Printer doesn't work on PDFs ?

[GregM]

Ok here's something that really made a difference. I caught this on a YouTube video by accident.

sudo apt-get install hplib-gui

Now I have all sorts of options little programs and scan stuff etc.
Really made a difference.

Big mistake
Should have been

sudo apt-get install hplip-gui

[GregM]

Ok here's something that really made a difference. I caught this on a YouTube video by accident.

sudo apt-get install hplib-gui

Now I have all sorts of options little programs and scan stuff etc.
Really made a difference.

[oshunluvr]

This is a common problem; people confuse "dist-upgrade" with "do-release-upgrade" all the itme. I suspect that's why the apt developer used "full-upgrade" instead of "dist-upgrade" even though they do the same thing.

[chimak111]

Somewhat friendlier: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/AptGet/Howto

[Snowhog]

No. Open a konsole and type: man apt-get

Read what upgrade and dist-upgrade do.

Or, https://linux.die.net/man/8/apt-get

[GregM]

Will
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

change my 16.04 install to 17 (etc) ?

[jlittle]

Okular and Evince use a library (called libpoppler IIRC) to print, separate and potentially different from how they display PDF files.

I seem to recall seeing updates for libpoppler go by. If, after getting your system fully updated, you're still having trouble you might check out bug reports for libpoppler.

Regards, John Little

[Snowhog]

But you need to follow that up each time with at least

sudo apt-get upgrade

I prefer

sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Don't use 'upgrade'; use 'dist-upgrade'.

See man apt-get and look at the difference between upgrade and dist-upgrade. The former, if used regularly, will almost certainly end up borking your system. Using dist-upgrade won't.

[oshunluvr]

Says here not to use the Ubuntu driver: http://foo2xqx.rkkda.com

[GregM]

I look at the print preview and it looks fine,

[oshunluvr]

I just opened the Ferry reservation pdf with LibreOffice Draw and it printed just fine (except it added a blank page)

I see this (the extra page) quite a bit. I think not very many people or services are meticulous when they're creating PDFs.

At this point, I suspect your source is the issue. Curious is you're looking at these files (the ones with gobbledy-gook) with Print Preview and not seeing the corruption or are you just opening them, then printing?

[GregM]

I just opened the Ferry reservation pdf with LibreOffice Draw and it printed just fine (except it added a blank page)

[GregM]

Do you get identical results from both Okular and Evince?

Yes

Are these pdf's you're creating or are they sourced from somewhere else?

From someone else

Have you tried any other print methods, like opening them and printing from Libre Office?

No not yet, but I can try that

[oshunluvr]

To your problem, this doesn't sound like a driver issue to me, but I guess it could be.

Do you get identical results from both Okular and Evince?
Are these pdf's you're creating or are they sourced from somewhere else?
Have you tried any other print methods, like opening them and printing from Libre Office?

[oshunluvr]

If it were my system, I'd never run "apt-get upgrade", I'd always do "apt-get dist-upgrade". Since 2014, you can use "apt" instead of "apt-get" if you wish. "apt" has a couple more features. I do "sudo apt update; sudo apt list --upgradable" which shows you what needs upgrading. If satisfied with what you see, then do "sudo apt full-upgrade".

I'd also not muck about with anything else until you do the full upgrade and then clean off all that cruft (sudo apt-get autoremove) before I do much else.