"Printer added" but dead

Friends, I have spent days teaching myself sufficient Linux (I had hoped) to install an HP Laserjet printer on my Acer Aspire One: learning what a superuser is, and a terminal, and variants of Linux, and so on. At the same time, I tried to install the printer, and failed, and tried and failed ... I must have made twenty heroic attempts (my best hope seemed to be instructions at http://blog.dipinkrishna.info/2009/08/h ... -your.html). After this, chewing up my broadband here in Africa, finally a message box popped up at the bottom of the screen: "Printer added 'hp_Laserjet_1010' is ready for printing." But the terminal reported at the same time: "error: No output seen in more than 300 sec ... hp-setup failed. Please run hp-setup manually." And the printer would not print. I am despondent. I have invested a great deal of time and effort in trying to get my Acer Aspire One to print, in the midst of a heavy shedule, and I cannot see that I am capable of doing it. Do I return the Acer to the shop as an inoperable device? Do I hire an expert? (Acer Web Support send me one-liners that are useless to me). Does anyone yet see a solution for me? I'm ready to give it a try, and would be most grateful if anyone could help.