Sending pdf and ps files to a printer routinely fails, but removing all personal GNOME/GTK config solves problem

[shane]

Binary package hint: cups

Since upgrading to lucid 10.04 printing pdfs or postscript files via a printer routinely fails, whether through an application or a command line. There is no error message in cups error_log or on the command line. Printing pdfs or ps to a file works fine. Printing to a printer using ppm files works fine. Here's a link to the message thread on ubuntu forums:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1541028

And another on the Redhat bugzilla that seems to describe the same bug:

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=473506

dpkg --info:

 new debian package, version 2.0.
 size 1973830 bytes: control archive= 40537 bytes.
     285 bytes, 12 lines conffiles
     541 bytes, 29 lines * config #!/bin/sh
    1926 bytes, 22 lines control
   68366 bytes, 876 lines md5sums
    8601 bytes, 245 lines * postinst #!/bin/sh
    1576 bytes, 57 lines * postrm #!/bin/sh
    2949 bytes, 102 lines * preinst #!/bin/sh
    1394 bytes, 59 lines * prerm #!/bin/sh
   32575 bytes, 326 lines templates

dpkg --info:

 Package: cups
 Version: 1.4.3-1ubuntu1.2
 Architecture: amd64
 Maintainer: Ubuntu Core Developers <email address hidden>
 Installed-Size: 8308
 Depends: libavahi-client3 (>= 0.6.16), libavahi-common3 (>= 0.6.16), libc6 (>= 2.7), libcups2 (>= 1.4.0), libcupscgi1 (>= 1.4.2), libcupsdriver1 (>= 1.4.0), libcupsimage2 (>= 1.4.0), libcupsmime1 (>= 1.4.0), libcupsppdc1 (>= 1.4.0), libdbus-1-3 (>= 1.0.2), libgcc1 (>= 1:4.1.1), libgnutls26 (>= 2.7.14-0), libgssapi-krb5-2 (>= 1.8+dfsg), libijs-0.35, libkrb5-3 (>= 1.6.dfsg.2), libldap-2.4-2 (>= 2.4.7), libpam0g (>= 0.99.7.1), libpaper1, libpoppler5, libslp1, libstdc++6 (>= 4.1.1), libusb-0.1-4 (>= 2:0.1.12), zlib1g (>= 1:1.1.4), debconf (>= 1.2.9) | debconf-2.0, poppler-utils (>= 0.12), perl-modules, procps, ghostscript, lsb-base (>= 3), cups-common (>= 1.4.3), cups-client (>= 1.4.3-1ubuntu1.2), ssl-cert (>= 1.0.11), adduser, bc, ttf-freefont
 Recommends: foomatic-filters (>= 4.0), cups-driver-gutenprint, ghostscript-cups
 Suggests: cups-bsd, cups-ppdc, foomatic-db-engine, foomatic-db, hplip, xpdf-korean | xpdf-japanese | xpdf-chinese-traditional | xpdf-chinese-simplified, cups-pdf, smbclient (>= 3.0.9), udev
 Conflicts: cupsddk-drivers (<< 1.4.0), cupsys (<< 1.3.7-6), cupsys-bsd (<< 1.3.7-5), libpoppler5 (<< 0.12.2-2)
 Breaks: foomatic-filters (<< 4.0)
 Replaces: cupsddk-drivers (<< 1.4.0), cupsys (<< 1.3.7-6), cupsys-bsd (<< 1.3.7-5)
 Provides: cupsddk-drivers, cupsys
 Section: net
 Priority: optional
 Description: Common UNIX Printing System(tm) - server
  The Common UNIX Printing System (or CUPS(tm)) is a printing system and
  general replacement for lpd and the like. It supports the Internet
  Printing Protocol (IPP), and has its own filtering driver model for
  handling various document types.

  This package provides the CUPS scheduler/daemon and related files.
 Original-Maintainer: Debian CUPS Maintainers <email address hidden>

[Till Kamppeter (till-kamppeter)]

Can you follow the instructions in the sections "CUPS error_log" and "Capturing print job data" in https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingPrintingProblems? Thanks.

[shane (hshane)]

I think this was a configuration file problem. When I upgraded from 10.04 I kept all the old configuration files in my home directory. Last week I tried deleting the following directories: .gconf, .gconfd, .gnome2 and .config. The issue went away. I can now print PS and PDF files fine.

[Till Kamppeter (till-kamppeter)]

When doing away with all personal GNOME/GTK configuration solves the problem, the bug is for sure not in the printing stack but somewhere in the print output part of GNOME or GTK. Therefore I move the bug to GTK now. Feel free to move to another GNOME/GTK package or to add tasks.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

is there any chance you could figure what setting was creating the issue?

[Matthew Williams (number6)]

I solved this problem for my HP3055 by deleting the printer from the server and recreating it. However, instead of choosing the "recommended" driver which is Postscript based, I chose the PCL one instead. I haven't had a problem since.

I don't think that this is a true solution, as I am simply avoiding the chain of processing elements (ps2ps, pdf2ps) that I believe was causing my issue. However, my printer now works!

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for gtk+2.0 (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]