Parallel Printer - a) difficult to configure, b) didn't work until sudo chmod 755 /usr/lib/cups/backend

[John Bingham]

Binary package hint: cups

a) The System/Administration/Printing GUI doesn't suggest how to configure a really old parallel port printer such as my Canon BJ-10SX. I eventually found that it was Other then parallel:/dev/lp0, then Canon BJ-10e.

b) Then it still didn't work until it occurred to me to check the permissions of the file in the error report (/usr/lib/cups/backend failed). They were 700 and changing to 755 seems to have fixed it.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
Date: Sat Dec 5 15:35:24 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
Lpstat:
 device for Canon-BJ-10e: parallel:/dev/lp0
 device for PDF: cups-pdf:/
MachineType: Dell Computer Corporation Latitude D600
Package: cups 1.4.1-5ubuntu2.1
Papersize: a4
PccardctlIdent:
 Socket 0:
   no product info available
 Socket 1:
   product info: "O2Micro", "SmartCardBus Reader", "V1.0", ""
   manfid: 0xffff, 0x0001
PccardctlStatus:
 Socket 0:
   no card
 Socket 1:
   5.0V 16-bit PC Card
   Subdevice 0 (function 0) [unbound]
PpdFiles:
 Canon-BJ-10e: Canon BJ-10e Foomatic/bj10e (recommended)
 PDF: Generic CUPS-PDF Printer
ProcCmdLine: root=UUID=4026f1f1-3328-4f27-91d2-6974ebad8e67 ro quiet splash
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-14.48-generic
SourcePackage: cups
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-14-generic i686
XsessionErrors:
 (gnome-settings-daemon:1695): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_propagate_error: assertion `src != NULL' failed
 (polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1:1796): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_once_init_leave: assertion `initialization_value != 0' failed
 (nautilus:1786): Eel-CRITICAL **: eel_preferences_get_boolean: assertion `preferences_is_initialized ()' failed
dmi.bios.date: 06/29/2005
dmi.bios.vendor: Dell Computer Corporation
dmi.bios.version: A16
dmi.board.vendor: Dell Computer Corporation
dmi.chassis.type: 8
dmi.chassis.vendor: Dell Computer Corporation
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnDellComputerCorporation:bvrA16:bd06/29/2005:svnDellComputerCorporation:pnLatitudeD600:pvr:rvnDellComputerCorporation:rn:rvr:cvnDellComputerCorporation:ct8:cvr:
dmi.product.name: Latitude D600
dmi.sys.vendor: Dell Computer Corporation

[Rolf Leggewie (r0lf)]

It looks like indeed the parallel port is no longer shown as a connection option. What makes this worse is that it makes it completely impossible to add parallel-port printers via the web interface.

[Rolf Leggewie (r0lf)]

John, do you have the following kernel modules loaded?

ppdev
lp
parport
parport_pc

[John Bingham (john-ukmail)]

Sorry Rolf, I don't know what was there when I filed the report; was it
November 2009? It was an old laptop (old enough to have a parallel
port), dual booting Win-XP and Ubuntu. XP broke itself, so I
reinstalled everything, and I haven't so far since had the need to get
the printer working.

We're currently touring Italy, but if it's important, I can try setting
up the printer again, checking what modules are loaded, when we get back
to the UK.

On 25/02/10 23:19, Rolf Leggewie wrote:
> John, do you have the following kernel modules loaded?
>
> ppdev
> lp
> parport
> parport_pc
>

[[e-mail] (ichapman)]

http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=95405&p=545974#p545974
I have done the above on a couple of mint distros, debianmint included and it enables the parallel port option in cups. Ian.