HPLIP

Do You Require HPLIP?
Most HP printers do not require hplip to successfully print from. If you plan on using a MFD with a scanner feature, then you'll require the hplip driver package, as the scanner driver is provided only as a binary blob.

Scanner
If you need to use the scanner of your MFD, then add the "scanner" USE flag.

And add or merge the following line into your make.conf (/etc/make.conf or /etc/portage/make.conf) before compiling.

SANE_BACKENDS="sane_backends_hp"

Printer
USE Flag "snmp" is likely needed because of hplip's buggy installer. Also, if you run into bugs, try unmasking and using the latest version.


 * 1) USE="snmp" emerge net-print/cups net-print/hplip

The above should pull in media-gfx/sane-backends and media-gfx/xsane if you specified the USE Flag "scanner".

Configure the Hardware
As root, use the hp-setup command with your printer's IP address. You can allow snmp automatic discovery, but my printer was failing to print to the device, even though it would be found.

hp-setup -i 192.168.1.27

NOTE: I tried several times to use the GUI hp-setup, and the GUI hp-setup version would always install a non-working printing driver, and complaining about incorrect digital signatures concerning a downloaded plugin.

Printer
The above command, should provide an option to test print. If it fails printing due to lack of X as root, use your CUPS web interface located at http://localhost:631/ for printing a test page.

Scanner
Use xsane and then press the preview button to ensure the binary scanner driver is installed and working properly.