Bug#825383: /usr/share/hplip/doctor.py: hp-doctor will not accept sudo password and there is no root account

[Brendon Higgins <brendon@quantumfurball.net>]

On Monday, 29 January 2018 2:46:40 PM EST Brian Potkin wrote:
> Without any change to password.py the plugin will install with
> 
>  sudo hp-plugin -i
> 
> So what was chrysn referring to?

Perhaps my case can serve as an illustrative example: Every time hplip package 
updates, the next time I go to scan something with my MFC (using gscan2pdf, 
say), I get a prompt that I need to download the plugin. (Is that itself a 
bug?) Of course it fails because my system has no root password, only sudo. In 
principle, the edit-password.py workaround does work, except that the package 
update also typically means password.py gets overwritten.

And the sudo hp-plugin -i approach has issues:
* "warning: It is not recommended to run 'hp-plugin' in a root mode."
* "error: Unable to recieve key from keyserver"

It's a bit frustrating. I have to remember to either edit password.py or run 
sudo hp-plugin -i every time the package updates. (Come to think of it, an 
install hook would be nice...)

On Monday, 29 January 2018 6:03:19 PM EST Reinhard John wrote:
> But as Brian pointed out, this is just a workaround, not a solution.
> hp-doctor should be able to accept both types of verification. This is
> intended in the file /usr/share/hplip/doctor.py (line 102 to 122) and it
> doesn´t work, at least not with debian. And this is undoubtedly a bug.
> We will see whether the hplip developers will react to my bug report there.

hp-plugin, too. Do you have your upstream bug number handy? I'd like to follow 
progress (if any).

Thanks,
Brendon