HP OfficeJet Pro 8500 A910a on Linux Mint 9 (Ubuntu 9.10)

[Helge Blischke]

John D.  Herron wrote:

> Hi, all.
> First of all: i am not an expert user.
> 
> After my trusty Deskjet 6310 died on me around Xmas last year, i purchased
> an HP OfficeJet Pro 8500 all-in-one (print-scan-fax-copy) product. My
> Linux Mint 9 OS (reportedly compatible with Ubuntu 9.10) did recognise the
> device off the bat, but many things turned out rather problematic. Here a
> short list of what i cannot do: - find an adequate PPD file to talk to the
> computer, and hence - no computer-initiated scanning (scans only to USB
> stick plugged into printer);
>   xsane / gscan2pdf do not see the device's
> - no printing other than PDF files
> - no native-file-format printing from OpenOffice or LibreOffice
> My question:
> 1) can I get the system to install another officejet driver? OR
> 2) can I somehow get a similar-device driver to work with this device?
> 
> Thanks for any help.
> john

I suspect you need to install HP's hplip package
(see http://www.openprinting.org/printer/HP/HP-Officejet_Pro_8500_A910)

Helge