Stuff about USB ports and reported devices-but all that turned out to be irrelevant. I thought I might post all my information on the the sane developer mail list and see if I could get some help. I did some very detailed investigation on the terminal, and learned a few things. The best FAQ page was an html file on my hard drive. I could see not harm in that so I installed it. I looked in Synaptic Package Manager and found something called hplip-gui, not installed. The HPLIP site reported that my Ubuntu approved drivers supported my deskjet F4480. The Ubuntu-approved (and Synaptic installed) software is so often behind the latest release. Next I went to a question-and-answer page that determined if my installed package of drivers was up-to-date.
I also learned that these were already installed by default on Ubuntu. I found drivers for just about every HP printer ever made. I got a reply directing me to a web site for HPLIP, which stands for "Hewlet Packard Linux Image and Printing" It seems that HP is actively involved in making the drivers. I joined a listserv for sane (scanner access now easy) development and posted a question about this. I installed something called "IRC Chat Gnome" and visited an IRC channel called #sane. I went to the main HP web site and naturally I learned that Mac OS X and Windows are supported. None of the HP deskjet printers were listed at all, either supported or unsupported. At the Sane web site, I looked up supported printers. I went to an xsane web site, where I learned that sane is the driver side of Xsane. I chose an older similar model and went on to try the scanner. Cups tried to install my printer, but didn't list my model. However, what should have been a simple plug-and-play kind of deal turned into hours of work. Applications like Open Office showed the new printer in the print menu. Every kind of printer setting, head cleaning, testing, were available from the device manager. From there I could launch Xsane and run the scanner, with full support. An HP Device Manager appeared in my Applications>Accessories menu. Once I installed newer drivers, everything worked automatically. The drivers supplied with Ubuntu 9.04 were a little out of date. The open source drivers and front-ends give full support for this inexpensive printer. I just got my new HP deskjet F4480 all-in-one printer/scanner working. I hope this story shows why Linux is sometimes hard to use, especially for non-expert desktop users.
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