUR printer when the HP Laserjet is 1020 is about as monochrome as you can get. I’ve dug into CUPS, modified PPD’s and I’m now at the point of offering a sacrificial chicken to anyone if it will help me solve this last annoying problem.

I know this is a “linux” problem as my other Windows 7 desktop with the same printer works fine.

Anyone out there have any ideas as to what it could be?

[Wimpy]

Not sure if this helps.

• http://hplipopensource.com/hplip-web/models/laserjet/hp_laserjet_1020.html
• http://www.openprinting.org/printer/HP/HP-LaserJet_1020

[wolfman]

@asterisktec,

have you also tried a manual set-up?:

http://hplipopensource.com/hplip-web/install/manual/hp_setup.html