# HP printer not working in Linux mint 7



## crazy pyro (Feb 28, 2010)

I've been trying to get my ancient HP Deskjet 5500 to work so I can print out some stuff for school as I gave up on the lexmark printers working in linux. 
I plugged the printer in and linux instantly recognised it when I tried to print something, however when I tried to print anything it would make all the usual noises but wouldn't pick up any paper, fixed this by putting an inch of paper in the tray, now the rollers pick up sheets and feed them through without any issues.
I've managed to get it to print test pages with the little HP logo at the bottom which come out perfectly, however when I go to print a document it fails.
When printing a block of text it picks up the paper and then spits it out without printing on it.
When printing a table it prints one vertical line at the end of the page and then the horizontal lines (it's a 4*4 table), no text is printed, what do I need to do to fix it?
Thanks in advance
Spen


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## Killer_Rubber_Ducky (Mar 18, 2010)

did you install the hplip drivers found in the synaptic package manager


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## crazy pyro (Mar 18, 2010)

Yep, I did.


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## Killer_Rubber_Ducky (Mar 18, 2010)

which program are you using to print from? What interface is the printer on? SCSI, LPT, USB, etc...

Lexmark works ok on linux. 

Try the open printing site.

I almost never have issues with HP Printers and Linux


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## crazy pyro (Mar 18, 2010)

The interface is USB, I think I tried open printing, might have another shot tomorrow night when I'm at my gran's.
I was trying to use open office to print.
I do have a habit of killing printers quite spectacularly, like managing to corrupt drivers in the middle of printing a 100 page coursework...


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## Killer_Rubber_Ducky (Mar 18, 2010)

try using a print server device. It hooks up between a router and a computer and can act as a computer


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