My laser printer prints sheets of random chars

[Gianfranco Liporace]

Hi,
with my laser printer (Samsung ML-2570) the first print job all is fine, the second I get loads of sheets with random characters.
Tried the printer under Natty (to be sure it isn't an hardware problem) and it works fine.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.10
Package: cups 1.5.0-6
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.0.0-11.18-generic 3.0.4
Uname: Linux 3.0.0-11-generic i686
ApportVersion: 1.23-0ubuntu1
Architecture: i386
Date: Wed Sep 21 11:54:05 2011
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04 "Lucid Lynx" - Beta i386 (20100318)
Lpstat:
 device for Epson-AL-C9100: ipp://10.2.1.110:631/EPSON_IPP_Printer
 device for ML-2570-Series: usb://Samsung/ML-2570%20Series?serial=3X21BKCPB00821A%20
 device for Stylus-D120: usb://EPSON/Stylus%20D120
MachineType: FUJITSU SIEMENS ESPRIMO P3510
Papersize: a4
PpdFiles:
 ML-2570-Series: Samsung ML-2570 Foomatic/Postscript (recommended)
 Epson-AL-C9100: Epson AcuLaser C9100 Foomatic/eplaser (recommended)
 Stylus-D120: Epson Stylus D120 - CUPS+Gutenprint v5.2.7 Simplified
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=it_IT.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.0.0-11-generic root=UUID=30dec78d-20d2-41ad-b07e-4e638d09d647 ro splash quiet
SourcePackage: cups
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to oneiric on 2011-08-09 (43 days ago)
dmi.bios.date: 08/22/2008
dmi.bios.vendor: FUJITSU SIEMENS // Phoenix Technologies Ltd.
dmi.bios.version: 6.00 R1.04.2750.A2
dmi.board.name: D2750-A2
dmi.board.vendor: FUJITSU SIEMENS
dmi.board.version: S26361-D2750-A2
dmi.chassis.type: 6
dmi.chassis.vendor: FUJITSU SIEMENS
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnFUJITSUSIEMENS//PhoenixTechnologiesLtd.:bvr6.00R1.04.2750.A2:bd08/22/2008:svnFUJITSUSIEMENS:pnESPRIMOP3510:pvr:rvnFUJITSUSIEMENS:rnD2750-A2:rvrS26361-D2750-A2:cvnFUJITSUSIEMENS:ct6:cvr:
dmi.product.name: ESPRIMO P3510
dmi.sys.vendor: FUJITSU SIEMENS
mtime.conffile..etc.cups.cupsd.conf: 2010-12-16T13:42:57.982158

[Till Kamppeter (till-kamppeter)]

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

[Till Kamppeter (till-kamppeter)]

Your printer got automatically set up with a PostScript driver. Is your printer actually a PostScript printer? Can you change it to a PCL driver? In system-config-printer right-click the printer's icon, choose "Properties", click "Change" button for make and model, try

- Samsung ML-2570 Foomatic/pxlmono
- Generic PCL-5e printer Foomatic/hpijs-pcl5e

How do these work? If both work, which one works better for you?

[Gianfranco Liporace (dr.kabuto)]

Hi Till,
done the followed step:
* checked "Save debugging information for troubleshooting" in system-config-printer
* enabled debug with "cupsctl LogLevel=debug"
* cleared print queue (it was empty anyway since I don't have problem with failed job)
* done the tips in "Capturing print job data): the file in the spool queue looks good since it opens fine in evince: it's a PDf document; enabling the queue, the printer pukes out pages of random chars

Changed the drivers as you suggested:
* with the first, no joy, prints as before;
* with the generic driver, instead of tons of sheet full of garbage, I get only 1 page with a garbled image in it.

[Till Kamppeter (till-kamppeter)]

I have looked into your long error_log. All jobs except job 305 seem to be correctly handled by CUPS and the filters. Only job 305 considered a job with the title "Test Page" as a command file (printer maintenance commands to print nozzle check pages and clean nozzles on inkjet printers). Due to the title I doubt that you have clicked "Print Self-Test page" or "Clean Print Heads" in the properties window to generate the job (or did you actually do so?).

Can you scan/photograph the pages with garbage and attach the images? Can you print the configuration page of the printer (via the printer's front panel menus and tell me which languages the printer uderstands according to this page? Or simply also scan/photograph the page?

Did you check whether the paper size setting is correct after each change of the driver (should usually be overtaken to the new driver)?

Have you already tried turning off the printer and turning it on again?

[Gianfranco Liporace (dr.kabuto)]

I've scanned the output with the recommended driver and the generic driver. They will follow this comment.
The configuration page states that the printer can emulate PCL6, PCL5e and PostScript3.
The paper setting is the same over multiple printings.
Tried to restart the printer, but with no joy: the first print is ok, the second garbage.

[Till Kamppeter (till-kamppeter)]

Is it the same with all drivers, first job (after turning on the printer) correct, subsequent jobs broken? Is the first job always completely correct, independent how many pages it has? Are the subsequent jobs always completely broken, including their first pages?

[Gianfranco Liporace (dr.kabuto)]

Hi Till,
I've tried several documents, with one or more pages and almost all of them (Photos are not affected) depicts the reported strange behaviour. I noted, however, that the garbage printed is the same with all documents test (looked at the fist page printed).
I made another test: downloaded an Oneric daily cd on a USB key, booted the OS and tried to print some documents: same behaviour.

[Till Kamppeter (till-kamppeter)]

I want to know whether the printer is behaving exactly the same way, independent of the driver (Postscript, pxlmono, hpijs-pcl5e) you are using and also if you can always print the first job after turning on the printer and get the problem from the second job on.

Can you answer exactly my questions of comment #9, by setting up the printer with each driver, turning it off and on again and after that print a document with at least two pages, two times.

[Gianfranco Liporace (dr.kabuto)]

Ok these are the result from various print tests with your suggested drivers:

****************************
Recommended driver
Turned off-on printer
doc #1 - pdf document
* job 1: good
* job 2: garbage
doc #2 - odt document
* job 1: good
* job 2: garbage

pxlmono driver
Turned off-on printer
doc #1 - pdf document
* job 1: good
* job 2: garbage
doc #2 - odt document
* job 1: garbage
* job 2: good

Generic hpijs/pcl5e driver
Turned off-on printer
doc #1 - pdf document
* job 1: good
* job 2: good
doc #2 - odt document
* job 1: good
* job 2: good
doc #3 - pdf documtent- 1 page
* job 1: good
* job 2: good
doc #4 - other odt document
* job 1: good
* job 2: good
doc #4 - test print from system-config-printer
* job 1: good
* job 2: good
doc #5 - other pdf document
* job 1: good
* job 2: good

****************************

Seems that the generic driver is printing fine, it's strange since when i've tried it it wasn't working like the other. Maybe turning off and on the printer did the trick.

[Till Kamppeter (till-kamppeter)]

OK, thank you very much. With this test result we can solve your problem. It shows that the Postscript and pxlmono drivers print the first printout after turning on the printer well, but leave the printer in a bad state, so that most of the subsequent printouts come out as garbage. Only the hpijs-pcl5e driver is reliable on your printer. After the printout the printer is left in a correct state and so another printout can be done and comes out correctly. This means that to have your printer reliably working you have to use the hpijs-pcl5e driver. Should you even then get a bad printout later, turn off and turn on the printer again and you will get good printouts again (probably with the hpijs-pcl5e driver you will not have to do this).

The problem with the Postscript and pxlmono drivers can be a firmware bug. So please check on the manufacturer's web site whether there is a firmware update for your printer.

For us this means that as a fix for this bug we will recommend the hpijs-pcl5e driver for this printer, so that the printer will just work for users who set it up under Ubuntu.

Simply keep the hpijs-pcl5e driver selected for your print queue and enjoy Ubuntu.

[Till Kamppeter (till-kamppeter)]

I have done the needed fixes in the foomatic-db package now so that your printer can be used with PCL-5e drivers and also the "gdi" driver for Samsung's own printer language (try it, perhaps it also works and performs better on your printer). I have also set the "hpijs-pcl5e" driver as the recommended driver.

Now also a fix in system-config-printer is needed, to respect the recommendations in foomatic-db instead of always preferring PostScript. Added system-config-printer task.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package foomatic-db - 20110831-0ubuntu3

---------------
foomatic-db (20110831-0ubuntu3) oneiric; urgency=low

  * debian/patches/samsung-ml-2570-recommend-hpijs-pcl5e.patch: Assigned also
    PCL-5e drivers to the Samsung ML-2570 and recommended the PCL-5e driver
    "hpijs-pcl5e" as (at least some copies of) the printer has problems with
    the PostScript and PCL-XL drivers (LP: #855412).
 -- Till Kamppeter <email address hidden> Fri, 23 Sep 2011 21:35:03 +0200

[Till Kamppeter (till-kamppeter)]

I have now fixed system-config-printer, too. It did not recognize all driver types correctly and therefore made wrong selections. The new system-config-printer (1.3.6+20110831-0ubuntu9) will soon be available in Oneiric.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package system-config-printer - 1.3.6+20110831-0ubuntu9

---------------
system-config-printer (1.3.6+20110831-0ubuntu9) oneiric; urgency=low

  * debian/patches/50_preferreddrivers-xml-fix-drivertype-recognition.patch:
    Fixed the rules for recognition of driver types. Now the types
    "foomatic-recommended-hpijs", "foomatic-hpijs", and
    "foomatic-recommended-postscript" are recognized correctly (LP: #855412).
 -- Till Kamppeter <email address hidden> Fri, 23 Sep 2011 23:46:24 +0200

[Gianfranco Liporace (dr.kabuto)]

Hi Till,
I'm sorry to say that this bug returned today after my workmate tried to print from his PC (with windows XP) through IPP: first print good, the second trash. I've tried to search for a firmware update in the Samsung site, but found only drivers and user guides.
I have to restate that in Natty I don't have this problem.

[Guido Do (guido-dornbusch)]

I have the same trouble with my ML-2250 printer. The fix does not solve the problem. Actually the error is same or similar with different driver e.g. pcl or spl.
I have no trouble under ubuntu <11.10

could be related e.g. to timing issues. according to my observation the firstjob always prints fine.
biggest chance of failure is printing several copies.

any test or additional info I Can provide?

[Till Kamppeter (till-kamppeter)]

Guido, are you on Oneiric? Did you install all the updates? Did you remove and recreate your printer (or at least change the driver to Foomatic/hpijs-pcl5e)?

If you have still problems, please start a new bug report and follow the instructions in the sections "CUPS error_log" and "Capturing print job data" of https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingPrintingProblems.

[Alex Betis (alex-betis)]

Hi guys,

I want to report that I have VERY similar problem with my OKI B410D printer after upgrade to 11.10 from 11.04.
On 11.01 everything worked fine.

I've tried already different drivers, the recommended one, the one that is provided by OKI and the proposed here hpijs/pcl5e driver.
All have the same behavior:
- First job is printing fine
- Second job spits many pages were the first line have random characters

I'll try to collect some logs and attach here.

Please advise.

Thanks,
Alex

[Guido Do (guido-dornbusch)]

Alex - please refer to a new bug I entered:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/cups/+bug/872483

[Alex Betis (alex-betis)]

Thanks Guido,
I've posted my logs in your submitted bug #872483.

Till,
I don't think this bug is fixed as you changed the status here.

Is there a way to reset the USB connection manually (instead of turning the printer off-on) so next job will be printed ok?

Thanks

[Till Kamppeter (till-kamppeter)]

Alex, please use bug 872483 for discussing the current problem.