I Loss my printer

As I recall … Nothing.

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@abhishek’s article about ppa’s has way more info than i could remember, but my take is basically that while ubuntu has a hand in where ppa’s are located (launchpad) they are not officially supported by the distro (ubuntu or mint). so the program’s developers can create one, but ubuntu/mint hasn’t tested it to make sure it works with all of their other programs.

a good example is timeshift. i originally installed it from the ppa. since i had heard about it from an itsfoss article, i trusted their reputation and guidance so i added it to my system. now it is in the ubuntu repository.

hplip seems to have followed a similar path. you had a ppa that you tried to add which looks like it was for older versions and now it is in the ubuntu repository as well.

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another place you can go to add a printer if that program isn’t working on your system is by going to http://localhost:631/admin in your browser. it provides similar cups functionality in that you can add and manage printers and even print jobs.

the place where knowing that uri can come in handy is if you can get to the add a printer dialog, it may make it easier to install than hplip did. i tried adding mine again by copying the uri and it made quick work of finding the drivers for me.

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I’m pretty sure that the kernel update to 4.15.0-74 is what caused my system not to see the printer for when I ‘Timeshifted’ the update out, the printer returned. Now I see another kernel update to 5.3.0.26.95. These kernel updates are coming really fast. Counting these last 2, there has to be at least 6 kernel updates in the past month or 2. What do you think is going on with the kernel?

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since bodhi leaves kernel updates strictly up to the user, i don’t see a lot of the ones that you get with mint. i did notice in my 19.3 vm and the ubuntu 18.04.3 vm (which came with 5. something out of the box) that there have been a lot of kernel updates, but i don’t know what drives those at all.

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Oh, Linux Mint also leaves kernel updates as well as all updates up to the users. And there are lots of opinions about applying kernel updates. Some – keep your system up-to-date, others – if it not broken, don’t fix it. I was just trying to tell you that I see 2 kernels updates available to be applied to my system.

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understood. i was just trying to explain that since i don’t get even kernel upgrade suggestions, i don’t know what rhyme or reason the recent influx of them would be about.

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after a little more reading here, i found that you can use lpinfo -v to find a printer’s uri. this page explains that you can find the driver or ppd with lpinfo -m and then how to set up a printer with lpadmin -p.

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Gee, dont know, go through the updates one by one see what they are and what they do. and install a couple then start up see if it works, they one or two more, bit slow, but you can track down a problem like that sometimes, don’t know what the experts do, I guess they would know all about the library’s.

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You don’t get updates between releases to your system with Bodhi? :thinking:

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Well @Lennox, you know a lot more about Linux then I do, if you know what the updates actually do. I read the description, but I just see the updates as changes to my system to keep it up-to-date as in correcting problems and/or adding features. As with any programming change, it can cause an unforeseen problem(s). I know b/c I used to be a programmer. That why we take backups. I take both Timeshift and Clonezilla backups.

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no updates/upgrades for the kernel unless i install them with synaptic or the terminal.

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@easyt50,
Sorry about this off-topic.
Yesterday I installed kernel 5.3.0.26.95 and others updates at the same time and, after reboot, amdgpu drivers won’t work and I couldn’t install amdgpu again. Like @Lennox mentioned and after restored my OS with Timeshift (@01101111, thanks to told me 2 months ago, to use Timeshift), I installed updates one by one and did reboot between updates and I verified an incompatibility error during kernel update but this error only appears on details during installation, the update manager didn’t show any alert after install kernel update.
I really don’t know when I need to stop updating kernels on Linux Mint…
You could have same problem with your printer driver

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@Tech_JA, comment welcome and right on target (topic). I have not proved it, but yes I believe the kernel update messed up my printer drivers. And I kinda of think the Mint team may of had some problems with the kernel update and that is why a second update is already out.
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We each have our way of applying updates. @Lennox likes to read the description on each update and update the system with only a couple of updates at a time. That’s his method and there is noting wrong with it. You have your method. I like to group the updates in batches of 10 to 15 at a time, leaving the kernel update in the last batch. I also like to create a Timeshift backup before the kernel is updated and mark it “Before kernel update”.
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And @01101111 is correct about backups. As long as we have a backup of our system before any major change is done, we have a way to recover.

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Hey cordx, thanks a million, for your information, you got some really good information and ideas, we are learning, learning, learning. Thanks

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I have a good friend, also a mathematician, various other things, but his main job is programming, he flys back and forth to the States from Australia, here, I have learn so much off him, but I do not program, only with arduino, not really programming as such, any way I get so many stories from my friend, I understand the concept of programing quite well, but I am surprised at time with his lack of knowledge or seemly lack of knowledge of software. I may not be explaining my self correctly here, you may get my drift. There is so much to computers, software, and everything to do with computing, Its is hard for me to imagine rooms full of programmers, with all this stuff. How any thing works at all, has me beat, big laugh :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

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I was a programmer many, many years ago. I was a business programmer, not a systems programmer. So I could write a program to get payroll out, but not to make a computer sing & dance. :laughing:
I wrote Cobol programs.
image

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Which one is you in the cartoon, having a big laugh now, best wishes . And thanks.

@01101111, I could not believe it and I became so frustrated, but a few days ago I could not print again. I really begin to wonder if I would I could ever give up Windows esp if Linux could not do something as simple as print a text file for me.
– Anyway, I was able to fix it today and I thought I would share the fix with you for future reference.
It was as easy as delete / add printer! I found this at Askubuntu. https://askubuntu.com/questions/988076/missing-printer-filter-epson-212-213

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i am sorry to hear that happened again. it does sound frustrating, but at least you found what sounds like an easy fix in case it happens again. you might be able to change the solution to this answer if you wish to do so.