Hello,
I have a FOSS friendly printer and I’d like to be able to print with it using my Librem 11. I got a USB to USB-C adapter for it, but it appears as if the Librem 11 is incapable of printing. Is this correct? Or is there something I need to install first? I’m used to printing being available out the gate on new computers.
Thanks!
Specify the printer and cable.
It is generally easier to print from Linux to any printer using the local network i.e. ethernet or WiFi, rather than USB, presuming of course that your printer has network functionality. (That of course is also more flexible since any computer on the local network can use the printer at any time.)
I’m not completely convinced that a USB printer will automatically configure, but it is years since I have used a USB printer. These days many network printers do have automatic configuration on the host i.e. the host asks the network whether there are any printers and each printer will identify itself and a configured printer will appear on the host for each printer.
If you insist on using / have no choice but to use USB then lsusb is your starting point. Did any USB device appear on the host? What type of device is it? Is it recognised as a printer?
If no USB device is appearing then, because USB-C is involved, it is always worth rotating the USB-C connector, presuming that the connector at the printer end is USB-A (or at least not USB-C) and hence can’t be wrongly oriented.
PS Are we to assume that you are running PureOS on the Librem 11?
L11 worked well for me when my screen wasn’t broken 
. Never had an issue with printing, at worst , had to to grab a PPD file.
It’s an HP Deskjet 1050.
I don’t think it’s the printer, though. I think there’s some software that needs to be enabled on the tablet, first. Because when I go to Settings → Printer the screen has an image of a frowning monitor that reads “Sorry! The system printing service doesn’t seem to be available.”
I can unlock the printer settings, but the “Add Printer” button remains grayed out.
In Settings → Privacy → Screen Lock, check the toggled state of Forbid new USB devices.
That option doesn’t exist. The only 4 categories are:
Blank Screen Delay
Automatic Screen Lock
Automatic Screen Lock Delay
Lock Screen Notifications
You probably need to install “cups” to be able to add a printer (sudo apt install cups)
That helped me make a bunch of progress. Now I can get it to recognize my printer. But it also wants to recognize a CUPS printer as well. Regardless, now when I try to print a gedit document, it quickly says print job completed, even though it didn’t print anything. I’ve tried it with both printer options.
Which are the options implied by “both printer options”? Are you implying that you ended up with two printers configured?
Anything in the system journal / log?
If you do a Test Page from the printer management functionality, does it work?
I find that some combinations of colour v. monochrome and quality printing options just silently fail, and I don’t print enough to have spent the time to look more closely.
OK, so no WiFi and no ethernet. It will have to be USB unless you choose to use a USB print server.
Looks as if that printer speaks PCL3, so it should work reasonably well from Linux for basic jobs.
Just for grins … does the scanner work? I use SimpleScan for scanning and that has worked for me with a couple of different scanner makes. It may well not be installed by default on the Librem 11, in which case sudo apt install simple-scan
If I click on the test page button, it does nothing. It’s not grayed out. It appears as if it should work. But it does nothing. I installed Simple Scan. When I open the program it says it’s searching for scanners and then crashes, or self quits, after a few seconds. I can’t even keep the program open. I really think that any program installed through apt-get that isn’t in the PureOS Store won’t work. And unfortunately, CUPS and Simple Scan aren’t in the PureOS store. I don’t know if we can expect updates to the PureOS store with added programs in this current distro release or if we have to wait until the next distro release comes out. I hope we don’t have to wait that long. I’m really happy with the tablet so far, except its limit useability.
I doubt that. As long as it is in the PureOS repo, it should be fine to install with apt
Maybe this will help as it was marked as a solution to printing with the Librem 5, Printing from the Librem5? - #9 by ZombieFeynman
I seem to have made some progress. There’s a program I use on my laptop called “Print Settings” system-config-printer which is different than the normal Setting → Printer tool. I installed it on my tablet and it seems to give me better access to its inner workings and status. Unfortunately, I’m still unable to print. If I print a document or test page, it will say processing 12%, or 4% or whatever, and then eventually say rendered complete. But nothing has printed. Another thing that’s interesting, is then when I add a printer using Print Settings it seems to make me want to specify a driver for it. I’ve never had to do that with this printer. But regardless, I chose HP → Deskjet Series and still no luck. There are some other options it offers me during setup I’ve never seen before.
I click add printer. Then it asks me to select a device. I choose Deskjet 1050 and forward. It says searching for drivers. Then it offers the choice of
Select Printer from Database
Provide PPD File
Search for a Pinter Driver to Download
I choose Select Printer from Database and there is a list of Makes. Generic is recommended, which I’ve tried to no avail. But the real choice I think should be HP. So, I choose HP and then go forward. Then there is a list of models. I choose DeskJet and forward. Then I apply and authenticate with my password. Then it asks if I want to print a test page. I click yes. It says it submitted page as job 16, for example. I click ok. Then it takes me to the Printer Properties → Settings page and under Printer State it reads "Processing -Printing page 1, 11% complete. But it never prints. Eventually, it tells me “rendered complete” but again nothing.
I feel like I’m so close.
I assume by this that you mean that you select a USB device that is perhaps correctly already identifying itself as a Deskjet 1050. The point is that at this point in the process you are selecting the device that will be used to communicate with the printer (serial port, USB device, or something on the network) and not the make and model of printer.
Output from lsusb would clarify this.
For clarity, you are choosing DeskJet 1050 specifically? You need to select the exact, specific model that you have.
Anything in the system journal / log?
If you still don’t get any joy …
there may be some merit in seeing whether the HP web site has a PPD file for the DeskJet 1050.
If you go to the HP web site, for Linux it now punts you to http://hplipopensource.com/ which seems to go back to the HP web site at HP Linux Imaging and Printing | hp's Developer Portal and seems to be telling you to install hplip and confirms on this page All Supported Printer Models | hp's Developer Portal that the HP DeskJet 1050 via USB should work (among 3390 
models of HP printer that are supported).
Do you have hplip installed?
dpkg -l hplip
If the output starts with ii then it is already installed. Otherwise
sudo apt install hplip
According to the above web site, installing hplip will get you the PPD file (among a zillion other files of course).
Edit:
As this has been marked as the solution, it is important to note that in order to get printing working at all, it is necessary to do first:
sudo apt install cups
as was covered by another poster in an earlier post.
Adding HPLIP was the solution. I installed HPLIP through the terminal, then deleted the saved printer, then re-added it and the process was much better. Now both the printer and the scanner work. Thank you very much for your help!