[sf-lug] Has anyone configured a HP LJ P1006 to Ubuntu 9.04 or 6.06?

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Alison Chaiken (alchaiken at gmail.com):

> Fedora has had cups rather than hplip for several years and it has
> been trouble-free.

Just as a point of clarification, HPLIP (HP linux Imaging and Printing) 
is an umbrella term for HP-developed (1) SANE back-ends (hardware drivers
for HP-branded scanners) and (2) printer drivers (aka filters)
compatible with the standard CUPS printing framework.

So, HPLIP's printer drivers are not an alternative to CUPS, but rather a
collection of back-end filters _for_ CUPS that work with many
HP-manufactured printers.  Most distros package a version of the HPLIP
printer driver set by default.  In the way of such things, the shipped
version of that driver set will pretty nearly always lag somewhat behind 
the cutting-edge code available directly from the HPLIP site,
http://hplipopensource.com/ .

http://hplipopensource.com/hplip-web/models/laserjet/hp_laserjet_p1006.html
makes clear that HPLIP version 2.8.2 and later can support the LaserJet 
P1006 via a HP-provided proprietary, binary-only plug-in "engine" module
that can be downloaded and installed using HPLIP's "hp-setup" utility.[1]
See also:  http://hplipopensource.com/node/309

This would be a proprietary-licensed alternative to the open-source
"foo2xqx" software engine I mentioned earlier as the recommended way of
converting standard print output to the "XQX" data stream required by
the P1006 and similar models.  


Going back over this thread:  If I were on a limited budget and wanted a
good, reliable B&W laser (or, equivalently, LED) printer, I would _not_ 
be looking at new printers of any kind, but rather used ones.  I'd look
for a model supporting PCL5 or PCL6, or Postscript, or both.  I'd look
for at least 1 MB buffer RAM.  One with an ethernet port would be
preferable.  I'd also check out, before buying, the average run of
pricing for toner cartridges for the model in question (and use
estimated pages/cartridge to estimate cost per page).


[1] HP's binary, proprietary drivers are also available for manual
download here, if you know what you need:
http://www.openprinting.org/download/printdriver/auxfiles/HP/plugins/