This appears to be a problem which arises implicitly because CUPS is not running properly on my crouton Ubuntu build. I fixed the issue by following the guidance at https://github.com/dnschneid/crouton/wiki/Printing to ensure that CUPS was indeed started up and that I had the correct group memberships, then the PPD was automagically generated by CUPS dynamically. Although the error could be more informative (i.e. given that you don't actually need a PPD file, and it seems to be a CUPS failure) but otherwise it was the fault of my own system configuration.
Along the way, for others' reference, I found the attached PPD by extracting data from the HPLIP installer which may in fact be the correct file, although I haven't tested it since CUPS intervened providing a PPD before I reached this setup stage. The file naming from HP seems to correspond to the correct model anyway. ** Attachment added: "hp-lj_300_400_color_mfp_m375_m475-ps.ppd" https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/hplip/+bug/1445618/+attachment/4378736/+files/hp-lj_300_400_color_mfp_m375_m475-ps.ppd ** Changed in: hplip (Ubuntu) Status: New => Invalid -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Desktop Packages, which is subscribed to hplip in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1445618 Title: HPLIP Gui fails to provide PPD Status in hplip package in Ubuntu: Invalid Bug description: I installed hplip-gui and successfully navigated to the IP address of my network printer, which is successfully auto-detected with the name HP_LaserJet_400_colorMFP_M475dw however, the installation wizard halts with the assertion... PPD File not found, Click Browse button to select a PPD file. Because there is no PPD file, the Finish button is greyed out and it is therefore impossible to install. I have attempted to search for the PPD file for this printer online, but all searches lead to the HPLIP gui installer - back to square one. Also I can't find any packages which might contain this PPD through the ubuntu repositories. ProblemType: Bug DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.04 Package: hplip-gui 3.14.3-0ubuntu3.2 Uname: Linux 3.10.18 x86_64 ApportVersion: 2.14.1-0ubuntu3.8 Architecture: amd64 BootDmesg: (Nothing has been logged yet.) Date: Fri Apr 17 19:45:31 2015 Lpstat: Error: command ['lpstat', '-v'] failed with exit code 1: lpstat: Bad file descriptor MachineType: GOOGLE Swanky PackageArchitecture: all Papersize: a4 ProcEnviron: TERM=xterm PATH=(custom, no user) SHELL=/bin/bash ProcKernelCmdLine: cros_secure console= loglevel=7 init=/sbin/init cros_secure oops=panic panic=-1 root=/dev/dm-0 rootwait ro dm_verity.error_behavior=3 dm_verity.max_bios=-1 dm_verity.dev_wait=1 dm="1 vroot none ro 1,0 2506752 verity payload=PARTUUID=6bce7050-de8b-6642-b851-4d41ac5fb933/PARTNROFF=1 hashtree=PARTUUID=6bce7050-de8b-6642-b851-4d41ac5fb933/PARTNROFF=1 hashstart=2506752 alg=sha1 root_hexdigest=ba3e8268ead0a52d01f4a94353e31ee0d5b18f25 salt=ca6ed888b1c744843da1f553d040348586078fd630e9ce0158a7b1a8b7bc101b" noinitrd vt.global_cursor_default=0 kern_guid=6bce7050-de8b-6642-b851-4d41ac5fb933 add_efi_memmap boot=local noresume noswap i915.modeset=1 tpm_tis.force=1 tpm_tis.interrupts=0 nmi_watchdog=panic,lapic SourcePackage: hplip UdevLog: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/var/log/udev' UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install) dmi.bios.date: 08/22/2014 dmi.bios.vendor: coreboot dmi.bios.version: Google_Swanky.5216.238.5 dmi.chassis.type: 3 dmi.chassis.vendor: GOOGLE dmi.modalias: dmi:bvncoreboot:bvrGoogle_Swanky.5216.238.5:bd08/22/2014:svnGOOGLE:pnSwanky:pvr1.0:cvnGOOGLE:ct3:cvr: dmi.product.name: Swanky dmi.product.version: 1.0 dmi.sys.vendor: GOOGLE To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/hplip/+bug/1445618/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages Post to : desktop-packages@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp