Sorry in advance I am sure you guys get really tired of newbee's but I've searched and searched and can't find the answer. I have redhat 8.0 installed on my computer and it dual boots with win 2000 (soon to be removed for good) I set my HP Laserjet 3p pcl5 up in windows and it works just fine. I am trying to set up the printer to work under linux and I keep getting this error. "there was an error trying to print the test page" every time I try to test the printer.....

To set up my printer under gnome I go to system settings,,,, Printing.

I pick new printer, Then I select local printer and name it test, I select /dev/lp0 and then select the hp laserjet 3 with pcl5 driver. I apply the settings and then go to test the page and I get the error.
It's like its not even trying to print the page. the printer has absolutly no activity....... HUMMMMM

I'm about ready to wipe the computer and start over. I gave up on linux once before but this time I'm determined to learn it. I'm tired of windows crashing all the time. and THIS TIME I'M going to learn how to use the COMMAND LINE TOO!!!

Thanks in advance. I know guys like me must get on your nerves after a while.

Ok a little more digging and I found the problem on my own..... I had accidentally deleted the "local host loopback address" in network settings. I checked the /var/log/messages to see what parallel port device linux detected and noticed that LPD was having porblems with the host name resolution.

I then checked the hosts file and found that the local loopback was not there. now that the local host loopback is in place the printer prints... BUT alas my printer only has one meg of memory so it was a little bit of a loss cause because you really need to have two meg to print any complex pages in linux. Oh well it prints to my shared printer now also so I AM GOOD TO GO>>>>>

I love it when that happens.