Print & scan with an HP Color LaserJet MFP M281 (fdw)

[fedup4ever]

I wanted to post my experience, in case others are interested in using this printer (HP Color LaserJet MFP M281fdw) or similar one under Fedora. My printer is connected via ethernet and I wanted to be able to print and scan documents directly from Fedora. I used the following steps to do this:

First, we need to install HPLIP and the sane backend hpaio:

# dnf install hplip-common hplip-libs hplip libsane-hpaio

Next, we install the HP plugin. In this step, the hp-plugin script will complain that the key is not found or can't be verified, just ignore those errors and proceed. In some cases, I have to run the script twice to make it install the plugin correctly, in other times it worked the first time.

# /usr/bin/hp-plugin

Next we need to add this printer model as a supported option. By default HPLIP will incorrectly name the printer, thus network scanning won't work. So create the unreleased directory and create a text file unreleased.dat.

# mkdir /usr/share/hplip/data/models/unreleased/
# touch /usr/share/hplip/data/models/unreleased/unreleased.dat

Edit the unreleased.dat text file with your favorite editor (vi, gedit, nano, whatever...) and copy paste the following contents:

[colorlaserjet_mfp_m278-m281]
align-type=0
clean-type=0
color-cal-type=0
copy-type=0
embedded-server-type=1
fax-type=7
fw-download=False
icon=hp_color_laserjet_cm1312_mfp.png
io-mfp-mode=1
io-mode=1
io-support=14
job-storage=0
linefeed-cal-type=0
model1=HP Color LaserJet MFP M278-281
monitor-type=0
panel-check-type=0
pcard-type=0
plugin=1
plugin-reason=64
power-settings=0
ppd-name=hp-color_laserjet_pro_mfp_m277
pq-diag-type=0
r-type=0
r0-agent1-kind=4
r0-agent1-sku=CF400A/CF400X
r0-agent1-type=1
r0-agent2-kind=4
r0-agent2-sku=CF401A
r0-agent2-type=4
r0-agent3-kind=4
r0-agent3-sku=CF403A
r0-agent3-type=5
r0-agent4-kind=4
r0-agent4-sku=CF402A
r0-agent4-type=6
scan-src=3
scan-type=5
status-battery-check=0
status-dynamic-counters=0
status-type=10
support-released=True
support-subtype=48c3
support-type=2
support-ver=3.15.4
tech-class=Postscript
family-class=Undefined
tech-subclass=Normal
tech-type=4
usb-pid=3c2a
usb-vid=3f0
wifi-config=3

Now open the fedora (cups) print settings and create a printer with the following specifications:

Protocol: IPP
Device URI: ipp://your.ip.address.or.host/ipp
Make and Model: select HP as a manufacturer and scroll down (or type search) for: HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M277

Now create a second device in cups via the hp-setup. In the connection type question, enter "1", in the PPD file question enter "y", in the location and additional info notes you leave them empty.

# hp-setup -i -pscanner -tprint

Next, we have to correct the wrong device URI. Edit the printer settings, find the "scanner" device, right-click on the icon and select properties. The Device URI will look like:

hp:/net/HP_ColorLaserJet_MFP_M278-M281?ip=192.168.5.200

but you need to change that to the following (make sure to use your own correct printer IP address):

hp:/net/colorlaserjet_mfp_m278-m281?ip=192.168.5.200&queue=false

Restart cups:

# systemctl restart cups

Now if you run as uses the following command, it should return the full URI of the scanner, below you can see how it found the scanner my IP address 192.168.5.200:

$ scanimage -L
device `hpaio:/net/colorlaserjet_mfp_m278-m281?ip=192.168.5.200&queue=false' is a Hewlett-Packard colorlaserjet_mfp_m278-m281 all-in-one

*important*

The administrator password is limited to 16 characters. The device will wrongly accept passwords of longer length but will silently ignore the extra characters. You've been warned.