Dell E310dw: Default driver doesn't work, driverless fails on sides=two-sided-long-edge

[Akkana Peck]

Dell E310dw printer which worked well on 19.04 has problems in 19.10:

First, I went through the CUPS web interface to add the printer. The interface gave me a choice of two entries with the same name plus one with "driverless" added. I chose the first entry (not driverless) and completed adding the printer. On the Printers page, the Dell was now listed. When I tried "Print Test Page", I got many pages each containing a single line of symbols.

I deleted the printer in the web interface, intending to start again and choose the second option. But after I did Delete Printer, CUPS took me back to the Printers page which now listed:
<email address hidden> Dell Printer E310dw, driverless, cups-filters 1.25.11

So I clicked on that printer and tried Print Test Page, which worked. So then I tried a duplex print (which is really what I need this morning):

 lp -o sides=two-sided-long-edge -o collate=true -d <email address hidden> filename.pdf

It printed the PDF 2-sided, but with the sides flipped around the short edge, as if it was a landscape print. I tried the same command with sides=two-sided-short-edge and it flipped the same way. So sides is handling duplex but ignoring which edge is supposed to be used, and defaulting to landscape which I'd guess is less commonly what people want.

This is all using what's built into Ubuntu. I haven't yet downloaded any extra drivers from Dell's site since Ubuntu claims to have a driver for the printer, and I'm pretty sure it was working in 19.04 (I may still have a working 19.04 to check that, if it would help).

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 19.10
Package: cups 2.2.12-2ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.3.0-23.25-generic 5.3.7
Uname: Linux 5.3.0-23-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: zfs zunicode zavl icp zcommon znvpair
ApportVersion: 2.20.11-0ubuntu8.2
Architecture: amd64
Date: Mon Nov 25 09:58:21 2019
InstallationDate: Installed on 2019-10-10 (45 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 19.10 "Eoan Ermine" - Beta amd64 (20190926.1)
Lpstat:
 device for Brother_HL-3170CDW_series: dnssd://Brother%20HL-3170CDW%20series._ipp._tcp.local/?uuid=e3248000-80ce-11db-8000-3c2af4251dee
 device for <email address hidden>: implicitclass://Dell_Printer_E310dw%40DELL316BAA.local/
MachineType: LENOVO 20QDCTO1WW
Papersize: letter
PpdFiles:
 Error: command ['fgrep', '-H', '*NickName', '/<email address hidden>', '/etc/cups/ppd/Brother_HL-3170CDW_series.ppd'] failed with exit code 2: grep: /<email address hidden>: Permission denied
 grep: /etc/cups/ppd/Brother_HL-3170CDW_series.ppd: Permission denied
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-5.3.0-23-generic root=UUID=a5868be6-8495-47af-a190-9af5fdc9b419 ro
SourcePackage: cups
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 07/04/2019
dmi.bios.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.bios.version: N2HET30W (1.13 )
dmi.board.asset.tag: Not Available
dmi.board.name: 20QDCTO1WW
dmi.board.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.board.version: SDK0J40700 WIN
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: No Asset Information
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.chassis.version: None
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnLENOVO:bvrN2HET30W(1.13):bd07/04/2019:svnLENOVO:pn20QDCTO1WW:pvrThinkPadX1Carbon7th:rvnLENOVO:rn20QDCTO1WW:rvrSDK0J40700WIN:cvnLENOVO:ct10:cvrNone:
dmi.product.family: ThinkPad X1 Carbon 7th
dmi.product.name: 20QDCTO1WW
dmi.product.sku: LENOVO_MT_20QD_BU_Think_FM_ThinkPad X1 Carbon 7th
dmi.product.version: ThinkPad X1 Carbon 7th
dmi.sys.vendor: LENOVO

[Akkana Peck (akkzilla)]

Just verified that 2-sided portrait (long edge) printing does indeed work on this printer in 19.04, so this is a regression. I'm not sure which of the three drivers it's using. Let me know if you want me to attach any files from 19.04.

[Gustav Ekner (gustav-ekner)]

I can confirm this bug on a different printer; Brother MFC-L2720DW. It runs over the network, and without any drivers or any special setup. No matter if I choose long or short edge, it will print as if I selected short edge. This worked in 19.04, so it seems the issue has been introduced in 19.10.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Till Kamppeter (till-kamppeter)]

Could you please attach the PPD files of your printer, once of a Ubuntu version in which the duplex works correctly (19.04 for example) and once for a Ubuntu version where duplex printing does not work correctly (19.10 for example). Could you also supply a CUPS error_log for one working job (from 19.04 for example) and one non-working job (from 19.10 for example). Follow the instructions of the section "CUPS error_log" on https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingPrintingProblems.

Also run the command

driverless

to get your printer's IPP URI and then run

ipptool -tv <IPP URI> get-printer-attributes-2.0.test > attrs.txt

If attrs.txt contains only a few lines or is empty, run

ipptool -tv <IPP URI> get-printer-attributes.test > attrs.txt

This you only need to do on 19.10, not on both systems.

Please attach your PPDs, error_logs, and attrs.txt, one by one. Do not compress them and do not package them together.

[Alex Murray (alexmurray)]

I have the same problem with a Brother HL L2375-DW printer on Ubuntu 19.10.

This was auto-detected and added to the GNOME Printers as 'Brother_HL_L2375DW_series' - if I print double sided (long-edge) using the then it prints the second page upside down (as though I had selected short-edge) - but selecting short-edge also prints as short-edge.

However, I then went into 'Printer Details' via the gear menu for the printer, and selected 'Select from Database...' and chose the 'Brother HL-L2375DW series, driverless, cups-filters 1.25' driver. At this stage a second instance of the printer appeared in GNOME Printers ('<email address hidden>') - and printing to this second instance seems to work correctly.

I am unsure how to know which PPD was used for the first auto-detected + added instance but if you can help me to find out I will happily attach the PPD here. See below for error_log, attrs.txt

[Alex Murray (alexmurray)]

Let me know which of these PPDs to attach:

$ ls -la /etc/cups/ppd/Brother_HL_L2375DW_series*
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 8499 Dec 1 17:14 /<email address hidden>
-rw-r----- 1 root lp 8424 Dec 1 17:13 /<email address hidden>
-rw-r----- 1 root lp 8615 Dec 1 17:13 /etc/cups/ppd/Brother_HL_L2375DW_series.ppd
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 8487 Dec 1 16:32 /etc/cups/ppd/Brother_HL_L2375DW_series.ppd.O

[Till Kamppeter (till-kamppeter)]

Please attach both

/etc/cups/ppd/Brother_HL_L2375DW_series.ppd

and

/<email address hidden>

[Gustav Ekner (gustav-ekner)]

Here are ppd files and error logs for Ubuntu 19.04 (where it works) and Ubuntu 19.10 (where it doesn't work). Also, attrs.txt. As I didn't have any 19.04 installation, and had changed the printer configuration manually in 19.10, I run two live media, 19.04 and 19.10, and tested and generated the log files from there. In both cases, the printer (Brother MFC-L2720DW) was added automatically, and no manual configuration/driver installation involved.

[Craig McQueen (cmcqueen1975)]

I'm having this problem -- printing duplex on short edge instead of long edg -- with a Brother HL-L2375DW.

I'm running Ubuntu 19.10. It was working in Ubuntu 19.04. But, I thought it had also been printing correctly previously in 19.10, until it stopped working more recently. But I'm not 100% sure when it stopped working, since I don't print duplex very often.