Printing errors after upgrade

[Wolf Rogner]

Binary package hint: cups

Updated cups and pdf printing today (auto upgrade)

Now printing double-sided does not work (even when set on the printer). Printing of PDFs stalls and does not print anything.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.10
Package: cups 1.4.4-6ubuntu2.1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.35-22.35-generic 2.6.35.4
Uname: Linux 2.6.35-22-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Architecture: amd64
Date: Tue Oct 19 23:07:49 2010
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 9.10 "Karmic Koala" - Release Candidate amd64 (20091020.3)
Lpstat: device for HP-Color-LaserJet-CP2025dn: hp:/net/HP_Color_LaserJet_CP2025dn?zc=NPI33DED8
MachineType: Hewlett-Packard HP Compaq 8510w
Papersize: letter
PccardctlStatus:
 Socket 0:
   no card
 Socket 1:
   3.3V 16-bit PC Card
   Subdevice 0 (function 0) bound to driver "pata_pcmcia"
PpdFiles: HP-Color-LaserJet-CP2025dn: HP Color LaserJet cp2025dn pcl3, hpcups 3.10.6
ProcCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-22-generic root=UUID=b921775a-49a7-48e8-985e-1907bc29f71e ro quiet splash
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_GB:en
 LANG=en_GB.utf8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: cups
dmi.bios.date: 07/25/2007
dmi.bios.vendor: Hewlett-Packard
dmi.bios.version: 68MVD Ver. F.05
dmi.board.name: 30C5
dmi.board.vendor: Hewlett-Packard
dmi.board.version: KBC Version 71.32
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: CNU7402CLM
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: Hewlett-Packard
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnHewlett-Packard:bvr68MVDVer.F.05:bd07/25/2007:svnHewlett-Packard:pnHPCompaq8510w:pvrF.05:rvnHewlett-Packard:rn30C5:rvrKBCVersion71.32:cvnHewlett-Packard:ct10:cvr:
dmi.product.name: HP Compaq 8510w
dmi.product.version: F.05
dmi.sys.vendor: Hewlett-Packard

[upandacross (bren-upandacross)]

I'm going to take a chance that the problem I found on 11.10 is related to this bug. I am posting here although cups-pdf has generated many other discussions elsewhere where various suggestions have been made with respect to file permissions, SELinux, Apparmor, etc. As is usually the case, I tried several until finding "the main thing". I'm too tired to retrace my steps and see if any of the other suggestions are actually needed, but the problem I found was definitely a show-stopper.

As distributed, /etc/cups/cups-pdf.conf allows the path for gs to default to /usr/bin/gs and that is not correct on my 11.10 system where the correct path to gs is /usr/local/bin/ga. I see in you CupsErrorLog.txt file that your system is similarly configured from this line:

Ghostscript command line: /usr/bin/gs

The following is a diff of the change to cups-pdf-conf that did the trick for me:

224c224
< GhostScript /usr/bin/gs
---
> GhostScript /usr/local/bin/gs

Clues that you may have this problem are found in /var/log/cups/cups-pdf_log after setting LogType to 7 in cups-pdf.conf. Check your log file for the debug line showing how gs is invoked and confirm that the path is "/usr/bin/gs". If you, like me, have a system where the path should be "/usr/local/bin/gs", then the PDF print will fail full stop. Another clue is that the "[DEBUG] output file unlinked" line right after invoking gs looks something like this:

{your date and time} [DEBUG] output file unlinked (/{whatever your home directory is}/PDF/{whatever the OutputFile name was for gs})

The output file is being deleted because the gs invocation failed (silently, as far as the cups-pdf_log file is concerned ).

Finally, you will see in the log file:

[ERROR] failed to set file mode for PDF file (non fatal) {your output file name}

I'm slightly amused that cups records this as non-fatal as in "IT DIDN'T WORK". While it is true that the file mode could not be set, this is not a permission problem as much as it's the problem of trying to set permissions on a non-existent file .

I spent a lot of time on this problem and never found another post that came to this conclusion. I hope this saves you some trouble.

[gf (gf-interlinks-deactivatedaccount)]

Hello Wolf,
Thank you for submitting this bug and reporting a problem with cups and printing dbl-sided/pdfs. You made this bug report some time ago and Ubuntu has been updated since then.

I am not sure but it seems you found a solution to this problem. But none-the-less, it should have worked "out of the box."

Could you confirm that this is no longer a problem in the recent version of Ubuntu and that we can close the ticket?

If it is still a problem, are you still interested in finding a solution to this bug?
If you are, could you let us know, and in the current version, run the following (only once):
apport-collect BUGNUMBER
and upload the updated logs and and any other logs that are relevant for this particular issue.

Thank you again for helping make Ubuntu better.
G

[Wolf Rogner (war-rsb)]

Bug fixed since several versions

[Wolf Rogner (war-rsb)]

can be closed

[gf (gf-interlinks-deactivatedaccount)]

Thanks for the update, Wolf. And thanks for changing the status on the ticket.
Have a great day!
:)
G