Re: [gentoo-user] CUPS can't print

[Stroller]

On 1 Oct 2008, at 20:31, maxim wexler wrote:
> This printer, HP Laserjet 4 plus, works fine in WinXP. According to
> localhost:631 the printer was set up successfully but when I tried
> to print a test page the printer made some whirring noise then
> stopped and went off-line. In the LED readout on the printer it
> says: PC Load H4. According to the error log the job was "completed
> successfully".

Hi Maxim,

Is it possible the LED display on your LJ4 is broken, and it's in fact  
trying to display "Load A4"?

This is a European translation of the old Officespace "load letter"  
joke - A4 being a paper size about the same size as the US standard  
letter paper - and it seems likely to me that:

1) pressing the "ready" or "ok" button on the printer will cause it to  
print on the letter paper currently in the tray.  (At least, this  
works the other way round, when a European printer says "load letter",  
but then A4 is c 1" longer than letter).

2) your printer is set to the wrong paper size somewhere. You may be  
able to find this among the settings in http://localhost:631 but it  
may also be in the menus on the printer itself. Don't neglect this!  
It's intended to tell the printer what sizes of paper are in each of  
its trays. This may work fine in XP because it ignores or overrides  
the printer's own settings, but may be respected by CUPS.

I should add that the LJ4 is old enough it should be supported under  
CUPS without the net-print/hplip software mentioned by Alan. I've  
certainly had one working here without it - I'm not sure if mine was a  
4, 4+ or 5, to be honest, because I'm using a 4000-series now, still  
without hplip. I think I have always had Postscript on my LaserJets,  
but I don't think that'll make much difference.

Stroller.