0

I have a HP Color Laser Jet Pro MFP M477fdn, and am trying to print on both sides on Ubuntu 18.04.

If I open any app (pdf reader, or a pdf through Chrome), I can select the "print on both sides" option.

But when I hit print, it just prints one-sided.

NOTE:

  • If I print using a Windows laptop, it supports 2-sided just fine.
  • If I print a pdf from Google Drive using my android phone, that also works.
  • If I visit the CUPS admin page, I can see that 2-sided printing is on.

I assume this is an issue with my local drivers, but I don't think there's a specific driver I can install, other than what CUPS discovers for me.

How might I get this to work?

EDIT: Here's the output of dpkg -l hplip - note this is AFTER the fix in the solution below, so no clue what this would have looked like before:

$ dpkg -l hplip
Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
| Status=Not/Inst/Conf-files/Unpacked/halF-conf/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend
|/ Err?=(none)/Reinst-required (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
||/ Name                                          Version                     Architecture                Description
+++-=============================================-===========================-===========================-===============================================================================================
ii  hplip                                         3.17.10+repack0-5           amd64                       HP Linux Printing and Imaging System (HPLIP)
user2671688
  • 353
  • 1
  • 3
  • 9

1 Answers1

0

Try this:

Download the file to ~/Dowloads

https://sourceforge.net/projects/hplip/files/hplip/3.20.6/hplip-3.20.6.run/download?use_mirror=nchc

Open a terminal and remove the previously installed version:

sudo apt remove hplip*

Cd to the location where the installer was downloaded.

cd ~/Downloads

To install run this command:

sh hplip-3.20.6.run

Select the install mode Automatic, enter an a

Ensure the installer detected the correct Linux distribution.

Enter Your root/Superuser User Password.

The installer will now detect what dependencies your system will need to install before installing HPLIP

If your system is missing any dependencies they are now downloaded and installed.

./configure prepares HPLIP for install as well as your system is verified to have all the required dependencies for HPLIP.

'make' is then executed. Make compiles ("builds") HPLIP for your system.

'make install' is the actual install procedure, this step is where HPLIP is actually being installed to your system.

Use 'hp-setup' to configure your printer.

The first step is to select the printer connection type.

Next the setup tool will display printers detected.

Select the PPD file to be Used for Your printer, usually you will want to select the recommended PPD file.

Click "AddPrinter" to complete the printer setup process.

kyodake
  • 15,401
  • Thank you! That worked great.

    The only snag I hit: Looks like hp-systray was running, so the setup died at the end, and resulted in me having to go into cups myself and updating some default settings. Strangely, I could print double-sided, but document reader said "some fields have conflicts". :) Anyway, once I enabled the right flags in CUPS, those errors went away too. Thanks again!

     – user2671688 Sep 09 '20 at 01:31
  • Hey kyodake! If I'm not wrong, HPLIP is pre-installed with Ubuntu. https://developers.hp.com/hp-linux-imaging-and-printing/install/installtree "Most current Linux distributions include HPLIP pre-installed when the operating system was installed." So, why should user2671688 install HPLIP again? – Random Person Sep 09 '20 at 11:34
  • @technastic: Don't install it again. Update it to the latest version. – kyodake Sep 09 '20 at 12:23
  • The installer handles uninstalling it as part of its work. Per my comment on my original question, running dpkg -l hplip still shows 3.17.10+repack0-5 instead of the expected 3.20.6. That said, while setting this printer up initially, I had all sorts of problems ("not accepting jobs" until I installed through CUPS directly, then getting "empty PPD file" errors with CUPS, etc. - eventually it worked but config like double-sided was ignored... reinstalling HPLIP did the trick, even though the version number seems to be a lie. :) – user2671688 Sep 09 '20 at 12:42
  • @user2671688 How did you set up the printer before seeing this answer? I'm not sure if the newly installed HPLIP will remove the pre-installed HPLIP. – Random Person Sep 09 '20 at 16:26
  • @technastic_tc: In Gnu/Linux, the installation of a new version of an application compatible with the operating system, overwrites the previously installed one. – kyodake Sep 09 '20 at 17:16
  • Re: "not sure if removed": The installer explicitly said it detected the other one and will uninstall it as part of the process and prompted me to tell it I'm okay with that. :-) – user2671688 Sep 09 '20 at 23:55
  • Re: "How did I install before": First I just had the Settings->Printer menu detect it, which didn't work (not accepting jobs). Then I found an answer that said to go to cups (localhost:631), which I can only do through Firefox because Chrome/CUPS don't auth nicely it seems. In CUPS, I did "add printer", it detected it, and whether I picked "driverless" or... "driver-ful?" it would fail... until it magically stopped failing, and I got to the state at the start of this question. – user2671688 Sep 09 '20 at 23:56
  • @user2671688 The proper way to set up HP printer is using hp-setup when HPLIP is pre-installed with Ubuntu (and I guess you didn't try that method). "It is preferable to use a pre-packaged version of HPLIP as it is simpler to install and upgrade."(https://developers.hp.com/hp-linux-imaging-and-printing/install/installtree). And I don't think the installer removed the old version (because the output of dpkg -l hplip still shows that 3.17.10+repack0-5 is installed). – Random Person Sep 10 '20 at 01:45
  • Duly noted. Heh this is why everyone hates printers (well, this and the whole ink cartridge scam for inkjets). There is a known "proper" way to set it up, and the system clearly autodetects the correct printer, but instead of either setting it up correctly or failing with a meaningful error, it "succeeds" and leaves it in a bad state. The fact that my searches for stackexchange answers pointed me to many things other than the proper way is just further indication that "printer setup" is still the "~sigh~ I have to go to the DMV in person" of peripheral installs. :) – user2671688 Sep 10 '20 at 14:26
  • @user2671688 Don't forget to @ me when replying or else I won't be receiving any notification. Now I guess you must uninstall HPLIP (which you installed by following steps in this answer) and use the default HPLIP to setup the printer. – Random Person Sep 11 '20 at 12:50
  • @technastic_tc: Why should he uninstall the version that makes the printer work properly and use the older version, which did not? – kyodake Sep 11 '20 at 15:16
  • @technastic_tc Yeah it's working now, I'm not touching it. :) If, say through some update, it resets the version and breaks, then I'll follow the HP instructions first. – user2671688 Sep 11 '20 at 16:20