On 11/19/2016 03:09 PM, Brian wrote:
On Sat 19 Nov 2016 at 13:21:23 -0500, Jape Person wrote:
On 11/19/2016 11:31 AM, Henrique de Moraes Holschuh wrote:
On Sat, 19 Nov 2016, Brian wrote:
I'd like to know that, too. I need a new home color printer, my
10-year-old HP PhotoSmart (blobless) MFP has finally broken down and
good second-hand parts are not easy to find in Brazil :-(
Why is it important for the printer to be blobless? Look at it this way:
Are we talking about printer firmware, or host-cpu device drivers?
All of your reply is only relevant for device firmware (runs in the
device). But I thought this was about a binary-only driver blob that
runs in the host OS ? Or did I misunderstand?
I'm pretty sure it's a host-cpu device driver.
http://hplipopensource.com/node/309
Sorry to be awkward, but what does "it's" refer to?
Uh, I'm the awkward one here. That's why I'm asking for help.
The plugin contains *.fw files and libraries. A firmware file is uploaded to
the printer when it is switched on. Quite what the libraries do I do not
know but my assumption is they are involved in this and the host-based
management of the printer. Enlightenment would be appreciated.
Let's not start with unreasonable expectations. The likelihood that I
will enlighten you in such a matter is vanishingly small.
I didn't find any information this specific about the driver plugin. If
you can steer me toward the relevant information I would appreciate it.
I read information at all the links that seemed as though they could be
pertinent from the hplipopensource.com location.
So, are you saying that nothing within that driver plugin gets invoked
by or interacts with the host system? It's just some firmware that gets
copied to the printer and some libraries which reside on the host and
which interact with the printer. If that's the case, then my concern
about the driver plugin is a tempest in a teapot.
It still would seem to beg the question as to why the system would be
designed this way. But I'm not a printer hardware designer, and I don't
know what requirements are placed on those guys by the production and
delivery schedules. Maybe it's just a workaround to help HP get the most
up-to-date stuff out the door in the most timely manner possible.
At any rate, I can probably fulfill my requirements my buying a little
more hardware than I had originally intended. And I appreciate the
efforts you and Henrique have made on my behalf.
If I should learn anything interesting from HP tech support I'll try to
come back with it.