Archives par mot-clé : Hewlett-Packard

Acer, HP and MSI netbooks seen at Bureau en Gros in Montreal

Netbooks at Bureau en grosToday I went to Bureau en Gros, which is the same as Staples stores in the USA. Think of it as the office supplies and electronics / computing store. Although I knew netbooks were coming « sometime soon » I didn’t expect to see them here in Montreal, particularly at a « mainstream » store like BeG!

I took some pictures, but here are direct links to BeG online catalog:

Update: I am told this guide to install Ubuntu on the Acer Aspire One should be in my post 😉
Update 2: The Aspire One has since gone out of stock and is not even in the catalog anymore!

I find it very interesting they were side by side and had clear tech specs, including operating systems right down to the graphics chipset. I took more detailed pictures, although not very high res as I only had my phone camera at the time. I’ve put them all on Flickr in case anyone is curious. Can’t wait to see any Ubuntu netbook remix machines available in Canadian retail stores!

 

Dear Lazy Web: are Sony Memory Stick (MS) and Memory Stick Pro (MSP) Ubuntu-friendly ?

I’ve just filed Bug #237369,JMicron card reader (152d:2339) in HP Pavilion 2035la doesn’t support Memory Stick Pro (MSP) for a friend in the #ubuntu-co channel that has an HP Pavilion DV 2035la (or DV 2000 series as they call it). I was a bit surprised that Sony Memory Stick (MS) and Memory Stick Pro (MSP) cards would not be supported yet and I am seeing contradictory reports on this.

Apparently MS* support is card-reader specific, and this one’s USB id (152d:2339) doesn’t seem very common.

If anyone knows what the status of MS* support is in Linux (and Ubuntu specifically), I’ll gladly stop writing keyword intensive posts like this one 🙂

 

Installing and managing HP printers (including multi-function) in Ubuntu

The HP Linux Imaging and Printing (HPLIP) project really makes it easy to install and manage HP printers (and their extended functions like scanning and faxing) under Ubuntu. I only wish Samsung and Brother provided the same!

On Dapper and Edgy, the hplip package is available and provides command line configuration (very handy when assisting someone via ssh!). You can also optionally install the python-qt3 package if you want to use a GUI configuration.

On Feisty, HPLIP is installed by default but invisible from menus. Go to System > Preferences > Main Menu and then enable HPLIP Toolbox under System > Preferences. A bug report (now solved) details why python-qt3 is not a dependency in case you wonder:
https://bugs.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/hplip/+bug/86893

Since Gutsy there is now an hplip-gui package that should be used when wanting full GUI love.

For network printers, from command line, first make sure your printer is visible to your workstation (either ping it or visit its management tools via web at http:// »ipaddress »).

Then:
sudo hp-setup IP_ADDRESS

and follow the prompts. The default values for each question are fine. You may reject the proposed PPD driver file and specify the absolulte path to a new PPD file you download if you wish to use one from the OpenPrinting database.

You may also configure fax headers if your printer supports faxing. You can access all the printer functions (scan, copy, fax, status, etc) using the /usr/bin/hp-toolbox GUI to HPLIP.

To scan via network from your workstation, access Applications > Graphics > XSane Image Scanner. You can also insert scanned images directly into an OpenOffice document for example: Insert > Picture > Scan > Request (‘Select Source’ should be pointing to the printer/scan device).

So, if you or a friend / relative / colleague are looking for printer suggestions for Ubuntu, you know what to recommend if you are « the Ubuntu guy » in their neighborhood 🙂

If anyone has suggestions or other printing tricks (for HPs or else), I’d be glad to hear about them.