Printer advice

[Thomas Mueller]

from Polytropon:

> On Sun, 14 May 2017 08:05:50 +0000, Thomas Mueller wrote:
> > My luck with HP has been bad, enough to dissuade me from buying
> > any more HP products.

> I always suggest to check http://hplipopensource.com/ _before_
> actually buying something.

I believe I did that.

> > I have HP LaserJet Professional M1212nf MFP, and the first
> > several attempts were fruitless, in both NetBSD and FreeBSD.

> Did you use the (most current) CUPS and hplip software?

> http://hplipopensource.com/hplip-web/models/laserjet/hp_laserjet_professional_m1212nf_mfp.html

> The following addition is provided:

>         This printer REQUIRES a downloadable driver plug-in,
>         which is required to enable print, fax or scan support.
>         Use hp-setup to install the printer, and to download
>         and install the plug-in. Driver plug-ins are released
>         under a proprietary (non-open) license and are not part
>         of the HPLIP tarball release.

> Did you pay attention to this nonstandard part?

Sure I saw that.  But hp-setup always failed when attempting to download that plug-in.

This is part of the reason, along with poor HP support policy, why I don't want to ever again buy anything from HP.

How would I know before buying another printer if it requires a proprietary binary plug-in?

A few years ago, on visiting HP website, this printer was past end-of-life, and no drivers were available even for MS-Windows. 

So I can try, but would be very surprised if that proprietary binary plug-in were even available.

But I think I still have some old stuff for MS-Windows on hard drive.

I looked in /usr/ports/print/hplip-plugin/pkg-plist, and couldn't see anything for my HP model.

But hplipopensource was still alive (and well?).

> > I finally got it to print in NetBSD through cups with a special
> > PPD file, think FreeBSD might also work with the same PPD file.

> Yes, the first P in PPD means "portable". :-)

I think my printing success was due to cups; hplip seemed to play no part.

> Scanning is not a problem once you have installed hplip and SANE.
> Fax... who uses fax anymore? ;-)

Scanning didn't work even with hplip and/or sane.

Now I wonder if, when I get to needing another cartridge, the toner for my printer model will still be available.

If not, I will consider myself blessed because that would mean I can give up on this printer in favor of something better.

Besides FreeBSD, I will also have chances with NetBSD and a future Linux installation.

I tried copying my custom NetBSD 7.99.71 kernels for amd64 to i386 by NFS from the Intel Ivy Bridge computer to my other (Intel Sandy Bridge) computer, and they booted successfully: a great surprise after failing on Intel Ivy Bridge computer.

Tom