Brother MFC-L8650CDW cuts top of the page

[Tomi Leppänen]

I've installed Brother's drivers from http://support.brother.com/g/b/downloadlist.aspx?c=gb&lang=en&prod=mfcl8650cdw_eu_cn&os=128

They've worked fine until now. For some reason even if I try to print test page (the page with Ubuntu logos) the top of the page is not printed. It looks like it's printed outside of the page as if the page contents are shifted up. Printer's self test page prints just fine.

We really need this printer to do our work.

I don't know if cups is the right package for this bug but feel free to correct it.

What I've tried already:
Reinstalling the Brother drivers (the same version as newer wasn't available). After that reinstalling the printer on printer settings.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.04
Package: cups 1.7.2-0ubuntu1.6
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.13.0-59.98-generic 3.13.11-ckt22
Uname: Linux 3.13.0-59-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.14.1-0ubuntu3.11
Architecture: amd64
CupsErrorLog: Error: [Errno 13] Lupa evätty: '/var/log/cups/error_log'
CurrentDesktop: Unity
CurrentDmesg: Error: command ['sh', '-c', 'dmesg | comm -13 --nocheck-order /var/log/dmesg -'] failed with exit code 1: comm: /var/log/dmesg: Permission denied
Date: Wed Jul 29 11:33:53 2015
KernLog:

Lpstat:
 device for Brother-HL-3040CN-series: usb://Brother/HL-3040CN%20series?serial=000D1J577489
 device for Brother-MFC-L8650CDW: usb://Brother/MFC-L8650CDW?serial=E73477D4J121859
 device for Lexmark-X5490: usb://Lexmark/5400%20Series?serial=22N018014002OL2&interface=1
MachineType: System manufacturer System Product Name
Papersize: a4
PpdFiles:
 Lexmark-X5490: Generic text-only printer
 Hewlett-Packard-HP-LaserJet-2100-Series: HP LaserJet 2100 Foomatic/pxlmono (recommended)
 Brother-MFC-L8650CDW: Brother MFC-L8650CDW CUPS
 Brother-HL-3040CN-series: Brother HL3040CN CUPS
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-59-generic root=UUID=9ce2c9f0-d271-4bba-bff2-c46fb4d7f2cd ro splash quiet vt.handoff=7
SourcePackage: cups
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to trusty on 2014-12-01 (239 days ago)
dmi.bios.date: 07/26/2010
dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
dmi.bios.version: 0701
dmi.board.asset.tag: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.board.name: P5G41T-M LE
dmi.board.vendor: ASUSTeK Computer INC.
dmi.board.version: Rev X.0x
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: Asset-1234567890
dmi.chassis.type: 3
dmi.chassis.vendor: Chassis Manufacture
dmi.chassis.version: Chassis Version
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvr0701:bd07/26/2010:svnSystemmanufacturer:pnSystemProductName:pvrSystemVersion:rvnASUSTeKComputerINC.:rnP5G41T-MLE:rvrRevX.0x:cvnChassisManufacture:ct3:cvrChassisVersion:
dmi.product.name: System Product Name
dmi.product.version: System Version
dmi.sys.vendor: System manufacturer
mtime.conffile..etc.cups.cupsd.conf: 2014-12-01T12:53:24.694185

[Tomi Leppänen (tomin)]

Added missing /var/log/cups/error_log.

[Tomi Leppänen (tomin)]

Added missing /var/log/dmesg.

[Tomi Leppänen (tomin)]

I found a similar bug for HP printers that has not been fixed and it's been two years since it was reported.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/cups/+bug/1069507

[Tomi Leppänen (tomin)]

I tried downgrading some of the packages upgraded recently. I downgraded ghostsciprt, ghostscript-x and libgs9 but that didn't help. I tried to downgrade libcupsfilters{,-dev}, cups-filters but I couldn't because an old cups-filters-core-drivers was not available! Therefore I don't know if cups-filters was the problem. Is there anything that I could try?

We ***must*** have this printer working. At the moment we can't really print ***anything*** because ***everything*** is shifted by 3 cm on the page and the top of the page is not printed.

It is very annoying when something is broken by an upgrade.

[Tomi Leppänen (tomin)]

Hey! Downgrading ghostsciprt, ghostscript-x and libgs9 did work but in order to work it required rebooting the computer.

$ LANG=C apt-cache policy ghostscript{,-x} libgs9
ghostscript:
  Installed: 9.10~dfsg-0ubuntu10
  Candidate: 9.10~dfsg-0ubuntu10.3
  Version table:
     9.10~dfsg-0ubuntu10.3 0
        500 http://fi.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty-updates/main amd64 Packages
 *** 9.10~dfsg-0ubuntu10 0
        500 http://fi.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
ghostscript-x:
  Installed: 9.10~dfsg-0ubuntu10
  Candidate: 9.10~dfsg-0ubuntu10.3
  Version table:
     9.10~dfsg-0ubuntu10.3 0
        500 http://fi.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty-updates/main amd64 Packages
 *** 9.10~dfsg-0ubuntu10 0
        500 http://fi.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
libgs9:
  Installed: 9.10~dfsg-0ubuntu10
  Candidate: 9.10~dfsg-0ubuntu10.3
  Version table:
     9.10~dfsg-0ubuntu10.3 0
        500 http://fi.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty-updates/main amd64 Packages
 *** 9.10~dfsg-0ubuntu10 0
        500 http://fi.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
$

[Tomi Leppänen (tomin)]

The problem is not in cups but in ghostscript. Downgrading ghostscript solves the problem.

[Dave Gilbert (ubuntu-treblig)]

Triaged: Reporter has tracked it down to a regression in a particular package
Medium: 'A problem with a non-essential hardware component'
Also added regression-update tag

[Till Kamppeter (till-kamppeter)]

Tomin, you downgraded from 9.10~dfsg-0ubuntu10.3 to 9.10~dfsg-0ubuntu10, there are two versions inbetween: 0ubuntu10.1 and 0ubuntu10.2. Can you also try these versions so that we know exactly which change caused the regression? Thanks.

[Tomi Leppänen (tomin)]

Hi. Those versions of the package doesn't seem to exist on server. I can't download either binary or source packages of them using apt-get.

I tried to fetch source packages with bzr but I can't seem to get those versions. I can get 9.10~dfsg-0ubuntu10 with bzr branch ubuntu:trusty/ghostscript but how can I get versions 9.10~dfsg-0ubuntu10.1 and 9.10~dfsg-0ubuntu10.2?

[Tomi Leppänen (tomin)]

Figured out how to fetch them. bzr branch lp:ubuntu/trusty-proposed/ghostscript

But I'm not able to reproduce this anymore. I don't know why but 9.10~dfsg-0ubuntu10.3 (built from source package) and 9.10~dfsg-0ubuntu10.4 (from security) work both just fine. I guess this bug is invalid now.

[Till Kamppeter (till-kamppeter)]

Closing, not reproducible any more by the original poster.