Install HPLIP does not accept root password

I am running in my shell:

./hplip-3.18.7.run

Then it wants me to enter the root password, but does not accepting it!

Anybody know what this is?

If I run the script with sudo sudo ./hplip-3.18.7.run , then it tells me at some step in the installation process: warning: hp-systray should not be run as root/superuser.

I am using Ubuntu 18.04:

NAME="Ubuntu"
VERSION="18.04.1 LTS (Bionic Beaver)"
ID=ubuntu
ID_LIKE=debian
PRETTY_NAME="Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS"
VERSION_ID="18.04"
HOME_URL="https://www.ubuntu.com/"
SUPPORT_URL="https://help.ubuntu.com/"
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/"
PRIVACY_POLICY_URL="https://www.ubuntu.com/legal/terms-and-policies/privacy-policy"
VERSION_CODENAME=bionic
UBUNTU_CODENAME=bionic

This what the installer outputs at the beginning:

Analysis

From hplip source-code we can learn the following about auth. Auth is performed in base/password.py file.

The main AUTH_TYPES are for:

• Debian - su
• Ubuntu - sudo

During chat session and in comments we have discovered interesting moments:

• the first check is made python platform module. On Ubuntu it should return "Ubuntu".

• second distro check - lsb_release -i | cut -f 2 returns "Ubuntu"

• third distro check - cat /etc/issue | awk '{print $1}' | head -n returns "Ubuntu".

But OP has installed Anaconda in home folder, and added this directory to the path. And what is interesting - in such case python -c "import platform;print platform.dist()[0]" returns "Debian" (!!!) on distro check. So installer tried to use su. But root account is disabled on Ubuntu by default, so problem arises ("Please enter the root/superuser password:" instead of "Please enter the sudoer (%s)'s password: ").

Conclusion

Always check your $PATH variable for Python versions.
Many software in Ubuntu depend on Python. APT does not know about Anaconda, so system may have unpredictable behaviour with third-party pythons and pips. I can recommend to exclude third-party pythons from $PATH variable.

Then binary hplip installer should work normally. And you can follow my instruction then.

I had the same issue. I am from the Czech Republic and my password contained some special characters which are not available in the English alphabet (ě, š). What fixed the issue was to temporarily change the password so that it does not contain these characters. After that, the password was finally accepted and the rest of the installation finished without any other issues.