DesignJet 90r

[Piotr Kirklewski]

Hi guys

I have CUPS on linux installed and it finds my Xerox printers fine. The problem I have is that I can't find my DesignJet 90r when I click "Find new Printers" in CUPS I only get my Xeroxies and Konica.
I can ping the Design Jet, I can add it to my computer as a network printer manualy, but the idea here is to share it via CUPS.

I was also looking for ppd file on HP websites but couldn't find anything.

Actualy all I need is the ppd.

Regards

Peter

[Matti_Kurkela · Accepted solution]

According to this, the DesignJet 90r is the same as DesignJet 90 with a roll feed accessory.

http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/pscmisc/vac/us/product_pdfs/451453.pdf

Openprinting.org maintains a database of Linux-compatible printers, and PPDs for them. Please see:

http://openprinting.org/show_printer.cgi?recnum=HP-DesignJet_90

Looks like two of the drivers included in the Ghostscript software can drive a DesignJet 90 series printer. Download the recommended PPD first and try it with CUPS. It should automatically make CUPS use Ghostscript to convert the print data for your DesignJet.

If the recommended PPD does not enable the features you need, try the other one listed in the openprinting.org webpage.

MK

[Piotr Kirklewski]

I'm doing:

Add printer >>

Name: HpDj90r
Location: here
Description: anoying one

Continue >>

Device: AppSocket/HP JetDirect

Continue >>

Device URI: socket://10.10.12.203

Continue >>

PPD File:HP-DesignJet_500ps-cdnj500.ppd

Add printer: Printer succesfuly added

Print test page:

Error: Job stopped due to filter errors.



What am I dooing wrong here ?


I was also trying to use HPLIP and LDP/LPR for the device, all with the same result.

What i sthe "filter error" ?

Regards

Peter

[Piotr Kirklewski]

I also get this error on the main page next to the printer name: "/usr/lib/cups/filter/foomatic-rip failed"

I've check and the file "foomatic-rip" exists in the system.

Still not sure what's going on ?

Regards

Peter

[Matti_Kurkela]

"Filter error" would indicate that "foomatic-rip" is trying to run the command indicated in the PPD file, but that command fails for some reason.

Do the CUPS log files (typically /var/log/cups/*_log) have any more information?

If that is not enough, change the LogLevel setting in /etc/cups/cupsd.conf from its default value to "debug" to get a lot of information.

Reading the PPD file indicates that the command used by foomatic-rip is something like:

"gs -q -dBATCH -dPARANOIDSAFER -dQUIET -dNOPAUSE -sDEVICE=cdnj500 -sOutputFile=- -"

The important question is, does the gs command (Ghostscript) of your Linux distribution support the cdnj500 device format? Run "gs -h" and see whether "cdnj500" is included in the listing of "available devices" or not.

If the cdnj500 device is not listed by gs, try the other PPD listed in the openprinting website. On my Debian 5.0 system, the cdnj500 device is not yet included in gs, but the chp2200 device used by the other PPD is there. (Debian is very stable, but not always the most up-to-date :-)

If the chp2200 PPD does not give you all the functionality you need, you may have to get the Ghostscript source code and the cdnj500 patch (the link is listed in the DesignJet 90 page of the openprinting site), recompile your own version of Ghostscript with the patch included, and then tweak the cdnj500 PPD to use your customized Ghostscript instead of the standard one (i.e. change the "gs ..." commands to "/usr/local/custom-ghostscript/bin/gs ..." or whatever, depending on where you install the custom Ghostscript).

MK