M1 MBA setup - HP printer via Time Capsule

TidBITS Talk
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I have an HP Officejet Pro 8620 that is connected to a Time Capsule by USB. The Time Capsule is connected to two Mac computers by ethernet (with no internet access, if it matters). This setup has worked for multiple years, with each Mac having the ability to print. I cannot get the M1 MacBook Air to “see” the printer.

I have a file titled HewlettPackardPrinterDrivers.pkg with, as far as I can tell, no version information. When I double-click it, Installer runs and presents a dialog box with the message, “This volume does not meet the requirements for this update.”

I have a file titled “HP Easy Start.app” that, when the MBA is connected to the Time Capsule via ethernet, offers the 8620 (and only the 8620, albeit as a printer and as a fax) as a device and (after I select the 8620) apparently contacts the mother ship with the message “Searching for software” until it gives up with the message “Cannot obtain software information.”

I have a file titled “HP-Officejet-Pro-8620_v12.32.0.dmg” that offers a file called “HP Officejet Pro 8620.pkg”. Double-clicking that file caused the beachball to spin (and stop occasionally) for quite some time, then I get a warning that the certificate has expired. I say continue (twice, because I get a second warning), then I get the Installer. After agreeing to T&C and selecting the Essential Software (which I cannot deselect, if it matters) and HP Scan, I click Continue, select a destination and authenticate, and get the message “This package is incompatible with this version of macOS.”

There was some other procedure I followed on the web that resulted in a message that I needed to select my OS; after doing so, I got some failure message.

I disconnected the 8620 USB cable from the Time Capsule and connected it directly to the MBA. I was then able to install the software, but it doesn’t work when I connect the 8620 USB to the Time Capsule and connect the Time Capsule ethernet to the MBA.

Any suggestions on what I can try now? Thanks.

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According to HP’s spec page this printer includes Ethernet and Wi-Fi.

Is there a reason you’re using a USB connection to a Time Capsule? I suspect you’ll have better luck if you connect the printer directly to your network via an Ethernet cable.

If you don’t have enough spare Ethernet ports, switches are not very expensive. (e.g. a quick Amazon search found a Netgear 8-port switch for $18, with an MSRP of $28).

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Thanks for the quick response.

Yes, and I suspect that the reason is that I’m not smart enough. I tried to use ethernet and failed. It was long enough ago that I don’t recall details. I’m guessing that I connected the 8620 ethernet to a LAN port on the Time Capsule, just like the two Macs. Would that have been the right thing to do? I do have a many-years-old switch with five LAN ports. With that or a new switch, how would I connect the switch such that the Macs can use the Time Capsule and access the printer?

But since the current setup worked fine until the MacBook Air arrived, do you have any suggestion for how to add the MBA to the current network? Would adding a driver for ethernet usage be different from adding a driver for USB over ethernet? I didn’t see anything in the HP installers that let me choose any connection other than Wi-Fi or non-Wi-Fi, and non-Wi-Fi has not worked (other than for directly connected USB).

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LAN port would have been fine. Take the TC out of the equation to make things simple. Hook up the printer straight to the MBA. Get it to print like that, install HP drivers if required. Then once that works, transfer it back to the TC.

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That’s what I did; sorry I didn’t make that clear. But the MBA cannot find the 8620 through Time Capsule.

I mean, the MBA cannot find the 8620 to print to it. When I run HP Easy Start with the 8620 connected to Time Capsule by USB and Time Capsule connected to MBA by ethernet, HP Easy Start offers to install 8620 software and only 8620 software, so I believe something on the MBA is seeing the 8620. But then installation fails, as detailed in post 1.

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As @Simon wrote, the LAN port is fine.

The big deal here is that the printer might not support Bonjour for automatic service discovery. So you may have to (or want to) configure the printer with a static IP address on your LAN. This way, you can configure the printer devices on the Macs to print to that same address.

I’m looking at the user’s guide in section 8 (Network Setup). They are really pushing for Wi-Fi configuration, but the “Change Network Settings” section describes the procedure:

  • These instructions involve the printer’s control panel
  • Set it to Ethernet
  • Set the link speed (the default of “Automatic” should work just fine)
  • Set the IP address. “Automatic” will get one via DHCP (from your router/Time Capsule). This should be fine, although you may want to configure a static address later on, if you find it changing (possibly as a part of rebooting the router)

There is also an embedded web server in the printer which may be easier to use for configuration. To use it, get the printer’s IP address (e.g. from the control panel or by printing a network configuration status page) and point a web browser at it. (Of course, if networking is disabled, you’ll need to enable it from the control panel first.)

The HP software (in /Applications/Hewlett-Packard/Device Utilities/HP Setup Assistant) is supposed to be able to help you the rest of the way - to install and configure a driver.

Unfortunately, the manual says nothing about configuring the Mac side of the connection. It seems that the “HP Easy Start” application is supposed to handle everything, but you’re going to have to find that out for yourself, since I don’t have a compatible printer to try it with.

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Do I connect a LAN-side port on the switch to a LAN-side port on the Time Capsule, and then connect one or more Macs to other LAN-side port(s) on the switch? (I’ll need one more port than the Time Capsule offers.)

I know nothing of Bonjour, but the printer does offer it. To the extent that I understand these things, I think I’ll want a static IP address. Will I need to tell Time Capsule (via AirPort Utility?) that I have allocated an IP address?

That’s an understatement.

I’ll try the ethernet solution (in a day or two), but if HP Easy Start really handled everything, I don’t think this thread would exist. I’m wondering if something in the HP installer is flummoxed by the M1 chip.

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But have you tried setting it up on the M1 over Ethernet? If you have a Gigabit adapter use that to plug in the printer straight to the M1. If you can print onto it there, it will have to work once plugged into the TC’s LAN port.

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Bonjour is Apple’s system for auto-discovery of network devices. If the printer supports it, then macOS should just see the printer on the Ethernet network once the printer has its Ethernet port enabled and the driver is installed.

If Boujour is available, then there’s no need for a static IP address - macOS will look for the printer and get the address whenever you try to print.

If you’d like to use a static address anyway, you should check the Time Capsule’s configuration. The DHCP server feature should have a configuration to specify a range of addresses for its dynamic addresses. Pick an address that is not in this range to avoid any potential conflicts.

I think (not sure, since this is just from browsing the manual) that the printer’s factory default configuration is to have Ethernet disabled - using Wi-Fi and/or USB instead. If that’s the case, then you will absolutely have to enable it before any automatic installation software (like Easy Start) will have a prayer of finding it.

On the other hand, if the driver is already installed (possibly from when it was connected via USB), then you may be able to go straight to the macOS “Printers & Scanners” preference panel and add the printer from there. When you click the button to add a printer, you should see all Bonjour printers on the default list of printers to add. Choose your printer, then choose the HP driver (if it isn’t auto-selected) and that might be all it takes.

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Thank you, @Simon and @Shamino. Long story short, it works, with no new interaction with HP Easy Start or any other installer on any computer.

I hadn’t, and now I have. I wasn’t clever enough to add the printer in System Preferences, but I could add it right from the Print dialog box. And it did work through TC’s LAN port when I connected TC.

That’s great to know, and Bonjour is available. I think I could have set up a static IP address, but it is certainly easier not to.

Yes, that works. I didn’t read that until later, but that’s how I added the printer on the iMac.

On each computer (MB, MBA, iMac), the line in the Add Printer dialog box that offered the Bonjour printer also said something like Error. (I think it was a different word, but it indicated a problem.) Since my choices were to press on or give up, I pressed on, and it worked on all three computers, and I don’t know what the error was.

The Time Capsule has three ethernet ports. One connects to the printer, one connects to the iMac, and the third connects to a USB hub that gets connected to either the MacBook or the MacBook Air. I think I’ll live with this setup, but if I do want to add the switch, do I just connect any LAN-side port on the switch to any LAN-side port on the Time Capsule, and then connect any device to any open LAN-side port?

Thanks again for the help.

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Glad to hear it’s all working.

The only potential downside to Bonjour printing depends on the printer itself.

Several years ago, my printer (a Brother laser printer) had a firmware bug where it would stop responding to mDNS requests (a key protocol used to implement Bonjour) after going to sleep. So it would print fine when awake, but would be completely inaccessible when asleep.

Brother later fixed this with a firmware update, but before that happened, I configured my printer for a static IP address and manually configured the Macs to print to the IP address instead of to a Bonjour-discovered address. This worked because the printer will wake itself from sleep when it receives the first packet from the computer.

If you see this problem, then you know the solution/workaround. If you don’t see the problem, then you don’t need to do anything more than what you’ve already done.

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Thank you for the continuing education.

I thought I had the problem, because I tried to print to a sleeping printer and nothing happened. I woke the printer and tried to print (from two different computers that had successfully printed before) and failed. Evidently, it’s something more.

Skipping the boring detail of my troubleshooting, let me ask. Does the fact that the printer is on a Time Capsule ethernet network without internet access mean that I will be unable to print if Wi-Fi (with internet access) is turned on? That theory seems to fit the situation. But I never had that problem when the printer was connected to the Time Capsule by USB (and I don’t now that I have reverted to the USB connection). Since each computer is connected to the Time Capsule by ethernet, why would Wi-Fi interfere when the printer is connected to the Time Capsule by ethernet but not when it’s connected by USB? Is there a workaround?

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Yes, that should work.

You don’t need internet access to be able to find a Bonjour printer. In fact a simple passive Gigabit hub between Macs and a printer should allow for Bonjour to do its thing just fine. The LAN ports on the TC are essentially just ports on a switch. Unless that switch is configured to block certain ports (eg. you set up NAT rules involving local IPs), it should work just fine. Wifi on or off should not affect that either.

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It could be the same problem. Pushing a button on the control panel may not wake it up enough to respond to network traffic. At least that was the case with my Brother printer.

Try deleting the printer from macOS and then add it back using the printer’s IP address instead of Bonjour. On the “Add” page for adding a printer, click on the “IP” tab and type in the IP address and select a protocol (I suggest trying HP JetDirect or LPR).

If this works, then you can configure the printer for a static IP address, to make sure the address doesn’t change over time.

The presence of absence of Wi-Fi shouldn’t affect anything.

What device is serving up IP addresses? The Time Capsule or another device (like a router provided by your ISP?) If the address server goes away when you’re disconnected from the Internet, then your IP addresses may change (between one assigned by the server and self-assigned addresses). If the address server remains on line the entire time (e.g. if it’s the Time Capsule), then the presence or absence of Internet connectivity shouldn’t affect anything.

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I find the printer just fine without internet access; it’s when I have internet access (not through the Time Capsule) and an IP address for the printer that I have issues. I have not configured any port blocking.

My theory, composed in ignorance, is that when I try to print to an IP printer connected to the Time Capsule while Wi-Fi is on, the search for the printer is performed over Wi-Fi rather than through the Time Capsule.

Part of my “Skipping the boring detail of my troubleshooting” was doing just that (with HP JetDirect; I didn’t try LPR).

The Time Capsule. It is its own world, with no connection to the internet or any other router, ever. That’s part of why I suspect that having an internet connection through Wi-Fi is what interferes with finding an IP printer through Time Capsule. (Wi-Fi, as you might expect, is higher in the Service Order than ethernet.)

For now, I’m back to printing through the Time Capsule’s USB port to the printer, which seems to work for all three computers.

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I think I see part of the problem. When you are connected to the Internet you are on another wireless network, correct? The real solution is to consolidate to a single network so you can access the Internet and your printer simultaneously. That is, unless there’s a reason that you don’t want the other systems to be able to connect to the ’Net.

The reason for the single network solution is that your computer can’t easily be part of multiple networks simultaneously (note I’m simplifying here).

If you need some guidance on how to hook it all up into one big happy network, I’m sure we would be happy to help.

Cheers,
Jon

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Thanks, @jonathan2.

Well, not exactly. When connected to the internet, I am on a wireless network, not another wireless network. In other words, there is only one wireless network. The Time Capsule network, which never connects to the internet, is all wired.

There is. Or, more accurately, I want it to disconnect from the internet part of the time, and it’s simpler for me to have it disconnected all of the time.

Understanding that you were simplifying, the two older computers have had no problem handling the two networks simultaneously since the Time Capsule arrived (some years ago). I don’t understand the magic, and it might well be related to the Time Capsule never having a connection to internet, but it has worked well.

I’m disappointed that I couldn’t get the printer to work over ethernet, but it is now working (thanks to the help from @Simon and @Shamino) over the USB connection to the Time Capsule. Unless there is some advantage to connecting it by ethernet, I would tend to leave well enough alone.

Thanks again to all who helped.

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The only thing I can think of is that your IP addresses might be changing when the Internet is on or off.

On one of your Macs, type ifconfig en0 to show your Ethernet device’s settings and see what changes when the Internet is on or off. For example, on my Mac, I see:

$ ifconfig en0
en0: flags=8863<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
	options=50b<RXCSUM,TXCSUM,VLAN_HWTAGGING,AV,CHANNEL_IO>
	ether 14:9d:99:7f:8e:3a 
	inet6 fe80::14e0:1c0:34b3:2233%en0 prefixlen 64 secured scopeid 0x4 
	inet 192.168.1.17 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.1.255
	inet6 2601:5c9:... prefixlen 64 autoconf secured 
	inet6 2601:5c9:... prefixlen 64 deprecated autoconf temporary 
	inet6 2601:5c9:... prefixlen 64 deprecated autoconf temporary 
	inet6 2601:5c9:... prefixlen 64 autoconf temporary 
	nd6 options=201<PERFORMNUD,DAD>
	media: autoselect (1000baseT <full-duplex,flow-control>)
	status: active

The line beginning with “inet” is my IPv4 address. The lines beginning with “inet6” are various IPv6 addresses. One (starting with fe80::) is a link local address that is auto-generated and private to the LAN. The others (beginning with 2601:5c9:...) are automatically generated from an address prefix received from my ISP and are Internet-visible addresses.

When my Internet access goes down, the IPv4 and link local IPv6 addresses remain, because they are generated by my LAN. The other IPv6 addresses, go away because they depend on the results of a “network discovery” protocol (part of IPv6) to determine the prefix (in this case, the first 64 bits) for the automatically-generated addresses.

It might be informative to see what changes on your network with the Internet turned on and off.

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Here you go. I hope it means more to you than it does to me.

Wi-Fi on; no printer connected to TC ethernet

$ ifconfig en0
en0: flags=8863<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
ether a8:66:7f:27:86:8f
inet6 fe80::10e4:1b1b:efe9:b40a%en0 prefixlen 64 secured scopeid 0x6
inet 10.0.1.2 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 10.0.1.255
nd6 options=201<PERFORMNUD,DAD>
media: autoselect
status: active

Wi-Fi off; no printer connected to TC ethernet

$ ifconfig en0
en0: flags=8823<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
ether a8:66:7f:27:86:8f
nd6 options=201<PERFORMNUD,DAD>
media: autoselect ()
status: inactive

Wi-Fi off; printer DHCP

$ ifconfig en0
en0: flags=8823<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
ether a8:66:7f:27:86:8f
nd6 options=201<PERFORMNUD,DAD>
media: autoselect ()
status: inactive

Wi-Fi off; printer static IP (10.0.1.7)

$ ifconfig en0
en0: flags=8823<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
ether a8:66:7f:27:86:8f
nd6 options=201<PERFORMNUD,DAD>
media: autoselect ()
status: inactive

Wi-Fi on; printer static IP

$ ifconfig en0
en0: flags=8863<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
ether a8:66:7f:27:86:8f
inet6 fe80::10e4:1b1b:efe9:b40a%en0 prefixlen 64 secured scopeid 0x6
inet 10.0.1.2 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 10.0.1.255
nd6 options=201<PERFORMNUD,DAD>
media: autoselect
status: active

At this point, I tried to print the transcript to the ethernet-connected printer. It got to 21%, then hung, then the printer application said the printer was not responding.

Wi-Fi off; printer static IP

$ ifconfig en0
en0: flags=8823<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
ether a8:66:7f:27:86:8f
nd6 options=201<PERFORMNUD,DAD>
media: autoselect ()
status: inactive

At this point, I tried to print the transcript to the ethernet-connected printer. After a screen flicker and before I could select the printer application from the dock, the transcript printed.

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This is very informative. It looks like your Ethernet port is getting disabled when you turn off Wi-Fi. I’m not sure why this should be but notice the differences:

  • The RUNNING flag goes away when Wi-Fi is off. Meaning the interface is not working
  • The inet6 line goes away. Since this is your link-local address (starting with FE80::), this should only happen when the interface is disabled.
  • The inet line goes away, meaning there is no IPv4 address
  • The status line changes from active to inactive

Changing the configuration of your Time Capsule (which is your router) shouldn’t affect a Mac’s Ethernet port, but for some reason, that port is getting turned off when the Wi-Fi is disconnected.

There’s definitely some kind of messed up configuration on the Mac and/or on the Time Capsule and your printing problem is simply one symptom of it.

What, specifically, do you do when you enable/disable Wi-Fi?

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