Mac Mini + Hp3051A = won't print; uninstalled, now can't reinstall

Question

Newer MacMini all updated. Runs Mavericks (ok, that's an oxymoron! Mavericks is full of glitches).
HP3051A J611 via wireless HAD worked, prior to upgrade to Mavericks.
Mini can see printer, but says it can't print - other messages (can't remember).
Tried shutting off Mini, tried downloading drivers again--doesn't work. 
I Uninstalled HP entirely, then tried to follow HP directions to reinstall- BLOCKED.
At the window to add printer, clicked +, got window to enter name of printer.  
Under "default printer" tab, CAN'T.
Window not letting data be entered,  except in the search box - that won't search anything when clicked, and does not put the name of the printer into the box below.  
I can click on "name" or "kind" tabs on the highlighted block, but that's all.
Below that is "name", "Location" and Use"--all of which are greyed out--can't do anything there. 
There's NO "search nearby printers" option as described in HP's directions. 
Typing "search nearby printers" into the search box fails, too.
Clicked the IP tab, and get boxes to fill in address, Protocol and Queue; below that is Name, Location and Use.
I tried entering the IP address, buit it turned into Printer name, went nowhere.
"Protocol" comes up "Line Printer Daemon - LPD"; other choices are:  Internet Printing Protocol or HP JetDirect - Socket.  Tried clicking each of those on different tries, but get nothing [I don't know what those mean]
No data can be typed into the lower 3 boxes [name, location, use]. 
The last tab in this window is "Windows"; it's entirely gray [can't do anything there]; this is a Mac anyway.
What to do?  
I think this is a Mac-Glitch to do with Mavericks; will go there, too, to see if anyone can figure this out. 
BTW: clicking to post this message kept getting error:  
      'Your post has been changed because invalid HTML was found in the message body. The invalid HTML has been removed. Please review the message and submit the message when you are satisfied.'   
HOW's that?   

Answer 1

Greetings Richard, I ran into a similar situation recently with my mini server. although I believe it to be a problem of my DNS settings getting hosed. I couldn’t log in no matter what log I used-even as the root user.
I had a back up on the second drive of the mini. I did buy the USB drive when I bought the mini, so I was able to boot off the install disc. Then from the menu I choose the back up partion as the start up drive. After restarting, I was at least able to recover and copy my important files to the back up partition. I have not been able to work out the login issue yet. I’ll probably just do a reinstall on the corrupted drive.
In any event, it maybe worth it for you to buy the USB drive and boot off of it.
The verbose mode is for you to be able to login through the command line and trouble shoot from there.
Also, in safe mode, any files that you may want to change permissions, you may need to change the owner and then change the permissions. This is done with the chown command and then chmod command. You’ll need to use the sudo command so you can become the root user to use the commands and make any changes.
Hope this will at least help you get further in troubleshooting this issue.
Bill B