Hi, I just installed GhostBSD 10.3/MATE after a long absence, and find that CUPS is not right. I have an HP Laserjet 2420DN installed on my network; the driver that the installer chose is the HP LaserJet 2420 Foomatic/Postscript. When i try to print either a test page or the one text line "The quick brown fox..", I get two lines of text that read:

%!PS-Adobe-3.0
%Produced by poppler pdftops version: 0.50.0 (http://poppler.freed

followed by two more blank sheets of paper. I'm used to using the PCL driver for this printer, but that one doesn't seem to be available. Does anyone have a suggestion? Thanks in advance.

Hi. Sorry about your troubles.
In my install also a test page doesn't print, but otherwise printing is fine.
Is there another driver you can choose while installing?
What is the output of hp-check ? You may find your answer there.

frogprince wrote:Hi, I just installed GhostBSD 10.3/MATE after a long absence, and find that CUPS is not right. I have an HP Laserjet 2420DN installed on my network; the driver that the installer chose is the HP LaserJet 2420 Foomatic/Postscript. When i try to print either a test page or the one text line "The quick brown fox..", I get two lines of text that read:

%!PS-Adobe-3.0
%Produced by poppler pdftops version: 0.50.0 (http://poppler.freed

followed by two more blank sheets of paper. I'm used to using the PCL driver for this printer, but that one doesn't seem to be available. Does anyone have a suggestion? Thanks in advance.

Hi
Yes, it appear you printer works using PCL only and not postscipt (which was optional for that printer, IIRC)..
You can try to check the printer settings (may be postscript is disabled ?), or you can use a PCL driver:
I guess you can find them under HP Laserjet name (III, 4, 5, 5si) if you can't find a more appropriate driver.

Thanks, finally got back in town after spending a week looking after grandkids. There is no PCL driver available in the Ghost BSD version of CUPS on my machine. There are Postscript and Gutenprint/Foomatic drivers; I reinstalled the printer with one of the Gutenprint drivers, and that fixed the problem. I assume that I need to file a bug report with the FreeBSD team. Thanks; I just needed some help talking my way through this one.

frogprince wrote: There is no PCL driver available in the Ghost BSD version of CUPS on my machine.

Apologies, I forgot to add a non insignificant detail: Starting from HP LaserJet III, and then HP Laserjet 4, LaserJet5, 5si and so on ... they all use PCL language, later models may support Postscript too, which was introduced presumably when royalties to be payd to Adobe decreased.

So, choosing any of the above printer model should have worked (Laserjet 5 is always a good starting point when configuring a PCL printer) with minor differences, mostly because different printers might support different fonts and/or different options (additional bins, eco-mode, ...)

Glad you got it working on your own.