Ghostscript is not able to render certain PDF files

[Mezgrman]

NOTE: The problem here is that Ghostscript is not able to render the files attached to comment #4 and comment #5. See comment #6.

Original report:

A few days ago, printing on a shared HP printer which is connected to a machine running Windows XP worked fine, but today it failed. I think it has to do with some recent CUPS / hplip updates. I don't know for sure, though.

=> INFORMATION: The printer in question is "mezgrPrinter", the other printers are somewhere else and I can not test them right now. <=

System (lsb_release -rd)
Description: Ubuntu 11.10
Release: 11.10

Package version
hplip:
  Installiert: 3.11.7-1ubuntu3.1
  Kandidat: 3.11.7-1ubuntu3.1
  Versionstabelle:
 *** 3.11.7-1ubuntu3.1 0
        500 http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ oneiric-updates/main i386 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     3.11.7-1ubuntu3 0
        500 http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ oneiric/main i386 Packages

What I expected to happen:
The document I wanted to print is being printed on the printer connected to the Windows machine.

What happened instead:
The printing software on the Windows machine started up, just like it does when a printer job is being received, but instead of printing, the printer did nothing. On my Ubuntu notebook, I saw an error dialog.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.10
Package: hplip 3.11.7-1ubuntu3.1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.0.0-14.23-generic 3.0.9
Uname: Linux 3.0.0-14-generic i686
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
ApportVersion: 1.23-0ubuntu4
Architecture: i386
Date: Wed Dec 28 12:23:05 2011
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 11.10 "Oneiric Ocelot" - Release i386 (20111012)
Lpstat:
 device for HL-2030-series: usb://Brother/HL-2030%20series?serial=C0J887687
 device for K-Block-Drucker: dnssd://Officejet%20Pro%208500%20A910%20%5B0B0C3F%5D._pdl-datastream._tcp.local/
 device for mezgrPrinter: smb://METZLESHEIMNETZ/GABI/mezgrPrinter
MachineType: Hewlett-Packard Compaq Presario CQ60 Notebook PC
Papersize: a4
PpdFiles:
 K-Block-Drucker: HP Officejet Pro 8500 a910, hpcups 3.11.7
 mezgrPrinter: HP Deskjet f2400 Series, hpcups 3.11.7
 HL-2030-series: Brother HL-2035 Foomatic/hl1250 (recommended)
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.0.0-14-generic root=UUID=3e5f88e8-fcc6-40f3-a374-fc9a11ffd81e ro
SourcePackage: hplip
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 10/17/2008
dmi.bios.vendor: Hewlett-Packard
dmi.bios.version: F.31
dmi.board.name: 303C
dmi.board.vendor: Wistron
dmi.board.version: 08.47
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: Wistron
dmi.chassis.version: N/A
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnHewlett-Packard:bvrF.31:bd10/17/2008:svnHewlett-Packard:pnCompaqPresarioCQ60NotebookPC:pvrF.31:rvnWistron:rn303C:rvr08.47:cvnWistron:ct10:cvrN/A:
dmi.product.name: Compaq Presario CQ60 Notebook PC
dmi.product.version: F.31
dmi.sys.vendor: Hewlett-Packard

[Till Kamppeter (till-kamppeter)]

Please follow the instructions of the sections "CUPS error_log" and "Capturing print job data" on https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingPrintingProblems. Thanks.

[Mezgrman (mezgrman-o)]

OK, here's the error_log file.

[Mezgrman (mezgrman-o)]

The spooled printout...

[Mezgrman (mezgrman-o)]

...and the original printout file.

[Till Kamppeter (till-kamppeter)]

Problem is not the fact that your printer is shared from a Windows box, the real problem is a Ghostscript problem./ Ghostscript is not able to render your file, both the original and spooled files.

Running

gs printout_original.pdf

or

gs printout.pdf

in a terminal window shortly pops up a window in which parts of the page appear and then errors out like this

GPL Ghostscript 9.04 (2011-08-05)
Copyright (C) 2011 Artifex Software, Inc. All rights reserved.
This software comes with NO WARRANTY: see the file PUBLIC for details.
Processing pages 1 through 1.
Page 1
Can't find CID font "ArialMT".
Substituting CID font /Adobe-Identity for /ArialMT, see doc/Use.htm#CIDFontSubstitution.
The substitute CID font "Adobe-Identity" is not provided either. Will continue, but content may be missing.
   **** Warning: can't process font stream, loading font by the name.
Can't find CID font "ArialMT".
Substituting CID font /Adobe-Identity for /ArialMT, see doc/Use.htm#CIDFontSubstitution.
The substitute CID font "Adobe-Identity" is not provided either. Will continue, but content may be missing.
   **** Error reading a content stream. The page may be incomplete.
Error: /typecheck in --run--
Operand stack:
   --dict:10/10(L)-- 1.0 1.0 --dict:10/10(L)-- 1 10 ArialMT 3.9 --dict:5/5(L)-- --dict:5/5(L)-- ArialMT --dict:10/12(ro)(G)-- --nostringval-- CIDFontObject --dict:6/6(L)-- --dict:6/6(L)-- 13 Adobe-Identity
Execution stack:
   %interp_exit .runexec2 --nostringval-- --nostringval-- --nostringval-- 2 %stopped_push --nostringval-- --nostringval-- --nostringval-- false 1 %stopped_push 1910 1 3 %oparray_pop 1909 1 3 %oparray_pop 1893 1 3 %oparray_pop --nostringval-- --nostringval-- 2 1 1 --nostringval-- %for_pos_int_continue --nostringval-- --nostringval-- --nostringval-- --nostringval-- %array_continue --nostringval-- --nostringval-- --nostringval-- --nostringval-- --nostringval--
Dictionary stack:
   --dict:1157/1684(ro)(G)-- --dict:1/20(G)-- --dict:82/200(L)-- --dict:82/200(L)-- --dict:108/127(ro)(G)-- --dict:291/300(ro)(G)-- --dict:23/30(L)-- --dict:6/8(L)-- --dict:21/40(L)-- --dict:20/25(L)-- --dict:1/1(ro)(G)-- --dict:3/5(L)-- --dict:6/15(L)--
Current allocation mode is local
Last OS error: 2
GPL Ghostscript 9.04: Unrecoverable error, exit code 1

This happens also when Ghostscript is used to raster your print job as one can see in your error_log.

[Till Kamppeter (till-kamppeter)]

The problem is fixed in the GIT master of Ghostscript, so in Ubuntu it will go away in Precise as Ghostscript 9.05 will be used then.

[Till Kamppeter (till-kamppeter)]

For testing and having the problem already solved under Oneiric, you can apply the fix using the attached tarball, but note that the fix gets overwritten if Ghostscript gets updated and needs to get reapplied then.

To apply the fix do

cd /usr/share/ghostscript/9.04/
sudo tar -xvzf lp909331.tar.gz

and you wll be immediately able to print and display your file.

[Mezgrman (mezgrman-o)]

Thanks! The fix works just fine, now I can print the document. :)

[Till Kamppeter (till-kamppeter)]

Fixed in Ghostscript 9.05, which is (at least as pre-release snapshot) uploaded to Precise now. Closing ...

Note that the fix is a bigger change and so not suitable for an SRU in Oneiric.