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**lmilano** · Aug 05, 2009, 09:19 PM

Re: Printing gone strange - how to set it up again

mmm. Of you use synaptic, you can search all installed kde packages, right click, and make them re install. At least the ones that make sense (you wouldn't reinstall konqueror, or the wallpapers, to say something). That may do!Another idea would be to upgrade, what version do you have now? If it is 4.2.2, you can upgrade to 4.2.4, just see the instructions in kubuntu.org (but stay away from 4.3 until you are feeling adventurous)

**doctordruidphd** · Aug 05, 2009, 09:47 PM

Re: Printing gone strange - how to set it up again

Similar problems here; today's update killed the hp printing stuff altogether.

What killed it is something that changed in Python QT (PyQt).

Here is the error message when trying to load the systray utility:

Code:

reenman@Wolfenstein:~$ hp-systray

HP Linux Imaging and Printing System (ver. 3.9.2)
System Tray Status Service ver. 2.0

Copyright (c) 2001-9 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, LP
This software comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
This is free software, and you are welcome to distribute it
under certain conditions. See COPYING file for more details.

error: Unable to load Qt4 support. Is it installed?
/var/lib/python-support/python2.6/dbus/connection.py:242: DeprecationWarning: object.__init__() takes no parameters
 super(Connection, self).__init__(*args, **kwargs)

The "unable to load qt4 support" part is perplexing, as everything I can find with python and qt4 has been installed.

I don't think reinstalling any of kde's modules will help. This is really discouraging, since printing was, for the first time on any linux system, actually working. Note the same problem exists with 9.10; again, I think it has to do with python updates somewhere. Can't find any way to get into a forum that deals with this. Oh, another cute thing I found: today's firefox-3.5 updates removed all the search engines. Really cute, whoever thought that up, and it doesn't make trying to solve this problem any easier.

Further:

Running the check.py script produces the following:

Code:

---------------
| SYSTEM INFO |
---------------

Basic system information:
Linux Wolfenstein 2.6.28-15-generic #48-Ubuntu SMP Wed Jul 29 08:53:35 UTC 2009 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Distribution:
ubuntu 9.04

Checking Python version...
OK, version 2.6.2 installed

Checking PyQt 4.x version...
Traceback (most recent call last):
 File "./check.py", line 304, in <module>
  from PyQt4 import QtCore
ImportError: cannot import name QtCore

According to synaptic, qtcore is installed.

**olembe** · Aug 06, 2009, 12:40 AM

Re: Printing gone strange - how to set it up again

Ah, Doctor Druid gives me a clue. When I run hp-systray in a terminal window I get this:

Code:

HP Linux Imaging and Printing System (ver. 3.9.2)
System Tray Status Service ver. 2.0

Copyright (c) 2001-9 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, LP
This software comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
This is free software, and you are welcome to distribute it
under certain conditions. See COPYING file for more details.

Traceback (most recent call last):
 File "/usr/bin/hp-systray", line 106, in <module>
  import ui4.systemtray as systray
 File "/usr/share/hplip/ui4/systemtray.py", line 35, in <module>
  from ui_utils import *
 File "/usr/share/hplip/ui4/ui_utils.py", line 33, in <module>
  from PyQt4.QtCore import *
RuntimeError: the sip module implements API v5.0 but the PyQt4.QtCore module requires API v3.8

So it looks like my installing Python tools has OVERupgraded the system to a higher level than the printing tools expect. Hmm.

I'm currently upgrading to 4.2.4 as lmilano suggested, in the hope this will refresh things...

EDIT: Right, I've upgraded to 4.2.4 and have tried to overwrite the sip install I had (downloaded from here by using sudo aptitude install sip4. (I know, I know... I shouldn't change two things at once but I was impatient.) This has half-solved the problem. My computer is now printing documents again (hooray!) but has no printer option in the System Settings (boo) and hp-systray still isn't working (boo).

**lmilano** · Aug 06, 2009, 06:12 AM

Re: Printing gone strange - how to set it up again

Folks, most python scripts have an installer procedure that pre-compiles python object code. I wonder if re-installing the hplip packages would make a difference (it will very likely re-run these scripts)

**doctordruidphd** · Aug 06, 2009, 09:02 AM

Re: Printing gone strange - how to set it up again

I wonder if re-installing the hplip packages would make a difference (it will very likely re-run these scripts)

Wonder no further. It didn't. Same errors, the hplip system won't even start.

Code:

greenman@Wolfenstein:~$ sudo hp-setup
[sudo] password for greenman:

HP Linux Imaging and Printing System (ver. 3.9.6b)
Printer/Fax Setup Utility ver. 9.0

Copyright (c) 2001-9 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, LP
This software comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
This is free software, and you are welcome to distribute it
under certain conditions. See COPYING file for more details.

error: Unable to load Qt4 support. Is it installed?

I also tried downloading the latest hplip release. Same problem, same errors. The install seems to go properly, but the setup program dies the same way.

I'm reloading my jaunty system from backup. I will try the upgrade again, this time paying more attention to what is being removed. That may give some clues.

Edit: I reloaded from backup, and ran update and dist-upgrade in -d mode; not throwing the switch yet. I noticed this:

Code:

The following packages will be REMOVED:                                         
 imgseek libkholidays4 python-qt3 python-qt3-gl python-qt4-common

Bet the problem is right there--------------------------------- ^ ^ ^
I have no idea what to do about it, except maybe wait to upgrade until it's sorted out.

**lmilano** · Aug 06, 2009, 06:27 PM

Re: Printing gone strange - how to set it up again

Yes, removing python-qt4 packagse seems like a recipe for disaster. I wonder why I don't see the issue. I am up to date, and I am using hp-systray as well ... are you using kde 4.3?

**doctordruidphd** · Aug 06, 2009, 10:45 PM

Re: Printing gone strange - how to set it up again

Yes, I am using kde-4.3; whatever came down the pipe yesterday in the updates. Those updates seem to have caused multiple problems for several folks here, judging by the flood of posts. It was all working perfectly until yesterday. Now, there is no hp-systray, or anything else with hplip, in either karmic or jaunty, and it really fubar'd pulseaudio in karmic.
I gave up and restored both systems from backup. Just too many problems. I expect them in karmic, but not in jaunty. I need at least one system with functional printing.

PS I apologize, olembe, I didn't intend to hijack your thread here. But it seems we (and a few others) are having the same problem. And it doesn't look good right now.

**lmilano** · Aug 07, 2009, 05:50 AM

Re: Printing gone strange - how to set it up again

Well, thanks for the heads up! I am running the same on my eee, and sure enough I saw an update yesterday that would have uninstalled my python-qt4!

**olembe** · Aug 07, 2009, 07:35 AM

Re: Printing gone strange - how to set it up again

Originally posted by doctordruidphd

PS I apologize, olembe, I didn't intend to hijack your thread here. But it seems we (and a few others) are having the same problem. And it doesn't look good right now.

No worries. I just hope we can sort it all out. I'm looking forward to doing a nice fresh install when Karmic is released. After that I'm never going to meddle again! Roll on October.

Incidentally, does anybody know if there is a simple way to take a 'snapshot' of my system settings so I could roll back to how my computer is set up if an experiment goes wrong? Could it be as simple as doing a big tar or my / partition?

**lmilano** · Aug 07, 2009, 07:48 AM

Re: Printing gone strange - how to set it up again

Yes, the easiest way is to have two identically sized partitions. One is your main one. For the clone, every once in a while you copy your existing / over. You do it from a live CD, you mount both, say that you have

/media/source_partition
/media/clone_partition

You do first

Code:

sudo rm -rf /media/clone_partition/*.

Then you do

Code:

cd /media/clone_partition
cp -a /media/source_partition/* .

To boot from the clone, you edit grub in the boot and make it point to the right root
http://grumpymole.blogspot.com/2007/...arameters.html

**olembe** · Aug 07, 2009, 08:01 AM

Re: Printing gone strange - how to set it up again

Aha! I didn't think of using the Live CD. Thanks.

**kjjjjshab** · Aug 07, 2009, 09:20 AM

Re: Printing gone strange - how to set it up again

I can also confirm my HPLIP is broken as well... but I'll put up with a few days/weeks of issues here if they *FINALLY fix the run-away python process problem I have been seeing the last few weeks/months. The update notifier in particular has been unusable for that reason.

* Not that I deserve a fix on unsupported packages.

**lmilano** · Aug 07, 2009, 09:31 AM

Re: Printing gone strange - how to set it up again

Originally posted by kjjjjshab

* Not that I deserve a fix on unsupported packages.

Exactly, I think I'll move the machine with this issue to Karmic in a Lil while (whenever they freeze new development for the release).

**kjjjjshab** · Aug 07, 2009, 08:05 PM

Re: Printing gone strange - how to set it up again

Originally posted by lmilano

Originally posted by kjjjjshab

* Not that I deserve a fix on unsupported packages.

Exactly, I think I'll move the machine with this issue to Karmic in a Lil while (whenever they freeze new development for the release).

Well, I should've been a little more clear though... the update notifier python bug I deserve nothing, but if this python update wasn't in the ppa, then I'm definitely a tad upset.

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