cups print server takes too long to print PDF document to printer

[pramathesh ambasta]

Binary package hint: cups

PDF files with scanned black and white images in them of not more than 4 pages (approximately 3.8 MB) takes several minutes to print on a HP Laserjet 1320 printer whether from Evince or Acrobat Reader 9.0

Documents of a similar nature and size may also fail to print.

I noticed this in the morning when cups complained about not being able to start hp backend. I removed the usblp module and blacklisted it (following some posts I read that this may be the cause of the problem).

The error message about the backend has stopped but the documents seem to take endless time or else snarl up the printer (the yellow light starts blinking).

Can't understand why this should happen. Will be happy to upload PDF files if needed.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
Package: cups 1.4.3-1ubuntu1.2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-21.32-server 2.6.32.11+drm33.2
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-21-server x86_64
Architecture: amd64
Date: Tue Jun 22 21:28:27 2010
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu-Server 10.04 LTS "Lucid Lynx" - Release amd64 (20100427)
Lpstat: device for HPLASER: hp:/usb/hp_LaserJet_1320_series?serial=00CNHJ63P0XY
Lsusb:
 Bus 002 Device 008: ID 03f0:1d17 Hewlett-Packard LaserJet 1320
 Bus 002 Device 003: ID 0000:0000
 Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
 Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
MachineType: HP ProLiant ML115 G5
Papersize: a4
PpdFiles: HPLASER: HP LaserJet 1320 series Postscript (recommended)
ProcCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinuz-2.6.32-21-server root=/dev/mapper/ubuntu_server-root ro quiet
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_IN
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: cups
dmi.bios.date: 05/26/2008
dmi.bios.vendor: HP
dmi.bios.version: O18
dmi.chassis.type: 7
dmi.chassis.vendor: HP
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnHP:bvrO18:bd05/26/2008:svnHP:pnProLiantML115G5:pvr:cvnHP:ct7:cvr:
dmi.product.name: ProLiant ML115 G5
dmi.sys.vendor: HP

[pramathesh ambasta (pramathesh-ambasta)]

I can't say if this is normal but the spool files created have very large sizes (even if you choose the economode setting). For instance, a 2 MB file converts into a 32 MB spool file with economode.

[Till Kamppeter (till-kamppeter)]

Did you observe this growth of the spool file only with evince or also with Acrobat Reader?

Can you attach sample PDF files?

In general, the HP LaserJet 12xx and 13xx do not have enough memory to work reliably as a PostScript printer. Try the PCL drivers (hpcups, hpijs, pxlmono) for your printer as this moves rendering workload to the computer. You can also add memory to your printer. Look for cheap aftermarket offers at Amazon or ebay (like from Kingston), then you pay less than 20 EUR instead of 200 EUR or more for the same amount of printer memory.

[pramathesh ambasta (pramathesh-ambasta)]

On Wednesday 23 June 2010 02:03 AM, Till Kamppeter wrote:
> Did you observe this growth of the spool file only with evince or also
> with Acrobat Reader?
>
> Can you attach sample PDF files?
>
> In general, the HP LaserJet 12xx and 13xx do not have enough memory to
> work reliably as a PostScript printer. Try the PCL drivers (hpcups,
> hpijs, pxlmono) for your printer as this moves rendering workload to the
> computer. You can also add memory to your printer. Look for cheap
> aftermarket offers at Amazon or ebay (like from Kingston), then you pay
> less than 20 EUR instead of 200 EUR or more for the same amount of
> printer memory.
>
> ** Changed in: cups (Ubuntu)
> Status: New => Incomplete
>
>
Thanks a lot for your very prompt response. Could not access my email so
sorry for the late reply:
1. This happened with both evince and adobe reader

2. The sample PDF can be downloaded from:
http://nrega.nic.in/obdusman_15032010.pdf

3. I replaced the drivers with hpijs + pcl3 tried printing the above
document. It worked! Spooling and printing were all over in less than
half a minute from evince.

Thanks again for all the help

--

*Pramathesh Ambasta*

Samaj Pragati Sahayog

Village Jatashankar

Tehsil Bagli

District Dewas

Madhya Pradesh 455227

([phone])

[cosmix (cosm7x)]

Till, there's definitely more here besides the fact that the 12xx and 13xx series printers from HP are lacking in many respects.

I've got an HP LaserJet 1320n with 144MB RAM that works admirably on Mac OS X, printing whole books in PDF, but fails miserably when I try to print a single page PDF (let alone the same media) with Ubuntu. 'Failing miserably' should be considered either too low performance (as reported by the bug reporter) or no print output whatsoever.

So while it is way to easy to dismiss the issue by using printer deficiency as an excuse, I believe this is not just a matter of 'low memory' printers that shouldn't be used as Postscript machines (the PCL PPD is horribly crippled). In my opinion, the problem lies with pstops and pdftops, for they are the only parts of the printing chain that truly differ between OS X and Ubuntu.

[Till Kamppeter (till-kamppeter)]

cosmix, for the original poster the problem was indeed with the printer, as he solved it by using a PCL driver. You have a memory extension installed in your printer, so for you we need to investigate more.

can you attach the PDF files which cause problems for you? Can you send the file to the printer and while it gets processed run the command

top

in a terminal window.Stop the program with "q" and run

ps auxwww | grep PID

replacing "PID" by the process numbers (in the first column, "PID") of the processes at the top of "top" output. And post the output here.Especially processes with "lp" in the "USER" column (2nd column) are important.

Can you also provide an error_log as described in the "CUPS error_log" section of https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingPrintingProblems

[Till Kamppeter (till-kamppeter)]

Attaching the sample file from the original poster, to keep the bug reproducable also if the original poster removes it from his web site.

[Till Kamppeter (till-kamppeter)]

I tried to print obdusman_15032010.pdf on the HP LaserJet 3390 (this MF device has the printing engine of the LaserJet 13xx printers) in PostScript mode. The processing in my computer was reasonably fast (I did not succeed to run "ps auxwww | grep PID" in time after getting the PID via "top"). The file did not get printed with the printer telling "memory low" on its display.

If I use the "pxlmono" driver, 1200 dpi, and duplex I get only the first page and on the second, the printer runs out of memory. With 600 dpi all pages get printed with some seconds of delay between pages. In the PostScript mode I can print the document also with 600 dpi, but "pxlmono" is somewhat faster. Printing in PCL 5e ("ljet4d", "hpijs", "hpcups", 600 dpi only) is even faster, after a shoprt delay in the beginning all pages (8 pages on 4 sheets double-sided) come out one after the other.

So it seems the most efficient solution to overcome memory problems of printers is reducing the resolution from 1200 dpi to 600 dpi. In addition moving from PostScript to PCL helps.

cosmix, note that your problem is a different one and that we therefor need your files, error_log, and to/ps output.

[cosmix (cosm7x)]

Till, thank you for your response. I don't have the 1320n nearby right now so I can't test immediately, but I will do so asap. Nevertheless, I don't think that the problem is 'a different one' nor that 'the problem was indeed with the printer, as he solved it by using a PCL driver'. I believe the root of the problem is the same in both cases. Use of a PCL driver, be it hpcups (the recommended one) or another is not a solution, given that those drivers do not offer but a fraction of the printer capabilities, both in terms of resolution and features.

Moreover, without having checked the error_log etc. I remember seeing that the computer considered the jobs done, while the printer was still processing them; this is why I think that the issue lies with a bad/corrupt/malformed (but 'successful', that is without errors as far as cups is concerned) conversion of the data to PostScript.

In any case, I will add more info the next time I get my hands on this printer.

[cosmix (cosm7x)]

Till, my error log shows the following when trying to print a PDF through evince:

E [18/Sep/2010:23:54:11 +0300] cupsdReadClient: 12 IPP Read Error!

The PDF doesn't get printed, the printer light blinks for a long time and then stops blinking. In some cases, following the above the printer not print until restarted.

Printing with Adobe Reader 9 works fine, so I reckon this may not be related to CUPS, but to gtk.

[Till Kamppeter (till-kamppeter)]

cosmix, evince and the GTK rendering library Cairo are indeed blowing up the print output. More optimization is really needed here.

The IPP error can be caused by the printer's memory completely being clogged up and so no input data accepted any more (instead of the printer handling it gracefully).

As Adobe Reader works fine in your situation, stay with Adobe Reader until evince/GTK/Cairo get improved in terms of print output.

Can you also tell us which version of Ubuntu you are using?

[cosmix (cosm7x)]

Till,

I am using several versions of Ubuntu; However, the printer is currently being used by computers running 10.04.1. The issues have manifested themselves in several previous versions too.

[cosmix (cosm7x)]

Note that this issue persists in 12.04, and doesn't seem to be related to #675863 (the spooled file is not extremely large): Anything printed via GNOME applications (and a few non-GNOME apps, like LibreOffice) takes a *really* long time, and occasionally fails to print. A recent test with a two-page PDF file printed via acroread took around 5 seconds to start printing on an HP 1320n. The same file, using the same settings via evince takes more than 3 minutes to start printing. As such, printing is near-broken --- a situation that has persisted for at least five releases of Ubuntu.

This bug is not a duplicate of #675863.

Finally, note that the same printer works fine with the same source files printed from OS X and Windows, in all cases using a Postscript-based configuration.