Been using Linux for 17 years. Cut my teeth on Solaris 8 back in 1998. But have never seen anything like this.

New to me... HP-4050N prints fine on a Windows OS. But lethargic on Linux Mint 18.2. I've tried a few of the various drivers offered by the OS, and finally went to HP.com and downloaded their Linux driver, and installed it. Still no joy.

Using a Jetdirect 600N J3113A Print server network card. Static IP, configured per HP tutorial. IP,GW etc all good. Turned off Apple Talk and IPX/SPX Novell stuff.

It does print, and well enough quality wise. But the slowness is unacceptable.

Anyone here have the solution?

Dave

If this is happening with LibreOffice, you could try loading a document and looking at "File - Printer Settings - Properties - Device - Printer Language". If it's set to PDF, try changing it to PostScript and see if that speeds things up. If it does, then you can save a new template.

Otherwise, try a wired connection, if that's not too inconvenient, and see if it's faster.

My network connection IS wired. The 600N J3113A Jetdirect card is a wired interface. And NO... I am not trying to print a pdf. Just about anything including test pages from printer software are S L O W.

The driver I have loaded came from :

https://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers...model/19135077

Seems like a good authority. I believe the issue is a Linux Mint one... As stated earlier... works perfectly on Windoz 7

Thanks for your thoughts though.

Dave

Granted that HP acquired Samsung and they have similar looking printers. Both use Postscript and PCL languages.
You can try installing the ppd file via hplip which should already be installed. Since this is an old printer no need to install the latest version. Not sure it will make much of a difference.

https://developers.hp.com/hp-linux-imaging-and-printing

http://www.hp.com/ecomcat/hpcatalog/specs/C4251A.htm
https://www.cnet.com/products/samsun...-series/specs/

HP puts out the HP Linux Imaging and Printing (HPLIP) package which has drivers for almost any HP printer. By 'almost any' I mean that I have yet to find one that isn't there, although I have heard rumors . . . . There is a trick, though. The version ubuntu and derivatives tend to install is not a good one. So, download the most current HPLIP from https://developers.hp.com/hp-linux-i...nting/gethplip, and then, before installing, purge all vestiges of any current package, installed or not, so you are starting fresh. Then install as regular user, not as root. It will ask for the password so it can install things with sudo but won't run if you try. Install all dependencies and options, required or not. It can take a few minutes, as many as twenty in my experience but perhaps less if some of the dependencies and options are already installed. At the end of package installation you will have the option of installing printers. You can install your printer then or later by running hp-setup. Hopefully that will solve your problem. The driver it uses may well NOT be the driver you have even though you got it from HP.

As a side note, HP does support their printers on Linux. They just don't like to admit it and it can be hard to find the right support pages on the web. Once you get to the right people I suspect their support is better than most from what I have seen and heard.

By the way, if this doesn't work you might try something silly like installing the printer to connect through wifi if you can rather than a direct connection. All my HP printers (and I have several) are installed through HPLIP and I print through wifi connnections, no direct connections. I had a problem with one new printer but HP posted an updated driver to replace the one in HPLIP and it works fine now, although the new driver hasn't made it into HPLIP yet.

I forgot to mention one thing: LibreOffice. They apparently use their own drivers, not HPs. If you are printing through LibreOffice and having problems it could very easily be their driver. To check, try exporting a document to pdf. Opening the pdf in your document reader and print from there. See if that makes any difference. It does for one of my printers.

People keep alluding to pdf's and office packages... neither of which are in play here. So please STOP. The printer is a NETWORK printer. I have tried the network direct driver, and the PCL drivers which offered 1200 dpi which is about half of those offered in Mint's repository before I went out to HP to attempt a download from them. Their download worked. But stll very slow. Honestly I think it's a Mint issue.

Perhaps one of the newer drivers may work, however I am reluctant to try something specificly NOT for the 4050n. The USB Canon printer I have worked fine. So apparently some of the printers will work flawlessly. This one doesn't.

I can't believe someone else hasn't hit this same issue and resolved it. Please come forward if you have the solution... Opinions don't count as solutions...

Dave

Dave, I would back off a little here. The program doing the printing CAN have an effect, as well as your type of connection, the driver in use, etc., etc. Often the thing that is the problem is not immediately obvious. So, knowing that LibreOffice can cause problems, that has been suggested since you were not specific in that regard. PDFs were suggested because they can use a different printing path and again you were not specific in what program or programs were showing the problem. Perhaps all, but you were not specific and many people ask general questions without trying other obvious options.

You might try printing a text file directly and see if it makes any difference. The command would be cat <text file> | lpr. See if that does anything differently. Do you have cups installed? If not, that tells me something. If you do, check out the printer installation through cups and see if that makes sense. You say it is a network printer. You are not specific about your connection to it, ethernet or wireless? Since you say it is old, is it capable of a wireless connection? I would assume so, but that can make a difference. You haven't mentioned using HPLIP so I would again strongly encourage you to try installing and connecting through that. Since it is a network printer I assume you are not directly connected to it. You might try making a direct usb connection and see if that makes any difference. It is possible that the network is somehow the problem. There are certainly many other possibilities, so let us know what you try and what effect, if any, each trial has. You seem quick to assume Mint is the problem. I have seen no one complaining that Mint itself has caused any printing problems so blaming the distribution is not really a solution. Let us help you find the real problem.

Also at this point let me ask how much experience you have with computers in general and how much experience with Linux specifically. That information can also help people help you find the problem.

You seem to NOT be reading what I post. Not my first Rodeo... You're thinking too fast about your response. I have heard what you said, and dismiss it as not helpful. Please don't respond again.

"Been using Linux for 17 years. Cut my teeth on Solaris 8 back in 1998. But have never seen anything like this.

New to me... HP-4050N prints fine on a Windows OS. But lethargic on Linux Mint 18.2. I've tried a few of the various drivers offered by the OS, and finally went to HP.com and downloaded their Linux driver, and installed it. Still no joy.

Using a Jetdirect 600N J3113A Print server network card. Static IP, configured per HP tutorial. IP,GW etc all good. Turned off Apple Talk and IPX/SPX Novell stuff.

It does print, and well enough quality wise. But the slowness is unacceptable.

Anyone here have the solution?"

Am using the same hardware on Linux & Windoz 7 dual boot.

"My network connection IS wired. The 600N J3113A Jetdirect card is a wired interface. And NO... I am not trying to print a pdf. Just about anything including test pages from printer software are S L O W.

The driver I have loaded came from :

https://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers...model/19135077

Seems like a good authority. I believe the issue is a Linux Mint one... As stated earlier... works perfectly on Windoz 7

Thanks for your thoughts though."

Your printer's max resolution is only 1200 dpi so not sure which driver you were using from Mint's repository. You have a Laserjet 4050 which is why I suggested using hplip instead of the Samsung driver.

It might be a Mint issue although it could be specific to cups. The standard print format used to be Postscript but was changed to PDF. When you select print from a GUI application it sends a PDF file to cups. cups will then convert PDF to the format required by the printer depending on the selected driver. In addition Apple which owns cups now removed all the old legacy drivers so now you have to get them from openprinting. It could be a cups filter problem.

https://wiki.linuxfoundation.org/openprinting/start

The HP DRIVER USES HPLIP. ALL DRIVERS USE CUPS. IT ALL WORKS... AT 1PPM

I have added a screen-shot showing that the driver provided by HP.com is indeed HPLIP (why wouldn't it be ?)

The interesting part is when booting the same hardware on Windoz 7 the printer responds as expected. Print starts nearly immediately and prints as advertised 17ppm. So... The burning question is why not in Linux.

The HP driver came with a folder full of printer id files... ML-4050DMVps.ppd was one I didn't try. Does anyone know what the DMV stands for ? Looked on Bing.com, and didn't see anything remotely proper.

I had removed CUPS this morning and tested. Seemed like the printer responded right away, and printed fast. I then reinstalled CUPS using "sudo apt-get install cups" and it again went back to very slow. So this evening I used "sudo apt-get purge cups" and tested a 5 page print... printer responded to print command within a second, and printed 5 pages with correct speed.

I'd say that for Network Printers CUPS is a mistake. HPLIP seems to be all that is required. Now the removal of CUPS may impact the use of other printers on this machine, but will find that out later. I don't print color very often, and so the LaserJet suits my needs more economically, and with much greater quality

Thank you to those providing their thoughts. Sadly none of them worked. Some tips on checking your Network Printer follows:

Network printer

Make sure the printer is turned on and connected to your network. In the case of a WLAN (wireless) printer the printer needs to be configured to use your wireless network.

Check the printer's configuration by printing a configuration page via the printer's front panel menus. This gives information about the IP address of the printer and about the protocols it supports (JetDirect/AppSocket, LPD, IPP, SMB/Windows, ...).
You can also find the printer's IP address via the configuration web interface of your router. Many routers you can configure that the printer always gets the same IP and you can also assign a host name.
To change the printer's configuration either use the printer's front panel menus or the printer's web configuration interface. To access this web interface, enter the IP address of the printer into the address or URL line of a web browser.
If your printer is supposed to connect via WLAN and it does not get an IP address, make sure that your WLAN is turned on and that the correct network name (SSID) and password are set by the front panel menus of the printer. If the printer has no front panel menus, you have to connct it with an ethernet cable first and configure the WLAN access through the web interface. On some HP printers there is WLAN connection but no ethernet connection. These you have to connect via USB and then use the hp-wificonfig tool from the hplip-gui package to configure them.
Set up the printer via system-config-printer ("Add" button). Wait around 15 seconds for the network scan (spinning icon must disappear). Usually you should select the default connection type as system-config-printer tries to find the best possibility. Generally use HP printers through the HPLIP connection, other printers preferably with DNS-SD connections (will continue to work whn the router changes the IP of the printer) and from the protocols use preferably AppSocket/jetDirect. The implementation of IPP in the printer's firmware has often bugs. Make sure the desired protocols and DNS-SD/mDNS/BonJour support are active in the printer's hardware configuration.

Open a terminal/console and run the commands:
$ ping <IP of the printer>
$ nmap <IP of the printer>
Replace "<IP of the printer>" by the printer's IP address. The first command checks whether you can access the printer through the network, the second shows which port numbers are used by the printer and through this which protocols are active (80: Has web interface, 139: SMB, 443: encrypted IPP or encrypted web interface, 515: LPD, 631: IPP, 9100: JetDirect/AppSocket). Install the "nmap" package if needed.

Run the commands:
$ /usr/lib/cups/backend/snmp
$ sudo /usr/lib/cups/backend/dnssd
The output shows whether the printers get found by CUPS or system-config-printer and with which device URIs and protocols.

Run the command
$ /usr/lib/cups/backend/snmp <IP of the printer>
if a printer does not get found by the simple "/usr/lib/cups/backend/snmp" call.

Find out if your printer gets detected by CUPS:
$ lpinfo -v

Run the commands:
$ avahi-browse -a -v -t -r
$ avahi-browse -a -v -c -r
These commands show whether your printer is visible via DNS-SD/mDNS/BonJour.

Run
$ ifconfig
$ route
to check general network health.
Attach the output of the above commands to the bug report.

Note that problems cannot only caused by CUPS but also by the kernel (package "linux"), HPLIP (package "hplip"), and several third-party printer drivers.

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Hello, i know that i am late and it is resolved, but i also have the printer and know that if the quality is on 1200 ppi, the printer takes longer to print, so if you set it to 600 ppi it will be faster, i think that cups defaulted to ProRes, which is 1200 ppi.