help printing in Ubuntu 7.04

I'm running Ubuntu 7.04 on a live CD right now and love it...EXCEPT that no matter what I try, my printer only prints green.

I have an HP 1209 psc printer. No problem there, Ubuntu found it for either the 1200 or 1210 series. It works either way, but only prints green in either setting. I've tried all the settings listed, but no luck making it see the black ink cartridge. This printer has two cartridges and needs both installed to work.

Anybody had this problem with Ubuntu? So far, of all the Linux variations I've tried, this is the only one that will even let me print. Unfortunately, I need it to print black.

 

I found that this IMO is it for printing.
Search here for your printer (javascript needed) and see if you have the recommended driver.

If you have questions still, go ahead, i just found this to be the best online resource on printing. Or CUPS website.

 

Hello,

I am not a big printer man. I only have a single Lexmark printer. And it does NOT have drivers for Linux. But I did discover that equivalent HP drivers works fabulously well for it. I did try different ones until I found the best match.

My suggestion is to try different drivers available from the list, see if you can get it to work properly. Load some paper, try a driver and print a test page.

That's the first step.

Mrk

 

there are 100s of posts about similar printers at ubuntuforums. i've got an HP PSC and just followed instructions there to get it working when i set it up with ubuntu. you need to install HPLIP. there might be something here too -
http://hplip.sourceforge.net/

edit. you probably already have hplip installed so just check you're using a version that supports the printer. this page http://hplip.sourceforge.net/supported_devices/inkjet_aio.html says you need version 0.9.5 or later. you can check what you have installed with this command -
dpkg -l hplip

 

I've got a later version of hplip and presume it's working. I can't get it or hp toolbox to show, to look at it and maybe make adjustments. I wonder if it might be because I'm running from a live CD rather than having Ubuntu installed, which I can't do until I know the printer is going to give me black print. Still learning this thing, and don't know the commands. Hplip isn't showing in the drop down list but it shows as being loaded in the add/remove software.

I did discover that all my files on my second hard drive are readable in Ubuntu, either OpenOffice or my preference AbiWord, and once I move them, I can print, so no problem there other than the color.

Other than the above, all I can say is that Linux has sure come a long way since I fooled with it years ago. Ubuntu is as close to XP as anything I've found for ease of use - except for the printer thing.

 

Okay, GOT IT!!!

Had to set hplip toolbox to appear in my administration dropdown list, and then install sudo python qt something or other before I could open it. It was painless and no more difficult than downloading windows software.

Once all that was done, about 5 minutes total time, opened hp toolbox, made a couple of simple changes and I have black print.

Now, all I have to do is finish what I'm doing, get it printed out, and then this old fool is going to have Ubuntu on this box. All I have to do is remember what I did. Since I'm running a live CD, I'll have plenty of practice though, reloading all this every day for the next month. Even I ought to be able to get it straight by then.

Thanks, icenii and all for your suggestions and help. It's a case of an old guy who comes from the Age of Typewriters trying to play with modern equipment. Sometimes things work right away, sometimes it takes experimenting.