42. Management Software

If you have an HP (Hewlett Packard) printer and would like additional software to manage it, you can install the HP Linux Imaging and Printing (HPLIP) GUI utilities (hplib-gui). These utilities include the HPLIP Toolbox application which will be found in the Settings category of the Applications Menu and the Others category of the Settings Manager. On supported inkjet printers, you will be able to monitor ink levels, check printer status, change page size and print quality, as well as clean the printer heads. On supported laser printers you will be able to monitor toner level, check printer status, change page size, and manage print quality. For all-in-one (multi-function) devices, you will be able to change fax settings and functionality. For more information about HPLIP click here.

Printer Support

The OpenPrinting database stores information about printers, their drivers, and how well they are supported under Linux. If you are not sure about how well a printer is supported in a Linux environment check that database. It is also a good database to check before buying a new printer.

Printer Drivers

If your printer doesn’t work automatically or you’d like to install the printer drivers and utilities from the printer manufacturer, here are some links to assist.

HP, Canon, Brother, Epson, Xerox, Lexmark

Scanning

Similar to Xubuntu’s support for printers, it also has plug and play support for many scanners, as many of them today come as part of multi-function devices. Scanner support on Linux is provided by the SANE project which maintains a list of supported scanners. Additional scanner support can be achieved with the installation of SANE-airscan (install), which allows driver-less network scanning with scanners that support Apple AirScan (eSCL) and Microsoft WSD.

Using your Scanner

To begin using your scanner, open the Document Scanner or Simple Scan app, which is accessible from the Graphics category of the Applications Menu (Ctrl + Escape) and in the Application Finder (Alt + F3). Follow the next steps to scan a document, picture/image, etc.:

Connect your scanner and power it on.

Place what you want to scan on the scanner flatbed or feeder.

Close the lid if you have a lid.

Click the arrow to the right of the Scan button and choose the type of media you are scanning, Text or Photo.

Click the Scan button to begin your scan.

No Scanners Detected

There are two reasons why you might get this message:

Your scanner is not automatically supported, which includes most parallel port scanners and Lexmark All-in-One printer/scanner/faxes.

The driver for your scanner is not being loaded automatically.

You may be able to get your scanner working by installing a driver or altering some configuration files. Please ask for advice on the Ubuntu forums or on AskUbuntu.


	To get some scanners working, you may need to plug the scanner in after the computer has booted.

Manually installing a scanner

There are some scanners that have incomplete drivers from the SANE project. They can sometimes be used, but not all the features may work. For these scanners:

Install the libsane-extras package.

Run pkexec mousepad /etc/sane.d/dll.conf at the command line to open the SANE driver file for editing.

Enable the correct driver for your scanner by removing the # from in front of the name of the driver. You may need to search the web to find out which driver is the right one.

Save the file and open Simple Scan. If all goes well, your scanner will now work.