Getting an old HP LaserJet P1102 to print on macOS 27

I plugged my HP LaserJet P1102 into my Mac and printed a page. macOS said the job was done. Nothing came out. No error, no paper jam, nothing.

HP has no driver for this printer on current macOS. Here is what was wrong and how I got it to print.

The cause

Two separate problems, and the first one hides the second.

macOS picked the wrong driver. When it can't find the right one, it falls back to "HP LaserJet Series PCL 4/5". The P1102 can't use it. It is a host-based printer: the Mac has to render the page in HP's own format, and the printer can't read the standard PCL language at all. It receives the job and drops it silently.

The right driver refuses to install. HP's last Mac driver for this printer is Apple's "HP Printer Drivers 5.1.1" from 2021. The installer checks the macOS version and stops on anything newer than 15.

There is a third, smaller catch on Apple silicon: the driver is Intel-only, so it needs Rosetta 2.

The fix

The version check lives in one line of the installer's Distribution file. Change the limit from 15.0 to 99.0, rebuild the package, and it installs. The driver files themselves stay untouched.

1. Install Rosetta: softwareupdate --install-rosetta --agree-to-license
2. Download Apple's official driver and build the patched installer with the script in my repo. It checks Apple's checksum and signature before it changes anything.
3. Install the patched package. macOS asks you to confirm, because the rebuilt package is no longer signed by Apple.
4. In Printers & Scanners, set the printer's driver to "HP LaserJet Professional P1100".

The full steps, the script and an uninstaller are here: https://github.com/iemrani/hp-p1102-macos-driver

One surprise after the install

The P1100 driver has only one paper source: Manual Feed. When a job arrives, the printer waits. Push the paper in until the rollers catch it, or press the Go button. Once I knew that, it printed normally.

Is it safe?

Before running anything, I checked:

• the Apple download against its published SHA-256 checksum
• Apple's signature on the original package
• every install script in the package, for network calls or anything unexpected

The only change is the version number. Still, build the installer yourself rather than download a patched package from someone you don't know, including me.

How long it will last

Not long. Apple has said Rosetta 2 stays fully available through macOS 27 and will then be limited. After that, this driver will likely stop working on Apple silicon. If you depend on this printer, plan for that.

Credits

The version-check patch comes from the Kartones blog and pavelbinar's gist. I added the Rosetta step, the checksum and signature checks, and the Manual Feed note.