Printers :: Can't install HP 420 deskjet



I'm an absolute DSL newbie (migrating over from Arklinux).  I've got DSL set up on a dedicated hard drive.  Everything works wonderfully, except the HP 420 Deskjet is not listed among all the printers in the  setup guide.  Any suggestions how I can work around this.  I've got CUPS installed, but it doesn't detect the HP.
How is the printer connected to your machine - parallel port, usb, network, or?

I'm not sure which cups mydsl extension you're using, but to check if cups "sees" your printer, you could use one of the backends, eg:
Code Sample
$ /opt/cups-1.3.5/lib/cups/backend/usb
or
$ /opt/cups-1.3.5/lib/cups/backend/parallel

Note that you will need the ppd file for your printer in order to use cups - if you use the hplip_ppd.tar.gz mydsl extension this would be "HP-DeskJet_420C-hpijs.ppd.gz" (or at least this would be a good place to start).
I'm using parallel port.  The PC is wholly Linux/DSL with no network, apart from the internet connection.  I got the CUPS from the MyDSL extension tool panel.  When I tried your suggestion to see if CUPS sees the printer, I got the mesg: "No such file or directory."  So I guess I didn't get CUPS installed after all.

Maybe the simplest thing for me is to just get an old  HP printer that's on the approved DSL printer setup list?  I'm grateful for your help.
Did you start with apsfilter before trying cups? Usually gimp works. For my HP 940c I can use:

gimp std (4)/ hp stp/pcl 895

(although currently I'm using a samba network printer. )
Quote
When I tried your suggestion to see if CUPS sees the printer, I got the mesg: "No such file or directory."  So I guess I didn't get CUPS installed after all.

There are three cups mydsl extensions - cups.dsl, cups.unc and cups-1.3.5.uci -  guess from this you are using cups.dsl/cups.unc. If that is the case, you could try the following from a terminal window to find out if cups "sees" your printer:
Code Sample
$ /usr/lib/cups/backend/parallel


Edit: note also, if you use cups.dsl, there is a right-click menu to start cups and open the cups-admin browser interface.
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