clean print heads / print self test fails

[Peter]

Binary package hint: cups

Kubuntu 9.04
cups 1.3.9-17ubuntu3.2

Epson stylus color photo 870
Epson Stylus Photo 870 Foomatic/gutenprint-ijs-simplified.5.2
usb://EPSON/Stylus%20Photo%20870

if I select clean print heads or print self test from the printer configuration in system configuration they fail with the error 'there was an error during the CUPS operation client-error-document-format-not-supported'

the printer can print and I can print a test page from printer configuration
I can clean and test the heads using sudo escputil

[Till Kamppeter (till-kamppeter)]

Can you start system-config-printer (System -> Administration -> Printing), right-click your printer's icon, click "Properties" and in the dioalog appearing then click the "Change ..." button for "Make and Model". Choose your printer manufacturer ("Epson") and model ("Stylus Photo 870"). On the right hand side of the model selection page you wioll be able to choose drivers. Choose one of the "CUPS + Gutenprint" entries, click "Forward", then "Apply". After that the mentioned functions should work.

[Peter (peterroots)]

Thanks, i gave that a try - I can still print and now I don't get any error message pop up when I try to clean or test the heads. Nothing happens though!
cups/error_log contains a resume-printer : Unauthorized error message at about the time I tried to clean/test the heads.

Ok forget all that! After printing, and making no other changes, the test/clean buttons now work. Don't you just love computers?

Thanks for solving this. Should it be reported as a bug in the foomatic/gutenprint driver?

[Per Ångström (autark)]

I'm having the same problem. Switching to CUPS + Gutenprint driver did not help. My printer is Brother HL-1270N.

If I try to print a Self-Test Page in the CUPS browser interface (http://localhost:631/), I get:

Print Self-Test Page brother1270 Error
Error:
    Unsupported format 'application/vnd.cups-command'!

[Per Ångström (autark)]

I should have mentioned that I'm on Lucid. My version of cups is 1.4.2-6.

[Peter (peterroots)]

the cups guten print fix stopped working after installing Karmic but I only just noticed as I only just needed to clean the heads again.
CUPS browser does not let me clean the heads either (no errors either just no action)
escputil still works though

[Peter (peterroots)]

This seems like a duplicate of bug Bug #377812 or at least they are closely related.
Is there any more information needed to raise this from an undecided bug to something that needs working on?

[Akkana Peck (akkzilla)]

Still a problem on Natty, and not limited to Epsons -- I'm seeing "Unsupported format 'application/vnd.cups-command'!" when I try to clean the print heads from the CUPS web interface on an HP Deskjet F4280. Is there any other way to clean the heads on an HP, something like escputil for epsons?