Bits and Dots - All Comments

re: MAC: Apple's "Snow Leopard" (Mac OS X v10.6) Release and HP Print, Fax, Scan Drivers

Brian R. Kneebone — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 18:24:05 GMT

Hi Nicholas,

I certainly emphathize as my immediate and extended family includes 4 teachers (K-6). I do get quite concerned that such a new OS is being pushed out as a standard only a week or two after being introduced. Especially as with any other OS (Windows, Linux, etc.) some degree of testing and peripheral validation needs to often take place first. This is just prudent planning.

But the world of teaching is vastly different than a standard corporate managed environment and if it's anything like any of the members in my family, teachers often have to bring in their own peripherals to suppliment their teaching efforts (something which ought to be commended). It leaves educators in an awkward position when their hard earned money is put on the line for something they may never have been asked to do. Yet they know this investment benefits their students. The added pressures of this coming week with the new school year make things all the more tricky of course.

I'm going to offer some rough guidance here, but with a caveat. I've not used Mac OS 10.6 yet, just Tiger (10.4) and Leopard (10.5) on my test machines. I haven't gotten 10.6 yet because I'm intentionally waiting for the new drivers to come from HP as many other users are, so Leopard is just fine by me for now.

Secondly, I'm not a support agent, but I'm going to offer some "what I'd do if I were in your shoes" type of advice. This advice is un-tested by myself and what you should really be doing is calling into the support line (1-800-HP-INVENT if here in Canada). If you choose to implement any of the advice here, be advised that it comes without warranty and that you should only do so on a machine that you can "back-out" from. While I think a simple un-install ought to suffice, always assume the worst and back-up files externally knowing a re-install of the OS may be required (I hope not, but again, untested so always prudent to plan).

Thirdly, I'm a little concerned that the P1505n is not listed on the earlier URL's for forthcoming drivers, so I'm not sure that waiting for something which may never come is wise. Assume Snow Leopard tested drivers may not come, I'll check in the background on this model specifically and post back.

My first un-supported recommendation would be to try the new drivers which just launched earlier this month for Mac OS 10.5 and earlier. Install the MAC OS 10.5 drivers on ONE of the machines as a test, then back-out if it doesn't work for you. You can download the drivers manually from here:

h10025.www1.hp.com/.../softwareDownloadIndex

NOTE: Installing the "Leopard" (10.5) drivers seems to have worked for other users in other circumstances on 10.6 according to various non-HP sites. A google search of your print model and snow leopard as keywords generally turns up some interesting advice coming from peers.

My second unsupported recommendation works in Mac OS 10.5 and I hope/assume it will in 10.6 Snow Leopard, but again, not having tested I can't say for certain. Also the approach here only works if your printer supports one of the generic languages I'm installing for. For example, while the HP LaserJet P1505n supports the PCL5e (PCL 5 Enhanced -> a monochrome only print language), other devices will not. Check your product specifications to be sure. The steps are seemingly simple, so let's walk through them. In your "System Preferences" -> "Print & Fax" folder click the "+" icon (to add a printer). Select the globe icon with "IP" at the top (using the other methods may attempt to specify a driver for you). Then for the "Protocol" select "HP JetDirect / Socket", type in the IP address or hostname of your printer (only use the host name if registered in DNS). Queue is left blank (used for LPR/LPD). Give a name for your printer and an optional location. For the "Print Using" select "Select Print Driver to Use" and locate the "Generic PCL 5e Printer - Gutenprint v5.1.3" driver (Snow Leopard may use a slightly newer version).

My third unsupported recommendation is a variation of the one I just made, but involves access the Common Unix Printing System (CUPS) within your Mac OS. This is a hidden resource and in some cases accessing it may have been disabled by your administrator. But while on your test machine, go to http://127.0.0.1:631/ in Safari or Firefox. If you can access the system, click on the "administration" tab then "Add Printer". I gave my printer a name of "HP_LaserJet_P1505n_PCL5e" (spaces not allowed) (location and comment are optional) then press "Continue". On the next screen select "Network Printer (HPIP)" or even "AppSocket/HP JetDirect" then continue. For the device URI, type in socket://x.x.x.x:9100 (where x.x.x.x should be the IP address or hostname of your printer - only use hostname if registered in DNS). Under "Make" select "Generic" then any of the Generic PCL5e versions (note this is only possible on the P1505n because this sub-model supports PCL5e, other lower end devices may not, check the specs of your printer if there are other people reading this blog comment). Then "Add Printer". Your printer is now setup in CUPS and the Mac OS "System Preferences" -> "Print & Fax". All I can say at this point is Test and play. This isn't as ideal as what's supported for the models commented on by Apple and HP, but I hope this does for you in a pinch.

Please let me know if any of these three unsupported options works out for you. If not, I'd like to know. I won't have a chance to test this until much later in the month and I know its the beginning of the school year. Hopefully this makes up for all the tough times I kept putting my teachers through (not now, but growing up of course) as I specialised in getting into mischief.

I will follow-up on this blog via a comment advising if this model will be included as having officially MacOS 10.6 drivers if I know they're coming, but for now, I think you have to assume they aren't given the materials online.

Kind regards, B.

re: MAC: Apple's "Snow Leopard" (Mac OS X v10.6) Release and HP Print, Fax, Scan Drivers

Brian R. Kneebone — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 16:02:22 GMT

Hi Scott, according to the HP and Apple sites your scan drivers should be working and I believe the HP OfficeJet Pro 8500 Wireless just launched this winter, so I'd encourage you to call into the support line and get this looked after at HP (1-800-HP-INVENT here in Canada, check your local HP website for the correct number to call if in a different location though).

"Print, Scan, Utility, and Fax drivers (where applicable) for these devices are included in Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. Please note that scanning is now supported with the Apple Preview and Image Capture Applications in Snow Leopard for these devices." (and the OJP8500 wireless is one of the listed devices).

SOURCE: h10025.www1.hp.com/.../document

Regards, B.

re: MAC: Apple's "Snow Leopard" (Mac OS X v10.6) Release and HP Print, Fax, Scan Drivers

Marc van Dessel — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 10:40:01 GMT

HP Photosmart C5180 (all in one): after the 10.6 update printing works (if reinstall the HP drivers and disable the HP driver update in the Apple software update). Scanning does not work.

Hope to see some movement from HP in this matter !!!!!

re: MAC: Apple's "Snow Leopard" (Mac OS X v10.6) Release and HP Print, Fax, Scan Drivers

Scott Nielson — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 23:18:40 GMT

Office Pro 8500 Wireless scan feature is inoperative. Print & fax work fine. Any suggestions?

re: MAC: Apple's "Snow Leopard" (Mac OS X v10.6) Release and HP Print, Fax, Scan Drivers

Nicholas Andreacci — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 13:56:37 GMT

I am a teacher, and I have an HP LaserJet P1505n as my main classroom printer. It's now dead in the water after we updated our 31 MacBook computers to Snow Lepoard, 10.6. Great...

re: MAC: Apple's "Snow Leopard" (Mac OS X v10.6) Release and HP Print, Fax, Scan Drivers

Brian R. Kneebone — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 06:30:50 GMT

Hi James, the Color LaserJet 2600 is a few years old now (since the series was first introduced). It's a little bit of a different model as it's a host-based device (meaning it relies on the PC with a heavier software footprint - no PCL or PostScript).

I saw that there's MacOS 10.5 drivers on the HP support website. And there were a few users who've commented that they seemed to work fine. Whether supported, well, that's a different matter. you may want to reference this site for the conversation on using the 10.5 drivers for your model that I came across doing a google search for:

Mac OS 10.6 HP "Color LaserJet 2600"

forums.macrumors.com/.../t-776893.html

re: MAC: Apple's "Snow Leopard" (Mac OS X v10.6) Release and HP Print, Fax, Scan Drivers

Brian R. Kneebone — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 06:02:15 GMT

Hi Everyone, several people have posted commented about desires to see their HP devices made compatible with the new OS update. I encourage you to review the URL that Jack posted, but there is an indication that many of the models pointed out here will get drivers "soon". There may be a delay between when the drivers are made available and how quickly it's reported on that HP site, but it seems like a pretty thorough. You may also want to search the Apple Forums as there may be options as work-arounds others have found that may do in a pinch.

For some of the other questions around functionality like duplex not being available, I'd encourage you to investigate any manually configurable settings or call into support (I haven't investigated to see what HP/Apple does with common drivers discovering unique device model settings so I'd only be guessing if I made an attempt to answer here).

When the drivers are updated, feel free to ping me in this blog in a follow-on comment. I'd be happy to update the masses with your confirmation on changes as you get them. Regards, B.

re: MAC: Apple's "Snow Leopard" (Mac OS X v10.6) Release and HP Print, Fax, Scan Drivers

Brian R. Kneebone — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 05:37:10 GMT

Hi Jack,

I read through both URL's and the thread from the Apple discussions seems to focus largely on the DeskJet F300 series. HP states its not supported yet in the official URL. That seems accurate to me, although users have posted work-arounds using the older drivers and making do with a print only package. There was an additional post suggesting a scan work around I think. In any event, from what I'm reading in the articles I believe the difference could be described as "it might work" or "i got this to work" (my interpretation of the thread on the apple forums) and "designed to work and supported by the vendor" (the HP URL which I presume will be updated when/if models can be made compatible with OS 10.6). It was a very interesting read. Thanks for forwarding the HP article for reference here and the discussion on the Apple forum. Take care, B.

re: WJA: HP Web Jetadmin 10.2 has Re-launched

Brian R. Kneebone — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 05:08:32 GMT

Hi Ev, I'll give a brief description about the way this by-user tracking method works as a background to some different possibilities. By user tracking in HP WJA relies upon SNMP traps bound for the WJA service from the printer when a job has released. WJA receives the trap and interogates the printer using several queries after each and every job it receives a trap for. The trap is only sent once from the printer and not all devices support traps (for example, while the HP LaserJet M3035 mfp offers support for this feature, other more consumer oriented devices may not like lower end all in ones). If you're missing data from a larger collection, one possibility may simply be lower end devices not having the capability. There are other possibilities like UDP traffic (SNMP) being dropped across routers under stress or even something as simple as a device having been reset which needs to be reconfigured with the appropriate trap. There could be different considerations, so I'd highly recommend you call into your support resource and figure out where to go from there. I always like to remind customers that this is a handy feature, but if you're using it for rigorous job accounting for billback, auditing or quota control, a job accounting package to compliment HP Web Jetadmin may be the better of the options. HP works with several partners including Capella, SafeCom, Ringdale, Equitrac, Pharos, etc who have advanced in-printer options as well. Your HP sales representative can help you with sales options there as we resell and support many directly. Take care, B.

re: SECURITY ALERT: Certain HP LaserJet Printers, HP Color LaserJet Printers, and HP Digital Senders, Remote Unauthorized Access to Files

Brian R. Kneebone — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 04:57:20 GMT

Hi Mujtaba, the usage page can be printed at the front panel under the "information" menu. If you're referring to the need to update incorrect page counters and wishing to use the service pin, this is a privaledged login for service technicians authorized by HP. Place a service call with your service partner of choice (or by calling into HP). Fees will likely apply if out of warranty. Regards, B.

re: MAC: Apple's "Snow Leopard" (Mac OS X v10.6) Release and HP Print, Fax, Scan Drivers

rikytik — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 15:22:58 GMT

Not getting duplex printing after update to 10.6. Everything else works on my PhotoSmart C7180

re: MAC: Apple's "Snow Leopard" (Mac OS X v10.6) Release and HP Print, Fax, Scan Drivers

Gene Ehrbar — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 23:01:28 GMT

HP Officejet 5610 : "no driver available" for Snow Leopard. Dead in the water. Guess I'm not printing today.

Please fix this Apple and HP.

Thanks,

Gene

re: MAC: Apple's "Snow Leopard" (Mac OS X v10.6) Release and HP Print, Fax, Scan Drivers

Jack Howarth — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 17:48:17 GMT

The posted information from HP on their Snow Leopard compatible drivers...

h10025.www1.hp.com/.../document

...has been admitted to be highly inaccurate and very unfortunate that it was ever posted.

discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa

re: MAC: Apple's "Snow Leopard" (Mac OS X v10.6) Release and HP Print, Fax, Scan Drivers

Skip Queen — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 04:50:04 GMT

I have a HP F340 All-in-One but it stopped working after upgrading to Snow Leopard. Apple support says the problem lies with HP and a solution should be there within a week.

re: WJA: HP Web Jetadmin 10.2 has Re-launched

Ev Tapia — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 21:44:04 GMT

I am using the latest version of WJA. I have set up the reporting to try to capture "Device utilization by user". I have upgraded all of the firmware on the printers to the latest version, but still seem to have "hit and miss" collection of this data.

What else should I try?