Ubuntu – How to install HPLIP on the Ubuntu to support the HP printer and/or scanner

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Let's assume that one has some HP printer and/or scanner and checked its support status on the corresponding page of HPLIP site – HP Developer Portal | All Supported Printer Models.

So one have the following information: the device Model name, Min. HPLIP
Version and Driver Plug-in need.

What should one install to make Ubuntu fully support the HP printer and/or scanner?

Best Answer

Currently Ubuntu have the following HPLIP versions in universe pocket:

trusty (14.04LTS): 3.14.3-0ubuntu3.4
xenial (16.04LTS): 3.16.3+repack0-1
bionic (18.04LTS): 3.17.10+repack0-5
focal (20.04LTS): 3.20.3+dfsg0-2
groovy (20.10): 3.20.5+dfsg0-3build1
hirsute (21.04): 3.21.2+dfsg1-2

This leads to the following variants.

HPLIP installation

(a) Required HPLIP version ≤ repository HPLIP version

So if one sees that Min. HPLIP Version is lower or equal to the version of the HPLIP package from repository, then the installation of the following packages will be enough with:

sudo apt-get install hplip hplip-gui

(b) Required HPLIP version > repository HPLIP version

If one sees that Min. HPLIP Version is greater than the version of the HPLIP package from repository, then then one needs to install binary HPLIP by following my other answer.

(o) Optional HPLIP binary/proprietary plugin/driver

If one sees that Driver Plug-in is set to yes (or required), then one needs to install the binary/proprietary plugin/driver by following my other answer.

Examples for Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (hplip 3.17.10) and some HP device models:

| Model Name                  | Min. HPLIP Version | Driver Plug-in | Action |
| HP LaserJet 6l Printer      | 0.9.5              | No             | (a)    |
| HP LaserJet Pro MFP m426fdn | 3.15.11            | Required       | (a)+(o)|
| HP Tango                    | 3.18.12            | No             | (b)    |
| HP PageWide MFP 774dn       | 3.18.9             | yes            | (b)+(o)|

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – Installation Epson L4150 printer (scanner) driver

By using the network plug-in, you can connect to a scanner that is directly attached to the network. Please note that scanning over the network is only supported in a client/ server setup. Scanners directly attached to the network are not supported.

Connect the scanner to the network and set the IP address. For information on how to set the IP address, refer to the user manual shipped with your scanner.

Please edit /etc/imagescan/imagescan.conf file by using root privileges as below.

Example:

[device]
net.udi = networkscan:esci://[IP address]:[Port number]
net.vendor  = Epson
net.model   = DS-XX00
net.name    = My Network Scanner
vendor : Vendor name on Main Window.
model : Model name on Main Window.
name : If you want to change the display name, specify this item.
If this item is not specified, vendor+model is displayed.

*[Port number] must be set to 1865
*vendor / model / name = optional items

exp) When the IP address is xxx.yyy.zzz.www, specify as follows.
net.udi = networkscan:esci://xxx.yyy.zzz.www:1865

Launch Image Scan v3. If it identifies the scanner on the network properly, it will work without any problems. At this time, if multiple scanners are connected, select the appropriate scanner as well as local connection. See “6.4.3. Select scanner”

Ubuntu – How to install latest HPLIP on the Ubuntu to support the HP printer and/or scanner

Installation

Currently there are no PPAs with newer hplip packages.

But user can download and install binary from HP as described in their manual.

Before you proceed you should remove any hplip related packages to avoid possible future conflicts.

HP have note about this problem on support page:

Warning: If you are upgrading HPLIP and HPLIP is already preinstalled with your distribution, or you if you installed HPLIP using an RPM, DEB, or other package, please uninstall the previous version using the method specific for your distribution. If you do not do this, you may have package conflict issues or functionality problems.

I have experimentally determined the list of packages (tested on 16.04 LTS and 18.04 LTS) and below are commands:

sudo apt-get purge hplip hplip-data hplip-doc hplip-gui hpijs-ppds \
libsane-hpaio printer-driver-hpcups printer-driver-hpijs
sudo rm -rf /usr/share/hplip/

sudo apt-get autoremove

Then you should perform the following steps:

Step 1: Download the Automatic Installer (.run file) from official link for the Ubuntu or as for today using wget
```
wget https://download.sourceforge.net/project/hplip/hplip/3.21.2/hplip-3.21.2.run
```
Step 2: Run the Automatic Installer
```
sh hplip-3.21.2.run
```
Then follow instructions on screen (it should ask password of your sudo-capable user to run apt, and remove hplip-gui files if they were installed). The installation process is already well-documented on HPLIP site.

After installation it will show printer installation wizard and you can add printer to the system.

Uninstallation

Here we start with binary HPLIP installation (so we do not have HPLIP-related deb-packages installed).

Let's consider that we have installation file hplip-3.21.2.run in the current directory. We need to extract archive from it and then run uninstallation script.

sh hplip-3.21.2.run --noexec
cd hplip-3.21.2
sudo python3 ./uninstall.py
sudo rm -rf /usr/share/hplip/

Afterwards we install official Ubuntu packages instead (optionally):

sudo apt-get install hplip-gui

Note: I have reported bug 1782137 to HPLIP's LaunchPad account asking developers to include uninstallation feature of deb-packages HPLIP components from Ubuntu.