HPLIP

HPLIP (HP Linux Imaging and Printing) provides printer drivers for HP devices. It also includes scanner and fax support as well as service tools for various multi-purpose peripherals.

Is HPLIP required?
Using HPLIP is recommended for most HP inkjet or laserjet based printers. There may, however, be devices which work with a default CUPS install, which provides adequate drivers or PPD files.

Some devices have features that can only be used when a binary plugin is enabled. This plugin must be installed in addition to the drivers. Hence, it is needed if those features (like better printing quality, faster printing or scanning) are to be used. See the binary plugins section for more information.

Installation
For printing support, it is recommended to use the new hpcups driver, which can be enabled with the  USE flag. The old hpijs driver is still included when building HPLIP with the  USE flag.

The default install enables dynamically generated PPD files at runtime. Some printers may still require static PPD files. If has problems, try enabling the   USE flag and rebuilding HPLIP.

For USB printers has to be built with the   USE flag. This way it makes use of the user-space tool which replaces kernel USB printer support. In case of problems disable the  USE flag for  and activate the kernel functionality again.

To be able to set up a network printer, has to be built with USE   or. The 1.6 series of has dropped slp support and one can choose to build it with USE   or. To be able to print on a network printer, HPLIP needs to be built with USE.

For some scanner devices, the appropriate SANE backend needs to be activated. To find out which backend is required for the device, go to the SANE project's driver search engine and search for "HEWLETT-PACKARD" as manufacturer. This provides a list of all supported devices including the required backend. For instance, if the device needs the hp backend, the following must be added to the portage configuration to build it when installing :

Kernel
USB-connected devices require basic kernel USB support. When using the old kernel USB printer driver - which means not using the  USE flag on  - the following kernel options must be set:

If preferred this driver can be enabled as module which will be called. This also makes testing the  USE flag easier as one can simply switch between the two methods by either disabling the USE flag and loading the kernel module, or enabling the USE flag and unloading the kernel module via. This saves kernel recompilations and reboots; only HPLIP needs to be recompiled for the USE flags changes to take effect. If the module should be permanently disabled, it can be blacklisted to prevent automatic loading at boot time.

Load the  kernel module:

Unload the  kernel module:

Blacklist the  kernel module:

Parallel-port-connected devices require the following kernel options:

The above two methods are usually already enabled within most kernels.

Network-connected devices do not require special kernel drivers but basic kernel network support.

Software
The following table shows the current USE flags for the :

Install :

Printers and faxes
If HPLIP was installed with the  USE flag enabled, use the "HP Device Manager" to configure the devices.

Alternatively run in a terminal:

For a network printer, also specify the printer's IP address:

Afterwards restart the CUPS daemon:

Scanners
Overall, scanners should just work and will be detected with XSane, etc.

Printer
After completing it should allow for printing a test page. This can be done later as well using the "HP Device Manager" or the CUPS web interface which is located at http://localhost:631/.

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

Upgrading
Every time after upgrading HPLIP it is advised to run hp-setup -r to remove all printers and configure them again as described above in the configuration section.

Binary plugins
There are some devices which require a binary plugin to use all functions the device provides. A list with devices requiring a binary plugin including the reasons why it is needed is available at the project's homepage. Gentoo currently does not support the binary plugin. However, tries to automatically install the plugin.

The installed files are out of portage's control and are located under, and. For installing just the plugin without configuring printer queues is available.

If installing the plugin with or  fails, the plugin installer is available for download at the openprinting site. To install the plugin the downloaded file has to executed in a shell:

Afterwards follow the instructions of the installer similar to or.

Printing paused
Problem: Printing does not immediately start after submitting a job.

Solution: Check the CUPS printer administration interface and make sure the printer is not in a paused state.

Error on install "File "./plugin_install.py", line 78 except ImportError, e:"
Problem: The following error occurs:

Solution: Python 3 is set as the main python interpreter. HPLIP currently does not work correctly with Python 3. Switch to Python 2 by using to fix this.

This is further documented at

HPLIP ebuild upgrades do not upgrade binary plugin(s)
Problem: The HPLIP ebuild itself does not upgrade the binary plugin(s) when the ebuild is upgraded. A symptom of this problem: segmentation faults might occur when starting XSane. (i.e. The HP LaserJet M1522nf requires a binary plugin for using the scanning feature.)

Solution 1: Following the upgrade instructions should take care of this as tries to upgrade the plugin. If there are still problems HPLIP comes with which can be used for installing the plugin. As a last resort one can download the plugin from OpenPrinting and install it manually.

Solution 2: Lately, running (with HPLIP built with the   USE flag) via a user terminal will eventually auto detect the version conflict of the binary part of the installed driver and ask the user to automatically upgrade, including issuing a prompt for the root password via a qt4 widget prompt.

Printing weird characters
Problem: The printout contains weird looking characters.

Solution: The printer likely cannot handle Postscript Level 3 output. To work around this, edit the printer's PPD file and change  to.

See which was opened in 2008 and  for more information.

SANE/XSANE not finding hpaio scanner
Problem: SANE or XSANE can still not find a hpaio-based scanner.

Solution: SANE/XSANE  or  used to require   or the   USE flag. Currently, the 'hp' sane-backend appears no longer needed for accessing HPLIP hpaio devices. Also, if no  devices are specified within the, almost all sane-backend devices are compiled by default during compilation of  package. This appears to go against the main purpose of the USE flag function and inhibits a very long compilation on x86 platforms.

It may be prudent to still insert  (or at least some driver even though it is not needed) within the  file or within the package USE flags. There also used to be an older  format, so ensure that the configuration is adapted towards the newer format.

More current and relevant areas to check for resolving this specific problem: make sure the user is in the, and/or  groups of the  file. If and the HPLIP  work as root, something must be awry with permissions. If even scanning as root fails, especially with HPLIP's, check to ensure the plugin is properly installed/updated and the device is connected.

One more area to check when all of the above is set up correctly: make sure the user can read files within (specifically the  file).

When all else fails, (as provided by ) may provide more in-depth feedback, but explaining how to work with strace is out of scope for this document.

External resources

 * HPLIP at launchpad
 * Lauchpad bug tracker
 * Launchpad answers
 * Troubleshooting section of the HPLIP knowledge database