intrepid: printing very slow

[Michael Kofler]

printing of large files is extremely slow in intrepid due to (unnecessary?) post-processing

setup:

- Ubuntu Intrepid as of Oct. 27th
- Kyocera Printer 1800+ connected via Ethernet (100mps), configured as PostScript printer (Foomatic/Postscript)

problem:

I am currently trying to print out a 400 page PDF from Adobe Reader (incidentally the manuscript for my German Ubuntu book :-); for about a minute or two, nothing happens at all; when the printing finally starts, it is much slower as it was in Hardy

top shows that gs is constantly running

to get around this mess, I tried print the PDF in Adobe Reader to a file (test.ps); then, I printed the file directly using lp test.ps; as the printer is a postscript printer (and marked as such in cups), I expected CUPS would simply transfers the file to the printer; not so! same effects as above

lp -q raw test.ps finally did it, the document is currently printing in the expected speed of ca. 10 - 20 pages / minute

I know there are about a dozen other bug reports of users experiencing similar effects with CUPS in Intrepid, but I was not sure which had the same roots as my problems; so I opened a new report

[Craig (candrews-integralblue)]

I'm seeing the same incredible slowness on the Konica C5500's here in the office. Windows users have no problems, but it takes literally hours for me to print complex OpenOffice.org presentations.

[Craig (candrews-integralblue)]

Perhaps this is the same issue as https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ghostscript/+bug/157044

[Mircea (tramir)]

I have a similar problem. It used to work well in Hard, but it's been broken ever since I upgraded to Intrepid. top shows pdftops (user lp) using 90% or more of CPU. It's not the same as bug 157044, since that is related to gs and there's no gs running on my system when trying to print a pdf. Anybody can think of anything?

System: Intrepid up-to-date
CUPS: 1.3.9-2ubuntu6.1
Poppler-utils: 0.8.7-1ubuntu0.1

Any suggestion would be appreciated...

[sgleo87 (sgleo87-deactivatedaccount)]

I am also having this problem: I tried to print a 10 page document in OpenOffice and it took about 2-4 minutes to send it to the printer. Then it still did not print and just displayed it in the print queue as being processed for more than 5 minutes and then I cancelled the printing job. This has only been an issue in recent weeks (maybe because of an update of cups?). I don't think I had this issue when I first upgraded to Intrepid after it was released in October.

Ubuntu Intrepid (8.10) 32 bit with latest updates
Kernel: 2.6.27-11-generic
CUPS: 1.3.9-2ubuntu7
Using a Canon MP500 with Turboprint 1.96-4

Anybody got a solution to this yet?

[mogliii (mogliii)]

Hi,
64 bit seems to be affected, too.

Ubuntu Intrepid (8.10) 64 bit with latest updates
Kernel: 2.6.27-11-generic
CUPS: 1.3.9-2ubuntu7
Using HP LaserJet 2100, usb

Please fix this. This is very basic!

[mogliii (mogliii)]

This error persists in Ubuntu 9.04 beta 32bit.

This should be fixed. It must be possible to print some pdf with illustrations!

[chiefaua (tom-t)]

Hi there,

I've got the same problem. I simply wanted to print this (http://www.fim.uni-linz.ac.at/lva/IT_Recht_Computerforensik/ws2008/Introduction_to_Computer_Forensics.pdf) with 4 pages on one. Printing from okular and acrobat failed due to too heavy memory/cpu load and eventually an error.

It seems as if cups does some heavy filtering (ps takes a lot of cpu cycles), which makes the whole experience not at all enjoyable.

I tried to print the pdf with 4 pages on one with acrobat to a .ps file, which takes only a couple of seconds. The finishing file has only about 10MB. Then I tried to turn the pages in the .ps file around (using ps2ps), but this produced only white pages in the output. Trying to rewrite the .ps file with ghostscript produced a huge (~70MB) output file, but it was at least readable.

I finally managed to print the files by manually pipeing it through my printer-filter and then to lpr -l. The filter is called "filterHL5040" for my Brother HL5040 and obviously produces the right results for my printer. This only takes a couple of seconds for the whole file and works nicely.

So finally I don't understand why cups does not do the same, namely pipeing the input postscript file through the filter and writing it to my printer.

BTW I am using Kubuntu 8.10 32 bit with latest updates with proposed enabled.

[Philipp Wendler (philw85)]

Hi,

I'm having the same problem since I updated to Jaunty from Intrepid yesterday.

I tried to print 19 pages with text produced from pdflatex on my Canon Pixma IP4000R via Ethernet. The driver is "CUPS+Gutenprint v5.2.3 Simplified".

Evince produced a 24 MB print job, which took long to submit into the queue and ages sitting there with gs and socket at 100% cpu. rastertogutenprint was also a process with high cpu. Eventually it got put on hold (don't know why) and I continued it. Then I cancelled it because it took to long.

Acroread produced a 1.3 MB job, which also had 100% cpu in the queue. I cancelled it, too.

xpdf submitted 650 KB to another printer, from which I moved the job to the printer above. It then started printing immediately.

After this success I tried okular, which submitted 4 MB. The printer also started printing immediately.

I hope this helps somehow. I can try another driver (turboprint) and connection via USB, too, if you want.

PhilW

[Ludovico Settembrini (c-c-seidel)]

Hello,

I am experiencing the same problem with an Kyocera FS-1030D under Ubuntu Intreprid 8.10 (64-bit), 2.6.27-14-generic; it first occured with the kernel update to 2.6.27-7-generic; before, the printer worked perfectly well.

LS

[runbei (gbeinhorn)]

Ditto here. In Ubuntu 9.04, printing on an HP Laserjet 4+ is unacceptably slow, especially with but not limited to big files and multiple copies.

Even after the print job starts, it takes maybe 15 seconds to print each b&w page. Compare Windows, which spits 'em out at the rated speed of the printer.

The printer driver I'm using is HP LaserJet 4 Plus Foomatic/ljet4 [en]. This is the only one of the available drivers that I can get to work with this very standard printer.

[Till Kamppeter (till-kamppeter)]

Please replace your file /usr/lib/cups/filter/pdftops by the attached one and make sure that the new file is executable ("sudo chmod 755 /usr/lib/cups/filter/pdftops"). Then try to print the job again. Is it faster now?

If there are any problems, you can return to the previous state by

sudo apt-get install --reinstall cups

[GT (gleppert)]

Dear Till Kappeter,

I encounter the same problem here with a network printer Kyocera FS-3830N. As soon as there are some graphics/images in the PDF it prints one page in 20 minutes (usually 20 pages per minute). Very very slow.

I tried your alternative pdftops CUPS filter, but it did not work for me. The computer sends the document to the printer, but it now never prints. With the new pdftops filter, printing is not possible at all.

I needed to reinstall cups.

Thank you for your effort.

[Dmitry Sandalov (dmitry-sandalov)]

hello Till,

with your alternative pdftops cups filter it worked better for me, but still slowly
the print work is about 2-3 minutes instead of 15 as it was before
but still 2-3 mins - too slowly for my printer

ubuntu jaunty 9.04
kernel: 2.6.28-11-generic
printer: samsung scx4200
cups: 1.3.9-17ubuntu3
gs version: 8.64

[Yuriy Padlyak (gneeot)]

This bug affects me too. I see bug's status is "Incomplete", so I'd like to help providing some additional information, if needed..

[runbei (gbeinhorn)]

I'm using an HP LaserJet 4-Plus. Performing the filter change helps, in that print jobs now start faster. But as others are reporting, long jobs (e.g., 65 copies of a single page) still take very long to start, unlike in Windows where they start almost immediately. There's a processing notification that displays for several minutes before pages begin spewing from the printer. Printing speed also seems slightly slower than in Win, but that may be subjective?

[Ludovico Settembrini (c-c-seidel)]

Hello Till,

thank you for providing the file. Unfortunately, I have not been able to
test it until today.

> Please replace your file /usr/lib/cups/filter/pdftops by the attached
> one and make sure that the new file is executable ("sudo chmod 755
> /usr/lib/cups/filter/pdftops"). Then try to print the job again. Is it
> faster now?

Today I tried the new filter, but I did not work for me. I had to
reinstall cups. The problem seems to be that the system does not even
recognize the printer as active,

Thank you for your efforts!

Ludovico

[Till Kamppeter (till-kamppeter)]

Can everyone test with the new pdftops filter attached here, especially in the case where my first filter leads to getting no printout at all? Do not forget to make sure that the new file is readable and executable for everyone.

[Tom Chiverton (bugs-launchpad-net-falkensweb)]

I came here via #157044 and changing the filter seems to have had no effect on my very slow printing, gs stuck at top of 'top' still.

[Till Kamppeter (till-kamppeter)]

I have attached a Poppler-based pdftops filter now. Can everyone who has still problems try it?

Note that currently bug 310575 still applies with it, but this will soon be solved by a Poppler fix (https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=19777, bug 382379).

[Till Kamppeter (till-kamppeter)]

With the attached Poppler-based pdftops filter some fonts get lost (bug 362186, bug 381788), please use the new version attached here.

[Apteryx (maxco)]

I'm also affected by this, using Ubuntu 9.04 amd64 and an scx-4200 printer (with Samsung proprietary linux driver).
Using the improved filter from the post above, printing of images rich PDF seems a tad faster, but there is still quite a delay between the time the pages are sent and the time the printer starts to print them. The process 'gs' just sits at 100% CPU usage for minutes.

[radim (radim-uchac)]

I solved this problem by instaling special "printer" for printing huge amount of pages - Generic - Row queue. It works perfect. r.

[Adrian (adrian-charmers)]

Till Kamppeter -

Take it the alternative CUPS filter will only affect priting for PDF files?,

[Till Kamppeter (till-kamppeter)]

No, all files are affected, as incoming files are all converted to PDF, then page manipulations doen and after that turned to PostScript with pdftops. So all files printed on PostScript printers are affected.

[David Groos (djgroos)]

Thanks! I did the file replacement described above and my HP 8000 is printing at almost normal speeds again--was 10 minutes for a simple doc. Using Jaunty.

[Michael Pitchford (michael-pitchford)]

Can confirm that this continues to affect hardy - karmic, 32 & 64.
Reliably grinds printing to a standstill with HP 2605dn and default Ubuntu driver on AMD 64 x1.. Installed HPLIP free from HP. Comes as a tarball. Includes lots of useful utilities but is still slow, maybe a little better.

The only cure seems to be to send pdf and ps to a Generic RAW printer, as outlined above by radim. This is cool, as it opens the possibility of coding a bogus "printer" that just detects filetype and then steers the job to the appropriate real printer. Grubby solution, but while this bug doesn't get the attention of the experts, it may be the best workaround?
I need to confirm, but it appears at work, that a 2 x 64 AMD and a P3 (yes, really!) both running 8.10 and Ubuntu default driver for HP Laserjet 2420 seem to print at normal speed. These connections go thru at least one eth switch, Maybe there is something in related posts which suggest this is a comm problem from the Ubuntu ps processing. It would explain the busy processor and the very low data speed on the connection?
This is important. We are using this fine system at a very well-known University, and Ubuntu's inability to print a pdf in a reasonable time is a potential show-stopper for academic acceptance.