Hi, I wanted to use printer HP LaserJet M1132 MFP via usb on lan/wifi network using WDR4300 with OpenWrt 19.07.5. In that case I'll need a printer server.
My first look was at the p910nd since it's non-spooling. I have no idea though if it's a good choice. I wouldn't have to get driver on the router and it shouldn't use much resources however I'd have to install drivers on every device using this printer and I couldn't use this printer on android devices since there's no driver for android.
Now am thinking about spooling ones since I have extroot with ~4GB and as of right now ~70MB of free RAM but maybe I could add swap and use it for spooling. Does it use CPU heavily? WDR4300 has 560 MHz CPU. I would have to install driver on the server but I believe there is one for linux so I guess it could work...? The advantage is that I wouldn't have to install the driver on every device and I could use android.
The principle of p910nd is basically to pass through the USB port to a network socket, it doesn't need a driver on the router, but takes the pre-processed data from the client connecting to it (which in turn need to have the proper driver installed). As this (basically-) merely passes the data stream through, rather than doing any processing on the router, it's a rather light service which doesn't tax the router too much, the downsides are that all clients need to have the printer drivers installed/ configured, that the router itself cannot print anything and that it might not work with all printers.
CUPS in comparison is a rather heavy software, especially on common mips based routers (like the tl-wdr4300) without floating point hardware, as all the processing and spooling needs to run on the router, this usually is too much for the CPU (especially non-floating point ones), RAM (quite a lot needed) and flash (extroot or mounted storage necessary).
If you can avoid it, you should prefer p910nd over CUPS on these devices.
fwiw, I've been watching this thread with interest to see if you get the scanner function working.....
My relative has a spare 2009 HP M1005 MFP laser (usb only). I never got around to networking it, because I didn't believe there is any way to use the bundled HP software designed for USB connection for scanning functions.
fwiw, I was recently given an unwanted HP Photosmart 5510 MFP wifi usb inkjet printer. The printing doesn't work (usual blocked jets syndrome) but I just use it with bundled HP software for its useful 'scan to PDF' function on my Win10 computers. HP is wifi attached.
Any ideas? 