USB printer

[chejose]

So far I have a working setup of Fedodra 6, though a lot of questions are still on my list.
The most important is installing my printer. It is a HP 1200 with a USB connection.
At the HP site they have a file that should be able to install this printer. I downloaded it, and it is a .tar.gz file.
Two problems: First, "locate" says that it is in the / folder, yet when I use 'ls" while in / it is not listed. Is that normal... that is, would ls not list the file if it is there?
Second, I am not too sure what to do with the file. from an earlier post the following was suggested:
tar xzvy xxxx.tar.gz
Supposing then there was a rpm file inside, should I use "run rpm" or "yum install" with the file? Or to simplify, what should I do now?
I am in new ground, so need things explained in detail.
Thanks

[b_martinez]

For a tar.gz file
tar -zxvf /[directory]/[place]/[name].tar.gz
example : tar -zxvf /home/me/hplip-1.0.0.tar.gz
Then you need to change into that directory and compile it.
cd /home/me/hplip-1.0.0.tar
./configure
make
Then comes the installation
su -
[enter root password here]
cd /home/me/hplip-1.0.0.tar
make install

OR, you can install the hplip driver from the extras repo.
hth
Bill

[chejose]

Bill, thanks for the details as to how to handle it. I wil have to leave it for tomorrow though.
One thing that frustrates me is that "download" confirms that it was downloaded to / but for the life of me I cannot find it anywhere. I may just have to try to download it again.
When I can get to trying your suggestion, I will get back to this.
Thanks

[b_martinez]

Okay, let me know how it goes.
Bill

[markkuk]

The most important is installing my printer. It is a HP 1200 with a USB connection.
At the HP site they have a file that should be able to install this printer. I downloaded it, and it is a .tar.gz file.

HP Laserjet 1200 is already supported by the hplip drivers included in Fedora Core 6. Just delete the tarball you downloaded, you don't need it and trying to install will just mess up the software management system.
What you really should do:

Check that cups, hplip, hpijs and system-config-printer packages are installed
yum install cups hplip hpijs system-config-printer
Make sure that cups and hplip services are running
chkconfig cups on;chkconfig hplip on
service hplip start; service cups start
Switch on the printer and configure it with system-config-printer.

[chejose]

Markkuk. Well, I did what you said, and the result was "Nothing to do". I had check to install the HP in the printer install function, but it said nothing about a USB connection. That is why I downloaded the file to try to set it up myself. But from the above I assume something is missing.

[chejose]

And as for the procedure suggested by Bill, I opened the file, but when I tried to compile, I got a message "No acceptable C compiler found in $path". So that stopped me there.
I guess a summary of the problem is that the HP 1200 is listed, and the installation procedure goes great until I reach the "connection" choice that does not have USB.

[markkuk]

Markkuk. Well, I did what you said, and the result was "Nothing to do".
This means that the packages are already installed.
I had check to install the HP in the printer install function, but it said nothing about a USB connection.
What did it say instead? If you run the "dmesg" command after switching the printer on, do you see messages showing that the printer is detected? E.g. on my system:
drivers/usb/class/usblp.c: usblp0: USB Bidirectional printer dev 2 if 0 alt 0 proto 2 vid 0x03F0 pid 0xC202
usbcore: registered new driver usblp
drivers/usb/class/usblp.c: v0.13: USB Printer Device Class driver
Does the printer appear in "lsusb" output?

[chejose]

Oh my... bit by bit I am getting a handle on Fedora.
I don't know what happened, but this time when I looked at "install printers" the HP 1200 USB was listed. It was not there before! So I installed it, and one less problem on my list!
Thanks you help.