cups pdf prints only blank page

[Ulf Martin]

Binary package hint: cups

Hallo!

After upgrading my sytem to Natty the Cups PDF printer does not work correctly any more. Everything worked fine until then. I have reinstalled cups and poopler. No difference.

1. It prints (indicating mutliple pages printed). But the invariable result is a file containing a singe empty page of size 2192 bytes, not depending on the document printed (indeed, also the print test page dialog produces this result).
2. The printer settings are not respected. The empty page has letter format. In my settings I have A4.

I am not a power user, so please tell me if I can provide more useful information.

The "print to file" dialog, however, works (but is cumbersome).

Hope this helps!

Thank you & Cheers!
Ulf Martin

P.S. Sorry for sending the system info twice. Didn't realize the web form window.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.04
Package: cups 1.4.6-5ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.38-8.42-generic-pae 2.6.38.2
Uname: Linux 2.6.38-8-generic-pae i686
NonfreeKernelModules: fglrx
Architecture: i386
CupsErrorLog: W [05/May/2011:11:12:17 +0200] Duplicate listen address "/var/run/cups/cups.sock" ignored!
Date: Thu May 5 12:14:19 2011
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.10 "Maverick Meerkat" - Release i386 (20101007)
Lpstat:
 device for Brother-DCP-110C: usb://Brother/DCP-110C
 device for FS-1020D: usb://Kyocera/FS-1020D
 device for Generic-CUPS-PDF-Printer: cups-pdf:/
 device for HL4040CN: usb://Brother/HL-4040CN%20series
MachineType: LENOVO 2767WSD
Papersize: letter
PccardctlIdent:
 Socket 0:
   no product info available
PccardctlStatus:
 Socket 0:
   no card
PpdFiles:
 Generic-CUPS-PDF-Printer: Generic CUPS-PDF Printer
 FS-1020D: Kyocera Mita FS-1020D
 HL4040CN: Brother HL-4040CN series CUPS v1.1
 Brother-DCP-110C: Brother DCP-1200 - CUPS+Gutenprint v5.2.6
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_DK:en
 LANG=en_DK.utf8
 SHELL=/bin/zsh
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.38-8-generic-pae root=UUID=8d1ebdec-e01f-4c74-9019-fed966977472 ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
SourcePackage: cups
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to natty on 2011-04-29 (5 days ago)
dmi.bios.date: 04/22/2009
dmi.bios.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.bios.version: 7UET66WW (2.16 )
dmi.board.name: 2767WSD
dmi.board.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.board.version: Not Available
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: No Asset Information
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.chassis.version: Not Available
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnLENOVO:bvr7UET66WW(2.16):bd04/22/2009:svnLENOVO:pn2767WSD:pvrThinkPadT400:rvnLENOVO:rn2767WSD:rvrNotAvailable:cvnLENOVO:ct10:cvrNotAvailable:
dmi.product.name: 2767WSD
dmi.product.version: ThinkPad T400
dmi.sys.vendor: LENOVO

[Suresh Ramasubramanian (suresh-hserus)]

This affects me when printing to cups-pdf AND when printing to my regularly installed printer (HP Deskjet F4288). This is both with the default natty drivers, and with the latest hplip drivers from http://hplipopensource.com/hplip-web/index.html)

In both cases, it prints a blank page and then exits.

D [15/May/2011:09:22:13 +0530] [Job 160] Adding start banner page "none".
D [15/May/2011:09:22:13 +0530] [Job 160] Queued on "Deskjet_F4200" by "suresh".
D [15/May/2011:09:22:13 +0530] [Job 160] Auto-typing file...
D [15/May/2011:09:22:13 +0530] [Job 160] Request file type is application/postscript.
D [15/May/2011:09:22:13 +0530] [Job 160] File of type application/postscript queued by "suresh".
D [15/May/2011:09:22:13 +0530] [Job 160] Adding end banner page "none".
D [15/May/2011:09:22:13 +0530] [Job 160] job-sheets=none,none
D [15/May/2011:09:22:13 +0530] [Job 160] argv[0]="Deskjet_F4200"
D [15/May/2011:09:22:13 +0530] [Job 160] argv[1]="160"
D [15/May/2011:09:22:13 +0530] [Job 160] argv[2]="suresh"
D [15/May/2011:09:22:13 +0530] [Job 160] argv[3]="A9RODBKX1P"
D [15/May/2011:09:22:13 +0530] [Job 160] argv[4]="1"
D [15/May/2011:09:22:13 +0530] [Job 160] argv[5]="ColorModel=KGray Duplex=None finishings=3 InputSlot=Auto MediaType=Automatic number-up=1 noOptionDuplex OutputMode=FastDraft PageRegion=A4 PageSize=A4 job-uuid=urn:uuid:fa83bfe3-f27d-3a5d-6292-40b1cb33de18 job-originating-host-name=localhost time-at-creation=1305431532 time-at-processing=1305431532"
D [15/May/2011:09:22:13 +0530] [Job 160] argv[6]="/var/spool/cups/d00160-001"
D [15/May/2011:09:22:13 +0530] [Job 160] envp[0]="CUPS_CACHEDIR=/var/cache/cups"
D [15/May/2011:09:22:13 +0530] [Job 160] envp[1]="CUPS_DATADIR=/usr/share/cups"
D [15/May/2011:09:22:13 +0530] [Job 160] envp[2]="CUPS_DOCROOT=/usr/share/cups/doc-root"
D [15/May/2011:09:22:13 +0530] [Job 160] envp[3]="CUPS_FONTPATH=/usr/share/cups/fonts"
D [15/May/2011:09:22:13 +0530] [Job 160] envp[4]="CUPS_REQUESTROOT=/var/spool/cups"
D [15/May/2011:09:22:13 +0530] [Job 160] envp[5]="CUPS_SERVERBIN=/usr/lib/cups"
D [15/May/2011:09:22:13 +0530] [Job 160] envp[6]="CUPS_SERVERROOT=/etc/cups"
D [15/May/2011:09:22:13 +0530] [Job 160] envp[7]="CUPS_STATEDIR=/var/run/cups"
D [15/May/2011:09:22:13 +0530] [Job 160] envp[8]="HOME=/var/spool/cups/tmp"
D [15/May/2011:09:22:13 +0530] [Job 160] envp[9]="PATH=/usr/lib/cups/filter:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/bin:/usr/bin"
D [15/May/2011:09:22:13 +0530] [Job 160] envp[10]="SERVER_ADMIN=root@pattunaaye"
D [15/May/2011:09:22:13 +0530] [Job 160] envp[11]="SOFTWARE=CUPS/1.4.6"
D [15/May/2011:09:22:13 +0530] [Job 160] envp[12]="TMPDIR=/var/spool/cups/tmp"
D [15/May/2011:09:22:13 +0530] [Job 160] envp[13]="USER=root"
D [15/May/2011:09:22:13 +0530] [Job 160] envp[14]="CUPS_SERVER=/var/run/cups/cups.sock"
D [15/May/2011:09:22:13 +0530] [Job 160] envp[15]="CUPS_ENCRYPTION=IfRequested"
D [15/May/2011:09:22:13 +0530] [Job 160] envp[16]="IPP_PORT=631"
D [15/May/2011:09:22:13 +0530] [Job 160] envp[17]="CHARSET=utf-8"
D [15/May/2011:09:22:13 +0530] [Job 160] envp[18]="LANG=en_US.UTF-8"
D [15/May/2011:09:22:13 +0530] [Job 160] envp[19]="PPD=/etc/cups/ppd/Deskjet_F4200.ppd"
D [15/May/2011:09:22:13 +0530] [Job 160] envp[20]...

[Ulf Martin (ulfmartin)]

Solution found.
You need to delete the CUPS-PDF printer then install it again going through the "New Printer" dialogue.
I haven't tried it, but this procedure may work for other printers too which do not work after the upgrade.
So this issue can be closed.