2605DN substitues box for chars printing from text app

[rbmorse]

Ubuntu 8.10 RC + updates (AMD-64). Problem first manifested with 8.10 Alpha 5.
HPLIP 2.8.7 from repository and 2.8.9 from sourceforge.
ColorLaserJet 2605DN via LAN

This printer works correctly from Ubuntu 8,04.

Under 8.10 and using both HPLIP 2.8.7 and 2.8.9 printing from a text mode application (gedit, or printing a check from GnuCash) results in a few characters being replaced by a character-space sized box. The number "8" and the slash character ("/")seem particularly affected, however other characters or non-printing symbols may also print as a box.

For example, when printing from Gedit the header at the top of the page prints the "f" character in "Page 1 of 1" as a box. The string "888" in the body of the document prints as three boxes, but all other text prints correctly.

When printing checks from Gnucash, the final digit of the year (2008) in the date field prints as a box character.

Documents in Print Preview appear correct.

Printing from graphical applications (open office, The GIMP, etc) works correctly. The HPLIP printer test page prints correctly.

Changing document fonts doesn't make any difference. I have not tried to change character sets because I don't know how.

If I reconfigure the printer settings to use the generic postscript driver the problem does not manifest, however I lose some print control functions.

I have submitted a bug report to Ubuntu's launchpad (277404) but it is still pending.

Would appreciate any suggestions.

[Aaron Albright (albrigha-deactivatedaccount)]

I've been unable to reproduce this..is it still an issue?

Aaron

[rbmorse (rbmorse)]

On Tue, 2008-11-18 at 20:36 +0000, Aaron Albright wrote:
> I've been unable to reproduce this..is it still an issue?
>
> Aaron
>
> ** Changed in: hplip
> Status: New => Invalid
>
Yes, it's still an issue.

Ron Morse

[rbmorse (rbmorse)]

Additional information:

If I set up a new instance of the 2605DN using the HP ColorLaserJet 4500 printer driver, the problem does not manifest, and the printer works as expected.

This may indicate the originally reported problem is somewhere in the .ppd file for the 2605DN.

[rbmorse (rbmorse)]

Additionall information:

Using gedit in Ubuntu 8.10.

If the document to be printed consists of:

[quote]This is a test of the printer

888[/quote]

The first line prints, but the "888" is represented by three character size boxes.

If the document to be printed consists of:

[quote]This is a test of the printer

888
999[/quote]

The first line prints. The second line prints the "888" string, but the third line ("999") prints as character size boxes.

If the document consists of:

[quote]This is a test of the printer

888
999
333
[/quote]

The first, second and third lines print correctly, but the "333" prints as boxes.

[rbmorse (rbmorse)]

Oops...sorry about the formatting codes that don't work here. Repost for clarity:

Additional information:

Using gedit in Ubuntu 8.10.

If the document to be printed consists of:

This is a test of the printer

888

The first line prints, but the "888" is represented by three character size boxes. If the document to be printed consists of:

This is a test of the printer

888
999

The first line prints. The second line (888) prints. The third line ("999") prints as character size boxes.

If the document consists of:

This is a test of the printer

888
999
333

The first, second and third lines print correctly, but the line consisting of "333" prints as boxes.

[rbmorse (rbmorse)]

This problem does not manifest on 64-bit Fedora 10

[rbmorse (rbmorse)]

This problem does manifest on Ubuntu 9.04 Alpha2 (ADM-64)

[ubunturox (ubunturox-kk)]

I can confirm 8.10 32-bit with HP LaserJet 8150DN and its driving me crazzy

[rbmorse (rbmorse)]

See here:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gtk+2.0/+bug/277404

for additional details. Workarounds in the last few messages of the chain.

[gallen53 (gary-a-allen)]

I'm having problems with this bug as well and have found that the PostScript-3 --> PostScript-2 workaround also has problems.

I'm running 32-bit Ubuntu under kernel 2.6.27-9-generic. My laser printer is an HP-8150N.
If I attempt to print a 14990 byte text file of C source code (call it "foo.c") with the following command:

lp foo.c

The printer output has specific characters replaced with spurious characters, e.g. the "1" is replaced with a "(". If I reduce the size of "foo.c" to a much smaller file then the fault goes away (classic buffer overflow error). If I invoke the PostScript-3 --> PostScript-2 workaround that was previously suggested then the HP-8150N triggers an error fault claiming Memory Overflow. This is a remarkable error considering my HP-8150N has 40 MBytes of memory but the original file is only 14990 bytes big. This same memory overflow error occurs if I set the HP-8150N to use generic PostScript. If I invoke the following command:

gedit foo.c

and attempt to print the file directly from gedit then the output is again corrupted with different character swaps (not surprising given it's probably a buffer overflow bug). If I command gedit to issue a PostScript file (foo.ps), I can get an error-free printer output on the HP-8150N by going root and issuing the following command:

cat foo.ps > /dev/lp0

If I configure a new printer and define it to be a LaserJet-III and make the LaserJet-III the default printer then the fault goes away, e.g. the following command works assuming a LaserJet-III protocol:

lp foo.c

However the LaserJet-III is an ancient design and most of the HP-8150N's capability is lost under that setting.

Is this driver code for the HP-8150N executed on my computer or is it sent to the HP-8150N to run on its processor? If so the fault might also be coupled with a firmware issue on the HP-8150N. Has anyone alerted HP to this problem?

[rbmorse (rbmorse)]

You might try this:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gtk+2.0/+bug/277404/comments/28

[ubunturox (ubunturox-kk)]

Yes, did that a while ago and it helps

On Sun, Feb 15, 2009 at 3:41 PM, rbmorse <email address hidden> wrote:

> You might try this:
>
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gtk+2.0/+bug/277404/comments/28
>
> --
> 2605DN substitues box for chars printing from text app
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/291318
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>

[gallen53 (gary-a-allen)]

Thank you. I tried that fix of going from PostScript-3 to PostScript-2 and it caused my printer's memory to overflow.
My current work around is to treat it like a LaserJet-3 until someone fixes the HPLIP drivers.

Gary

________________________________________
From: <email address hidden> [<email address hidden>] On Behalf Of rbmorse [<email address hidden>]
Sent: Sunday, February 15, 2009 5:41 PM
To: Allen, Gary A. (ARC-TSA)[ELORET]
Subject: [Bug 291318] Re: 2605DN substitues box for chars printing from text app

You might try this:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gtk+2.0/+bug/277404/comments/28

--
2605DN substitues box for chars printing from text app
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/291318
You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
of the bug.

Status in HP Linux Imaging and Printing: Incomplete

Bug description:
Ubuntu 8.10 RC + updates (AMD-64). Problem first manifested with 8.10 Alpha 5.
HPLIP 2.8.7 from repository and 2.8.9 from sourceforge.
ColorLaserJet 2605DN via LAN

This printer works correctly from Ubuntu 8,04.

Under 8.10 and using both HPLIP 2.8.7 and 2.8.9 printing from a text mode application (gedit, or printing a check from GnuCash) results in a few characters being replaced by a character-space sized box. The number "8" and the slash character ("/")seem particularly affected, however other characters or non-printing symbols may also print as a box.

For example, when printing from Gedit the header at the top of the page prints the "f" character in "Page 1 of 1" as a box. The string "888" in the body of the document prints as three boxes, but all other text prints correctly.

When printing checks from Gnucash, the final digit of the year (2008) in the date field prints as a box character.

Documents in Print Preview appear correct.

Printing from graphical applications (open office, The GIMP, etc) works correctly. The HPLIP printer test page prints correctly.

Changing document fonts doesn't make any difference. I have not tried to change character sets because I don't know how.

If I reconfigure the printer settings to use the generic postscript driver the problem does not manifest, however I lose some print control functions.

I have submitted a bug report to Ubuntu's launchpad (277404) but it is still pending.

Would appreciate any suggestions.

[rbmorse (rbmorse)]

I'm told the next version of Ubuntu (9.04), current in Alpha test stage,
will not have the problem I reported. I wonder, however, if you are
seeing something else. I can't imagine why the driver telling the
printer to use the Postscript level 2 instruction subset would cause a
memory overflow.

If you're not adverse to conducting a small science project, could you
load the "correct" driver for your printer and then do the mod on
the /etc/cups/nameofdriver.ppd file, but instead of changing the "3" to
"2", could you instead change the "3" to a "1" ?

The other other work-around that you might want to try is to enter the
Ubuntu printer administration utility. From the top panel:

system > administration > printing

right click on your printer, click properties then click on the "change"
button on the line that reads "make and model." from there, select

/usr/share/ppd/cups-included/postscript.ppd

to load the generic postscript driver.

Ron Morse

On Tue, 2009-02-17 at 06:13 +0000, gallen53 wrote:
> Thank you. I tried that fix of going from PostScript-3 to PostScript-2 and it caused my printer's memory to overflow.
> My current work around is to treat it like a LaserJet-3 until someone fixes the HPLIP drivers.
>
> Gary
>
> ________________________________________
> From: <email address hidden> [<email address hidden>] On Behalf Of rbmorse [<email address hidden>]
> Sent: Sunday, February 15, 2009 5:41 PM
> To: Allen, Gary A. (ARC-TSA)[ELORET]
> Subject: [Bug 291318] Re: 2605DN substitues box for chars printing from text app
>
> You might try this:
>
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gtk+2.0/+bug/277404/comments/28
>
> --
> 2605DN substitues box for chars printing from text app
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/291318
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>
> Status in HP Linux Imaging and Printing: Incomplete
>
> Bug description:
> Ubuntu 8.10 RC + updates (AMD-64). Problem first manifested with 8.10 Alpha 5.
> HPLIP 2.8.7 from repository and 2.8.9 from sourceforge.
> ColorLaserJet 2605DN via LAN
>
> This printer works correctly from Ubuntu 8,04.
>
> Under 8.10 and using both HPLIP 2.8.7 and 2.8.9 printing from a text
> mode application (gedit, or printing a check from GnuCash) results in a
> few characters being replaced by a character-space sized box. The
> number "8" and the slash character ("/")seem particularly affected,
> however other characters or non-printing symbols may also print as a
> box.
>
> For example, when printing from Gedit the header at the top of the page
> prints the "f" character in "Page 1 of 1" as a box. The string "888" in
> the body of the document prints as three boxes, but all other text
> prints correctly.
>
> When printing checks from Gnucash, the final digit of the year (2008) in
> the date field prints as a box character.
>
> Documents in Print Preview appear correct.
>
> Printing from graphical applications (open office, The GIMP, etc) works
> correctly. The HPLIP printer test page prints correctly.
>
> Changing document fonts doesn't make any difference. I have not tried to
> change character sets because I don't know how.
>
> ...