OK, the gnome-cups-manager works for me after upgrading the remaining pre-release gnome packages to current.
The cups interface works since I added cupsys to shadow and root to lpadmin (I authenticate as root in cups). The failure when cupsys is not in the shadow group is very nice - one gets a blank page, no error, and the operation is not finished. The hplip tools are much more helpful when the printer is installed using the hp backend than when using the usb backend. I wonder why the ink level monitor worked but the rest of the tools did not. In the gnome-cups-manager it is impossible to tell the usb backend from the hp backend (except that the HP backend option is listed second - not the default(!), and has spaces in the printer name). I guess some more obvious distinction would be helpful. So would a sentence or two about using printers with hplip when a hp backend printer is found. Since Ubuntu is supposed to be user friendly I would expect that connecting the printer and clicking through a few dialogs should be enough to get the printer going. If I read a HP Printer howto I would probably get the printer set up correctly at the first try. But I thought it was the goal of Ubuntu to make the distribution "BFU" friendly so I tried the "BFU" approach this time. I'm sorry if my impression was wrong and I need lessly wasted your time. Thanks for the help -- hplip cannot find DeskJet 5440 printer, despite CUPS's claims to the contrary https://launchpad.net/bugs/49107 -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
