efax-0.9a Error: can't read multi-strip TIFF files

[Lex Ross]

Binary package hint: efax

I am having a problem with sending faxes that I didn't have on earlier Ubuntu releases, I noticed it under 10.04 Lucid Lynx with current updates just recently.

Whether I am printing to efax-gtk socket printer or just using faxes from the queue that are there from previous Ubuntu release, I am getting an error message from efax as follows:

efax-0.9a: 18:45:22 Error: can't read multi-strip TIFF files
efax-0.9a: 18:45:22 Error: missing offset to TIFF data
efax-0.9a: 18:45:22 finished - unrecoverable error

This is on x64 architecture, and has been reported on x386 as well: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1426263&page=1

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
Package: efax 1:0.9a-19
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-22.36-generic 2.6.32.11+drm33.2
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-22-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Architecture: amd64
Date: Fri Jun 4 18:51:39 2010
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS "Lucid Lynx" - Release amd64 (20100429)
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=ru_RU.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: efax

[lucquy (didier-hardy8)]

Since the update to lucid, I got the same.
Efax 1:0.9a-19 from lucid /universe.
Uname : 2.6.32-22-generic i686

[lucquy (didier-hardy8)]

in addition to previous, efax-gtk 3.2.3 works well.

[Lordinux (lordinux)]

I've read (http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=577401) that there is a workaround :

The workaround would be for efax to call gs with an additional option

  -dMaxStripSize=0

A tiff file manually created with

    gs -q -sDEVICE=tiffg3 -dNOPAUSE -dMaxStripSize=0 \
       -sOutputFile=sample.%03d sample.ps </dev/null

was sent without problems.

But I don't see where I can modifie the way efax calls gs : it's not in /etc/efax.rc. I hope it's not in source code...
I can convert manually a postscript file to a tiff file using the above command line but then I can't tell to efax-gtk how to use a tiff file instead of the postscript file it expects...

[temporalnexus (temporalnexus-gmail)]

I got my Bluetooth zoom faxmodem working over bt under Linux Mint 9, which is a derivative of Ubuntu 10.04, which is a derivative of Debian...

I am running the same version of efax 0.9a with the same results.

I have seen this problem in other forums with no solution yet.

Although some other bug trackers have this upgraded to an "important" issue.

-Kurt

[Lordinux (lordinux)]

As a workaround, I now use a new version of efax-gtk which comes with its own correct efax. See https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/efax-gtk/+bug/536639