I’ve started trying to set up printers with Leap. My first choice is my standard go-to, a very simple printer, a HP Laserjet 1020. Whenever I have any printing problems or my friends have problems, I attach this tiny thing via USB and try to get it working. Its been added to a lot of different computers and OS without a hitch. As I said, its a simple printer - turn on the on-off switch and away it goes. So I’ve tried to add it to Leap and nothing prints. Using Yast, it doesn’t seem to be able to find a driver - a first for me - so I tried using some of the drivers I’ve used before with Linux. Same deal - it says rendering completed but nothing comes out. Did a search and found one post in German about someone having a problem with a 1020 but couldn’t tell much about what the problem was or if they fixed it. So I’m looking for ideas here. I have a new dual boot with Linux Mint on this box so switched over to that and the printer added fine - test page and everything. Back to Leap and its a no go. Took it over to another laptop with Puppy Linux, - it added and printed fine. What does Leap need? By the way, this is the simplest printer I deal with. If it works there are others my friends have that are much more complicated - network printers, new models etc… Am I going to have problems with these?
Hi
Make sure cups is running;
systemctl status cups
If not running;
systemctl enable cups
systemctl start cups
systemctl status cups
Install hplip and run the hp setup program;
zypper in hplip
hp-setup
Once setup as your user run;
hp-toolbox
Thanks for the reply and suggestion. Very strange results. I did what you suggested and everything worked until the hp-toolbox. It came up with some errors:
linux-rulp:/home/tpf # hp-setup
HP Linux Imaging and Printing System (ver. 3.14.6)
Printer/Fax Setup Utility ver. 9.0
Copyright (c) 2001-13 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, LP
This software comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
This is free software, and you are welcome to distribute it
under certain conditions. See COPYING file for more details.
Searching... (bus=usb, search=(None), desc=0)
Firmware download successful.
Done.
linux-rulp:/home/tpf # exit
exit
tpf@linux-rulp:~> hp-toolbox
HP Linux Imaging and Printing System (ver. 3.14.6)
HP Device Manager ver. 15.0
Copyright (c) 2001-13 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, LP
This software comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
This is free software, and you are welcome to distribute it
under certain conditions. See COPYING file for more details.
warning: Reportlab not installed. Fax coverpages disabled.
warning: Please install version 2.0+ of Reportlab for coverpage support.
HP Linux Imaging and Printing System (ver. 3.14.6)
System Tray Status Service ver. 2.0
Copyright (c) 2001-13 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, LP
This software comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
This is free software, and you are welcome to distribute it
under certain conditions. See COPYING file for more details.
error: HPLIP upgrade is disabled by openSUSE for security reasons, see https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=853405 - if you like to upgrade HPLIP, use an openSUSE software package manager like YaST or zypper.
Done.
error: Unable to communicate with device (code=12): hp:/usb/HP_LaserJet_1020?serial=JL46503
error: Device not found
error: Unable to communicate with device (code=12): hp:/usb/HP_LaserJet_1020?serial=JL46503
error: Unable to open device hp:/usb/HP_LaserJet_1020?serial=JL46503.
error: Unable to communicate with device (code=12): hp:/usb/HP_LaserJet_1020?serial=JL46503
error: Unable to open device hp:/usb/HP_LaserJet_1020?serial=JL46503.
So I managed to close the gui which opened when I ran this command and then tried Yast hardware printers again. It saw the printer so I asked for a test page. I got a CUPS Printer test page. Then I asked it to print another 2 pages - a text document containing what I’ve attached above. Printer had red light on - not ready. So I checked everything and then powered it on and off. Came back on - asked for a test page - nothing. So I decided to send this to you. As I’ve been typing the last few lines, the printer just spit out the first page of the text document. Weird. Now I asked for another test page and it came out. Very strange. Tried text document again - it prints. So I guess its working but it never seen this happen before with this printer or any other one. Either they work or don’t work. After the hp-setup it quite clearly didn’t work and without doing anything more, it seems now to be working.
I think what motivated me more to create this thread is the difficulty in getting the printer to work. I tried Yast which seems to be the accepted way and got nowhere. Now you’ve given me some command line commands and even though they had errors and the printer did not appear to work it finally does work. I started looking at OpenSuse and Leap in particular because friends were asking me about Linux and for recommendations. I’ve been a mainframe system developer for many years and a friend and I do computer repairs and assistance on the side. He is more the mobile stuff and I look after desktops and laptops. I would have trouble recommending Opensuse at this point because I’ve seen the same sort of thing with software as I have with printers. The people I deal with who are somewhat computer literate would be all over me and those that aren’t would be pulling their hair, and mine, out. I want this to be a good product - I think it should be - it looks like its a polished product - but these inconsistencies are mind blowing. I mention this to you because I see you are a mod and I’m curious as to your take on this.
Again thanks for your time and for your help on this.
Hi
Never had issues using hplip and hp-setup etc with either network or usb devices aside from hplip versions on my SLE systems. My ones have just worked…
I do wonder when you switched to root user, it looks like you used su, not su - (the - is important 
) since your in a $HOME directory. If you did only use su, then it doesn’t switch to the root user environment which may have been an issue…? perhaps cups needed a kick or two…?
It seems you are fighting with issue of connecting your printer to your OS. Remember these points in your mind while installation:
- Use correct drivers. If you don’t find drivers for your existing os then you can download it from- driversdvd.com . Just write your model number in search bar and get your drivers.
- After installing drivers take help from Hp LaserJet 1020 Manual for complete installation with full view.
- Restart the printer if it gain given any error.
- But if again and again you are fighting with same issue than contact with HP printer support. You can get their contact details easily from manual.