mac pro / Laserjet 4 / Os 10.6 - how do I make the printer work?

Hi Alexander,

Assuming your router is assigning IP addresses in the range 192.168.x.x, then add the printer like so

... except for "Print Using", choose "Select Printer Driver..." and locate an appropriate Gutenprint driver for the HP LaserJet 4.

I assume this is a LaserJet 4 and not a 4P, 4MP, 4MV or something else - just a 4. Apple includes drivers for these, but the LaserJet 4 is conspicuously absent: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3669#HP.

The Gutenprint driver should work though.

That really ought to be all there is to it.

Apparently your Mac cannot find the printer and the print job times out.

Yes DHCP makes a difference but it is preferable to assign your printer a static IP address anyway, as it appears yours already has. It just has to be on the same subnet as the rest of your network.

To quickly determine your router's addressing scheme, go to System Preferences > Network, select an active network connection (one with a green dot), and find the IP address of your Mac. If the first two octets are 192.168 then your HP printer's IP address ought to be OK.

If the first two octets are 10.0 as they are in the following screenshot (this example shows 10.0.1.7)

... then you need to change your LaserJet's IP address so that its address is on the same subnet. You will have to delve into its Jetdirect option to determine how to do that.

Alternately, you can change all the equipment on your network to use the 192.168.x.x addressing scheme but that sounds like a lot of work to me.

Would going direct from the Mac Pro's second ethernet port be simpler than going through the router?

It might work, only because OS X searches relentlessly and exhaustively for printer and network connections, but it is not an ideal solution.

Make sure the printer is on the same subnet as the rest of your equipment first; I get the impression that it is not.

Can you ping the printer?

You should get something like this

Last login: Sat Sep 22 18:09:43 on ttys000

Johns-iMac:~ John$ ping 192.168.5.40

PING 192.168.5.40 (192.168.5.40): 56 data bytes

64 bytes from 192.168.5.40: icmp_seq=0 ttl=255 time=0.218 ms

64 bytes from 192.168.5.40: icmp_seq=1 ttl=255 time=0.423 ms

64 bytes from 192.168.5.40: icmp_seq=2 ttl=255 time=0.303 ms

64 bytes from 192.168.5.40: icmp_seq=3 ttl=255 time=0.425 ms

64 bytes from 192.168.5.40: icmp_seq=4 ttl=255 time=0.347 ms

64 bytes from 192.168.5.40: icmp_seq=5 ttl=255 time=0.371 ms

64 bytes from 192.168.5.40: icmp_seq=6 ttl=255 time=0.406 ms

64 bytes from 192.168.5.40: icmp_seq=7 ttl=255 time=0.394 ms

^C

--- 192.168.5.40 ping statistics ---

8 packets transmitted, 8 packets received, 0.0% packet loss

round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 0.218/0.361/0.425/0.066 ms

Johns-iMac:~ John$

So maybe it's a problem with the printer's IP?

Yes. As far as your network is concerned, the printer is just not there.

You will not be able to progress until you assign it an IP address accessible to your LAN. Apparently it needs to be 192.168.1.x (a 1 in the place that is now a 5), where x = a large enough number that is not likely for router to assign to other equipment.

Your challenge is to assign the printer that IP address. Let's use the address 192.168.1.150.

HP's support pages for that printer and its Jetdirect card say, rather unhelpfully:

Using the front panel of printer

The IP address may also be changed using the front panel of the HP Jetdirect device. This method of front panel configuration varies greatly depending on the model of HP printer that is being used (consult the User's Guide for the front panel instructions for a particular printer). Click here to go to the HP Web site. Use the Search and search for Front Control Panel TCP/IP Configuration .

I did that and it didn't really get me anywhere, since there seem to be few if any references to the non- "MP" or "V" etc. variants of the original LaserJet 4. So, try to find a setting in the printer's front panel that bears any resemblance to "network settings" or "IP address".

If you are able to navigate its front panel to a place where you can enter the IP address 192.168.1.150 be sure to press GO or ENTER or ONLINE or whatever you think might make the setting "stick" after you enter those digits. Print the same test page you did before, and ensure its IP address has really been changed. Then, then try the ping command again, with its new IP address:

ping 192.168.1.150

If you are unable to determine a way to use the printer's front panel to change its IP address, you should be able to use Terminal to set it. This will get a bit cumbersome so use it only if you are unable to change the printer's IP address some other way:

Terminal is a program in your Mac's Utilities folder.

Locate Terminal and open it. At the command prompt, type the following exactly as written (copy and paste the following to avoid errors):

sudo arp -s 192.168.1.150 00:60:b0:91:21:e7

... and press Return. You will get a warning of impending disaster should you make a mistake, and requesting your Mac's Administrator password to proceed. Type your password (which will not appear as you type it) and press Return. Unless something went wrong the command prompt should immediately reappear as if nothing happened.

Next try the ping command again:

ping 192.168.1.150

You should receive ping responses from the printer as in my earlier example.

If you do, then congratulations because you have made it all the way to Step 1 😮

You still have to add the printer in System Preferences > Print & Fax, using this new IP address, and make sure the Gutenprint driver works.

Edit: The reason your printer works with your old G5 running Tiger is that it is using AppleTalk for communication. AppleTalk doesn't exist in Snow Leopard. This is the reason you must use IP for communication on your Mac Pro. Your old G5 should continue to work with the printer as it always has.

another Edit: HP's support page alleges that the Terminal command arp above will only work with JetDirect firmware versions x.08.03 and later only. Yours appears to be A.05.05, so the front panel option may be all there is. If that does not work I have one more idea but it's an even bigger pain.

John Galt wrote:

So maybe it's a problem with the printer's IP?

Yes. As far as your network is concerned, the printer is just not there.

You will not be able to progress until you assign it an IP address accessible to your LAN. Apparently it needs to be 192.168.1.x (a 1 in the place that is now a 5), where x = a large enough number that is not likely for router to assign to other equipment.

Your challenge is to assign the printer that IP address. Let's use the address 192.168.1.150.

I am not sure how or if these are tied together, but the first thing that I noticed is that the printer configuration page had the Default Gateway listed as 192.168.5.x where the computer had the Default Gateway set as 192.168.1.1. Don't both devices have to point to the same Default Gateway? Is not this the address for the router? It would be interesting to see a follow up configuation page from the printer with a detailed description of what settings Alexander did change.

The other thing I noticed is that the printer configuration page showed that the printer had both PCL and PostScript personalities. Alexander may do better by finding a PostScript PPD for the LJ 4 rather than use the Gutenprint PCL driver. This is just a generic PCL driver. Even the Generic PostScript driver that is included with OS X should work.

Hi Matt, thanks!

Yes, now that we know the printer is communicating on Alexander's LAN, the printer's Default Gateway should also be set correctly. I doubt this will prevent it from working, but 192.168.5.1 will go nowhere.

Now that we know it's communicating, I would certainly try a generic PostScript driver. A cursory search of support pages for that printer on HP's website yielded nothing useful, but I have learned that there are significant differences between variants of the model to make any assumptions.