USB printers not autodetected after Lenny upgrade

[Jen Craigson <jenniscomputer@ymail.com>]

Hi,

I am having a tough time getting my printers to work normally after upgrading my system from Etch to Lenny.

Previously, everything worked fine. But now when I turn on a printer to print something, it isn't recognized right away -- according to CUPS the printer is "processing" but nothing is printed until I either remove a USB module (ehci_hcd, ohci_hcd or uhci_hcd) and then reload it or reboot the system while the printer is on. At that point, everything is fine and any pending jobs are sent to the printer.

The printer I use most is an HP LaserJet connected to the USB port with a parallel to USB dongle (I also have a USB Deskjet). Like I said, there were no issues whatsoever before the upgrade, and I've also tried using my older custom kernel instead of the new 2.6.26-2-amd64 kernel from the upgrade, and I still have the problem and have to reload one of the hcd modules manually.

I can also turn a printer on before I boot, and then I'm able to print to that printer. But that and the module reload is a kludge. Is there anything else I should check or is there anything I can do to get this to work so I don't need to keep doing one of these kludges? Is there anything that can be set up with /etc/hotplug or udev to get the printers to be automatically recognized when turned on?

Here are some details:

# uame -a
Linux superbox 2.6.26-2-amd64 #1 SMP Tue Jan 12 22:12:20 UTC 2010 x86_64 GNU/Linux
# lsusb
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0557:2006 ATEN International Co., Ltd UC-1284B Printer Port
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
# lsmod|grep hcd
ohci_hcd               25092  0
# lsmod|grep lp
usblp                  16896  0 
#lpc stat
HP_Color_Deskjet_3940:
        printer is on device 'usb' speed -1
        queuing is enabled
        printing is enabled
        no entries
        daemon present
HP_LaserJet_4_Plus_USB_1:
        printer is on device 'usb' speed -1
        queuing is enabled
        printing is enabled
        no entries
        daemon present
# ls -l /dev/usb/lp* /dev/bus/usb/*/*
crw-rw-r-- 1 root root 189,   0 2010-02-19 09:21 /dev/bus/usb/001/001
crw-rw-r-- 1 root root 189,   1 2010-02-19 09:21 /dev/bus/usb/001/002
crw-rw-r-- 1 root root 189, 128 2010-02-19 09:21 /dev/bus/usb/002/001
crw-rw---- 1 lp   lp   180,   0 2010-02-19 09:22 /dev/usb/lp0
#

I have been at this for days and could use any suggestions or help. Thank you so much!

Jen