Red Hat Bugzilla – Bug 435429
parallel printer and cups-pdf stopped working after update
Last modified: 2008-03-04 04:00:48 EST
Description of problem: After updating one of my computers from cups-1.3.5-3 to cups-1.3.6-2, the Samsung ML-1210 printer that's attached to it by a parallel port stopped working. It does nothing at all when you send it a print job. Going through system-config-printer and hitting "print test page" brings up a window that say s"Submitted Test page submitted as job 79" (the number increments every time) but nothing prints and the busy light on the printer never starts flashing so it apparently receives no data. The button changes from "print test page" to "Cancel tests" when I close the "submitted" window, so I click that, and that's all there is to that. The "Printer state" line on the screen never changes from "idle". Going through http://localhost:631 and printing a test page from there says that the test page was sent, but when I check the list of jobs there are "no jobs" and the printer never does anything at all there either. I have removed and reinstalled the ML-1210 printer several times through system-config-printer but nothing changes. I have switched the printer off and back on, and even rebooted the whole computer a couple of times. Here is what I get in /var/log/cups/error.log when I click the "print test page" button in system-config-printer: QUOTE: I [28/Feb/2008:19:46:22 -0600] [Job 79] Adding start banner page "none". I [28/Feb/2008:19:46:22 -0600] [Job 79] Adding job file of type application/postscript. I [28/Feb/2008:19:46:22 -0600] [Job 79] Adding end banner page "none". I [28/Feb/2008:19:46:22 -0600] [Job 79] Queued on "ML-1210" by "guest". I [28/Feb/2008:19:46:22 -0600] [Job 79] Started filter /usr/lib/cups/filter/pstops (PID 3573) I [28/Feb/2008:19:46:22 -0600] [Job 79] Started filter /usr/lib/cups/filter/foomatic-rip (PID 3574) I [28/Feb/2008:19:46:22 -0600] [Job 79] Started backend /usr/lib/cups/backend/parallel (PID 3575) I [28/Feb/2008:19:46:22 -0600] [Job 79] Completed successfully. END OF QUOTE Further, if I try to print a document of any length to the locally-installed CUPS-PDF I get a 760 byte file that's apparently a single blank page. I just tried printing a 57-page document to cups-pdf on that machine and got the same 760 byte pdf file that I get when I print a single sheet that says "This is a test." I can print from that computer to a shared HP printer (USB-connected) on a different computer. I can also print to that USB-connected printer locally from the computer that it's attached to. It is using the same version of cups. Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): cups-1.3.6-2.fc8 How reproducible: every time Steps to Reproduce: 1. Print from any application to cups-pdf or 1. Print to locally connected parallel Samsung ML-1210 printer Actual results: 760 byte pdf file that's a blank page or Nothing happens at all. Expected results: Larger pdf file containing the text printed or Page printed on the Samsung ML-1210 Additional info:
Created attachment 296319 [details] PDF file created by cups-pdf
Please do the following, as root: 1. cupsctl --debug-logging 2. service cups stop 3. >/var/log/cups/error_log 4. service cups start 5. Submit your print job to the locally connecting parallel port printer Attach the resulting /var/log/cups/error_log file to this bug report, and confirm that the job did not print. Thanks.
Created attachment 296387 [details] cups error_log cups error_log from computer with locally attached parallel printer
D [29/Feb/2008:11:14:43 -0600] [Job 95] foomatic-gswrapper: gs '-dBATCH' '-dPARA NOIDSAFER' '-dQUIET' '-dNOPAUSE' '-sDEVICE=gdi' '-sOutputFile=/dev/fd/3' '-_' 3> &1 1>&2 D [29/Feb/2008:11:14:44 -0600] [Job 95] **** Unable to open the initial device, quitting. but then: D [29/Feb/2008:11:14:44 -0600] PID 13970 (/usr/lib/cups/filter/foomatic-rip) exited with no errors. So there are two bad things: 1. gs is failing for some reason yet to be determined 2. (less importantly) foomatic-rip is failing to detect that error What does 'rpm -q gs' say, and what does 'type gs' say?
[frankcox@jeff ~]$ rpm -q gs package gs is not installed [frankcox@jeff ~]$ type gs gs is /usr/bin/gs [frankcox@jeff ~]$ rpm -q ghostscript ghostscript-8.61-6.fc8 ghostscript-8.61-6.fc8
Today's ghostscript-8.61-8.fc8 update seems to have fixed the problem. After installing the update I rebooted the computer and the printer works again. Thanks ever so much for your assistance, Tim! I sincerely appreciate it.
That's odd -- there wasn't any fix aimed at this problem... Oh well, closing. Please re-open if you see it happen again.