(old)Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

Hi,
Being a Linux newbie I struggled to work out even how to install a printer but eventually found the cups printer wizard, from there I went to administration & add new printer, it found my printer immediately HP-2050, great, I added it & set default values then clicked "Print test page" it looked as if it had gone to the printer but alas nothing happened. I am now stuck & don't know what else to do.
For the record if I click "Printers" in cups I have the following listed ~

Cups-pdf Ghostscript
HP_Deskjet_2050_J510_Series
pdf_writer

If anyone can help I don't (yet) understand any of this Linux command line stuff so with respect plain English replies please.
Thank You.

gillsman wrote:For the record if I click "Printers" in cups I have the following listed ~

Cups-pdf Ghostscript
HP_Deskjet_2050_J510_Series
pdf_writer

Thus you have 3 printers.
Repeat your print but make sure you use the printer
HP_Deskjet_2050_J510_Series

The others print to a file...

I tried them all & found two two of them print to file ( I understand the reason for this, surely I can save a document in the normal way, why would I want to print to file)
Anyway I selected my HP printer but it just sat there grinning at me!! Oh and before you ask yes it was turned on.

Sorry I should have previewed my post, I should have said I don't understand the reason........
By the way thanks for you reply
Any more idea's greatly appreciated

Sorry I have no idea.
I am not the printer expert.
rcrsn51 is the expert.

Good luck

CUPS-PDF is for converting a document to PDF format.

There are two steps to installing a printer in Puppy:
1. CUPS must detect the hardware device.
2. You must select the correct printer driver for your model.

Have you installed a separate printer driver package for your Deskjet 2050j510? If not, you must have selected some non-compatible model in the CUPS setup.

Please see the post here.

Please report back.

When I clicked add printer my printer was selected automatically so I thought it had been properly detected but are you saying I still have to install something else, sorry but I'm not finding the required steps to be at all obvious.
Thanks for your assistance

When you click on Add Printer, there is a series of windows where you select a printer Make and Model. It sounds like you missed them.

What Puppy version are you using?

Run the CUPS wizard and open the Printers tab. Under the Make and Model column, what does it say for your printer?

This is no different than in Windows. Windows may detect the printer but you must supply the driver package or pick a driver that comes with Windows.

Right that makes sense but in the list of drivers there's nothing that matches my printer which is HP Deskjet 2050 J510 Series
There is an entry for Deskjet 510 Cups + Gutenprint v5.2.5
I tried that but it didnt work. There's hundreds of HP drivers in the list but nothing that says 2050 or J510 apart from what I mentioned above, so although the process looks a bit clearer I#m no nearer to getting it working.

You need the hplip_print-3.13.11.pet package that I referred to in the other post. It supports your 2050.

Download and install it from here.

Run the CUPS wizard, open the Printers tab and select your current printer. Open the Administration list and delete it.

Run Add Printer again. This time, select the correct. model from the list. Your 2050 should be at the top.

Heeeeey!!!!

I am so grateful, that worked a treat.

Do you think it needs to be made a bit more obvious or is it because I am a windoze thicky !!

gillsman wrote:Do you think it needs to be made a bit more obvious

How? You ran the correct procedure the first time, but selected a different model than your own. So you got a non-working printer. If you had done this in Windows, you would have gotten the same result.

So in Windows, you would have installed the correct driver, probably off a CD. The only difference in Puppy is that you downloaded the driver from the web.

Yes I see, anyway I am grateful for your help.
I am sure it will get easier if I stick with it.