diff --git a/hplip-base-fix-error-in-ConfigBase-handling.patch b/hplip-base-fix-error-in-ConfigBase-handling.patch
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f08e7fb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hplip-base-fix-error-in-ConfigBase-handling.patch
@@ -0,0 +1,29 @@
+From 2a13a15b7f533606667e8586ff5ed736f038f2e8 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
+From: Martin Wilck <mwilck@suse.com>
+Date: Thu, 23 Jan 2025 12:47:43 +0100
+Subject: [PATCH 1/2] hplip/base: fix error in ConfigBase handling
+
+The code in question was apparently meant to handle the replacement
+of ConfigParser.readfp() by ConfigParser.read_file(). But the code
+is obviously broken, trying read_file() first and then read_file()
+again.
+---
+ base/g.py | 2 +-
+ 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)
+
+diff --git a/base/g.py b/base/g.py
+index 0d1c986..c1f5d24 100644
+--- a/base/g.py
++++ b/base/g.py
+@@ -128,7 +128,7 @@ class ConfigBase(object):
+             try:
+                 fp = open(self.filename, "r")
+                 try:
+-                    self.conf.read_file(fp)
++                    self.conf.readfp(fp)
+                 except AttributeError as e:
+                     log.error(f"Error: {e}. Retrying with read_file")
+                     try:
+-- 
+2.48.1
+
diff --git a/hplip-base-replace-f-string-with-string.format-for-p.patch b/hplip-base-replace-f-string-with-string.format-for-p.patch
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c5877cc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hplip-base-replace-f-string-with-string.format-for-p.patch
@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+From f1fef1ed07951fbc6e81d90ab43172974979eeeb Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
+From: Martin Wilck <mwilck@suse.com>
+Date: Wed, 22 Jan 2025 17:44:04 +0100
+Subject: [PATCH 2/2] hplip/base: replace f-string with string.format for
+ python2 compatibility
+
+---
+ base/g.py | 4 ++--
+ 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
+
+diff --git a/base/g.py b/base/g.py
+index c1f5d24..a3b6191 100644
+--- a/base/g.py
++++ b/base/g.py
+@@ -130,12 +130,12 @@ class ConfigBase(object):
+                 try:
+                     self.conf.readfp(fp)
+                 except AttributeError as e:
+-                    log.error(f"Error: {e}. Retrying with read_file")
++                    log.error("Error: {0}. Retrying with read_file".format(e))
+                     try:
+                         # Attempting to use read_file as a fallback
+                         self.conf.read_file(fp)
+                     except Exception as e:
+-                        log.error(f"Reading file with read_file also failed. Error: {e}")
++                        log.error("Reading file with read_file also failed. Error: {0}".format(e))
+                 except configparser.MissingSectionHeaderError:
+                     print("")
+                     log.error("Found No Section in %s. Please set the http proxy for root and try again." % self.filename)
+-- 
+2.48.1
+
diff --git a/hplip.changes b/hplip.changes
index 9188832..62ea914 100644
--- a/hplip.changes
+++ b/hplip.changes
@@ -1,3 +1,15 @@
+-------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thu Jan 23 11:52:26 UTC 2025 - Martin Wilck <mwilck@suse.com>
+
+- Fix error in ConfigBase handling (bsc#1209401)
+  - add hplip-base-fix-error-in-ConfigBase-handling.patch
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------
+Wed Jan 22 16:52:17 UTC 2025 - Martin Wilck <mwilck@suse.com>
+
+- Fix python error on SLE12-SP3 (bsc#1209401, bsc#1234745)
+  - add hplip-base-replace-f-string-with-string.format-for-p.patch
+
 -------------------------------------------------------------------
 Tue Jan 14 11:34:35 UTC 2025 - Martin Wilck <mwilck@suse.com>
 
diff --git a/hplip.spec b/hplip.spec
index 67d5c68..fda2494 100644
--- a/hplip.spec
+++ b/hplip.spec
@@ -115,6 +115,9 @@ Patch602:       hplip-scan-hpaio-include.patch
 Patch603:       hplip-scan-orblite-c99.patch
 Patch604:       hplip-sclpml-strcasestr.patch
 Patch605:       hplip-hpaio-gcc14.patch
+Patch606:       hplip-base-fix-error-in-ConfigBase-handling.patch
+# Compatibility patches for old SUSE releases
+Patch700:       hplip-base-replace-f-string-with-string.format-for-p.patch
 
 %if %use_qt5
 BuildRequires:  %{pymod qt5-devel}
@@ -378,6 +381,12 @@ This sub-package is only required by developers.
 %patch -P 603 -p1
 %patch -P 604 -p1
 %patch -P 605 -p1
+%patch -P 606 -p1
+%if 0%{?suse_version} < 1500
+# python2 compatibility
+%patch -P 700 -p1
+%endif
+
 # replace "env" shebang and "/usr/bin/python" with real executable
 find . -name '*.py' -o -name pstotiff | \
     xargs -n 1 sed -i '1s,^#!\(%{_bindir}/env python\|%{_bindir}/python\),#!%{pyexe},'