Print dialog box shows same printer twice

[Timur Tabi]

I have set up a single HP printer which is attached to my network. The setup process went smoothly, and when I open the Printers system setup panel, I see only my printer there.

However, when I print from an application, and that application uses the system print dialog box, my printer appears twice. One entry, matching the name correctly, works fine. The other, which a slightly changed name, does not work at all. See attached screenshot.

Applications that have their own print dialog box do not have this problem. For example, Firefox shows only my printer once. Same thing with Libre Office.

Description: Ubuntu 20.04.2 LTS
Release: 20.04

[Timur Tabi (timur-tabi)]

If it helps, avahi-browse shows this:

+ vboxnet0 IPv6 adb-unidentified _adb._tcp local
+ vboxnet0 IPv4 adb-unidentified _adb._tcp local
+ enp4s0 IPv6 adb-unidentified _adb._tcp local
+ enp4s0 IPv4 adb-unidentified _adb._tcp local
+ vboxnet0 IPv6 UBUNTU Microsoft Windows Network local
+ vboxnet0 IPv4 UBUNTU Microsoft Windows Network local
+ enp4s0 IPv6 mac-mini Microsoft Windows Network local
+ enp4s0 IPv6 UBUNTU Microsoft Windows Network local
+ enp4s0 IPv4 mac-mini Microsoft Windows Network local
+ enp4s0 IPv4 UBUNTU Microsoft Windows Network local
+ vboxnet0 IPv6 ubuntu Apple File Sharing local
+ vboxnet0 IPv4 ubuntu Apple File Sharing local
+ enp4s0 IPv6 ubuntu Apple File Sharing local
+ enp4s0 IPv4 ubuntu Apple File Sharing local
+ vboxnet0 IPv6 UBUNTU _device-info._tcp local
+ vboxnet0 IPv4 UBUNTU _device-info._tcp local
+ enp4s0 IPv6 UBUNTU _device-info._tcp local
+ enp4s0 IPv4 UBUNTU _device-info._tcp local
+ enp4s0 IPv6 mac-mini Web Site local
+ enp4s0 IPv6 mac-mini (2) Web Site local
+ enp4s0 IPv4 mac-mini Web Site local
+ enp4s0 IPv4 mac-mini (2) Web Site local
+ enp4s0 IPv6 mac-mini VNC Remote Access local
+ enp4s0 IPv4 mac-mini VNC Remote Access local
+ enp4s0 IPv6 mac-mini SFTP File Transfer local
+ enp4s0 IPv4 mac-mini SFTP File Transfer local
+ enp4s0 IPv6 mac-mini SSH Remote Terminal local
+ enp4s0 IPv4 mac-mini SSH Remote Terminal local
+ enp4s0 IPv4 googlerpc _googlerpc._tcp local
+ enp4s0 IPv4 SHIELD-Android-TV-5db58261fa24c1ec37c555ae7e941acd _googlecast._tcp local
+ lo IPv4 UBUNTU Microsoft Windows Network local
+ lo IPv4 UBUNTU _device-info._tcp local
+ lo IPv4 ubuntu Apple File Sharing local
+ enp4s0 IPv4 SHIELD _androidtvremote._tcp local
+ enp4s0 IPv4 SHIELD _nv_shield_remote._tcp local
+ enp4s0 IPv4 HP OfficeJet Pro 9010 series [620D1E] ...

[Ubuntu Foundations Team Bug Bot (crichton)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. It seems that your bug report is not filed about a specific source package though, rather it is just filed against Ubuntu in general. It is important that bug reports be filed about source packages so that people interested in the package can find the bugs about it. You can find some hints about determining what package your bug might be about at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/FindRightPackage. You might also ask for help in the #ubuntu-bugs irc channel on Freenode.

To change the source package that this bug is filed about visit https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/1931612/+editstatus and add the package name in the text box next to the word Package.

[This is an automated message. I apologize if it reached you inappropriately; please just reply to this message indicating so.]

[brian_p (claremont102)]

This very probably not a bug in cups or any other printing package,
but a GTK bug. See

https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=51&t=348963

[Timur Tabi (timur-tabi)]

This bug is a little different because the Printers system setting only shows one printer. See attached screenshot. So even though I have only one printer configured, it shows up twice in the actual print dialog box.

Also, I'm using Kubuntu.

[brian_p (claremont102)]

The print dialog box is generated GTK. The Printers system setup
dialog is probably generated by Qt.

Stop cups:

  systemctl stop cups

Which entry remains in the GTK print dialog box?

I would guess - the first one. Therefore cups is not involved
in its display.

[brian_p (claremont102)]

Correction; the second entry disappears.

[Timur Tabi (timur-tabi)]

"systemctl stop cups" removes the wrong entry -- the one that actually works. So now I can't print any more.

Interestingly, "systemctl start cups" does not restore the printer. Looks like I will have to reboot now to restore printing.

[brian_p (claremont102)]

> "systemctl stop cups" removes the wrong entry -- the
> one that actually works. So now I can't print any more.

That's because that entry is controlled by cups. The
other one isn't. As I said, cups is not involved in
producing the duplicate entry. File a bug against GTK.

  systemctl start cups-browsed

to get your working entry back.

[Timur Tabi (timur-tabi)]

https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gtk/-/issues/4025 filed

Thanks for triaging this bug.

[Timur Tabi (timur-tabi)]

The GTK developers tell me that this is fixed in the latest version of libgtk. How do I upgrade libgtk to the latest version on Ubuntu 20.04? Is there a way I can pull in an update for just this package from a newer version of Ubuntu, without breaking everything else?

[brian_p (claremont102)]

Hello again, Timur,

Thanks for pushing this upstream. In your first post you
said:

> Applications that have their own print dialog box do not
> have this problem. For example, Firefox shows only my
> printer once. Same thing with Libre Office.

LibreOffice gets all its print dialog entries via cups. It
does not use the GTK print dialog. That is why the issue
does not show up there. In which of your applications does
the issue appear?

Also, what is your Firefox version?

Cheers,

Brian.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Tero Gusto (tero-gusto)]

I also see this in Ubuntu 20.04 Gnome. I have installed my Brother HL-L3270CDW printer using the official driver, for all features to be available:

https://support.brother.com/g/b/producttop.aspx?c=us&lang=en&prod=hll3270cdw_us_eu_as

Now, if I open the "Printers" dialogue, the manually installed Brother printer instance is shown as "Brother HL-L3270CDW CUPS", as well as a doublet called "Brother Brother HL-L3270CDW series[en]".

If I remove the automatically added printer, it immediately re-appears.

See also these two issues, where many Ubuntu 20.04 users see an already installed printer twice, so it seems quite a few users are affected by this:

https://askubuntu.com/questions/996020/cannot-stop-network-printers-are-being-automatically-added
https://askubuntu.com/questions/345083/how-do-i-disable-automatic-remote-printer-installation

Things I tried, suggested on pages above:

#1, With this, Libreoffice Write stalls for 30-40 seconds:
enable-dbus=no

#2 This didn't make any difference:
sudo systemctl stop cups-browsed
sudo systemctl disable cups-browsed

Shows same printer twice:
Printers (via Ubuntu GUI)
Image Viewer (default, with Ubuntu)
LibreOffice Write

Shows only the correct printer:
Firefox (and other browsers)

Like Timur Tabi (timur-tabi) wrote on 2021-06-14:

> The GTK developers tell me that this is fixed in the latest version of libgtk. How do I upgrade libgtk to the latest version on Ubuntu 20.04? Is there a way I can pull in an update for just this package from a newer version of Ubuntu, without breaking everything else?

Is there a way we can try this latest version of libgtk on Ubuntu 20.04?