Can I use an HP printer

[Chris Hill]

On Tue, 6 Feb 2007, Bob wrote:

>   I recently purchased a Hewlett Packard Color LaserJet 2600n printer.
>   It works perfectly under Windows XP but I cannot get it to work under
>   FreeBSD 6.2.
>   I have set it up as a network printer on a LAN and it has it's own
>   permanent IP. I can ping the IP  but that is all I can do.

I have been using HP printers under FreeBSD for years now. Since your 
printer has an IP, I presume it has a JetDirect card.

>   Can this printer actually be made to work or am I wasting my (and
>   your) time even trying?

You may need to set up some things in /etc/printcap. Here is the 
relevant portion of mine:

# HP color laser
lp|snow|snowball|lj|ps|HP ColorLaserJet 4550N:\
         :sh:\
         :sd=/var/spool/output/lpd:\
         :mx#0:\
         :lp=:rm=snowball:rp="auto":

I'm using lpr, so I had to enable that in /etc/rc.conf. I also had to 
manually create the directory /var/spool/output/lpd. The snowball part 
is a hostname for the printer, which you can set up in /etc/hosts or a 
split DNS. (My printers are named after Devo songs.)

HTH.

--
Chris Hill               chris at monochrome.org
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