cannot set lpd printer with system-config-printer

[Michele Giacomoli]

Binary package hint: system-config-printer

Im using Ubuntu Jaunty.

I have a printer shared with some computers over ethernet using a d-link printserver.

To install it on my computer I run system-config-printer, then new -> printer, after this i expand the Network Printer tree and click on LPD/LPR Host or printer. In the right side in "host" box i write the ip of the printserver (192.168.1.240) and in the other box i write the name of the printer I set in the printserver (LASER). Now I should click foward button but... i cannot because the Foward button isn't enabled! Did I make a mistake? If I have to do in other way in my opinion it should be explained better.

P.S. the version of system-config-printer is 1.1.3+git20090218-0ubuntu4

[Michele Giacomoli (michele-giacomoli)]

Can anybody confirm this problem? Is there a solution for this one? It seems system-config-printer doesn't see any printer linked to the printserver, but i'm sure it hasn't any problem because with other computers and distros it works.

[Michele Giacomoli (michele-giacomoli)]

For me is fixed with the update of yesterday (1.1.3+git20090218-0ubuntu7)

You can close the bug

[Till Kamppeter (till-kamppeter)]

For me the problem is still there in the current version. If I type in a queue name without choosing an entry from the drop-down list before, the "Forward" button does not get activated.

Tim, doyou have a patch for that?

[Tim Waugh (twaugh)]

By "current version" you mean the 1.1.x branch?

[Till Kamppeter (till-kamppeter)]

Yes. The exact version is 1.1.3+git20090218-0ubuntu7.

[Tim Waugh (twaugh)]

That doesn't sound like 1.1.x. To avoid any confusion, have you tried 4938e0fdc4a23e6a53bb8326f8d0e3bdf0430a96, which is the current 1.1.x HEAD?

[Michele Giacomoli (michele-giacomoli)]

For me to have system-config-printer working you only need to have the
latest ubuntu version (actually the 1.1.3+git20090218-0ubuntu7 version,
check it using synaptic in system, administration). After you have run the
program in LPD/LPR Host or Printer you have to specify in the host box the
host of the printserver (for example 192.168.1.10) then click the examine
button. After a few seconds the foward button became enabled, so you can
also insert the printer name in the box below and then click the foward
button.

For me it works in this way without applying any patch

2009/3/12 Tim Waugh <email address hidden>

> That doesn't sound like 1.1.x. To avoid any confusion, have you tried
> 4938e0fdc4a23e6a53bb8326f8d0e3bdf0430a96, which is the current 1.1.x
> HEAD?
>
> --
> cannot set lpd printer with system-config-printer
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/338291
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>

[Till Kamppeter (till-kamppeter)]

I tried the "Probe" button after entering the IP address of a network printer from HP (LaserJet P3005). This made system-config-printer freeze (moving a window over the new printer wizard window wipes out the content of the new printer wizard window). Seems that the probing process was running and never finishing (I saw typical LPD queue names, like "PASSTHRU", "lp", "PORT1", "LPT0", ... be written into the console from which I started system-config-printer, even after removing the frozen windows with "xkill". But this is another bug.

So I tried without using the "Probe" button, by only typing IP and queue name and this does not activate the "Forward" button.

I did not try the GIT HEAD after the Ubuntu Feature Freeze. I made the last snapshot a day before Feature Freeze and after that I only applied patches from upstream to fix bugs.

[Till Kamppeter (till-kamppeter)]

One additional info: The printer supports LPD (port 515):

till@till-laptop:~/ubuntu/cups/bzr/build-area/cups-1.3.9$ nmap 192.168.2.110

Starting Nmap 4.76 ( http://nmap.org ) at 2009-03-12 16:36 CET
Interesting ports on noname (192.168.2.110):
Not shown: 991 closed ports
PORT STATE SERVICE
21/tcp open ftp
23/tcp open telnet
80/tcp open http
280/tcp open http-mgmt
443/tcp open https
515/tcp open printer
631/tcp open ipp
9100/tcp open jetdirect
14000/tcp open unknown

Nmap done: 1 IP address (1 host up) scanned in 6.16 seconds
till@till-laptop:~/ubuntu/cups/bzr/build-area/cups-1.3.9$

[Tim Waugh (twaugh)]

Till, why not just try 1.1.x and see if it's fixed there? If it is (and there have been changes in this area as you can see for yourself), you can just fetch the fix and build it in your package. This is generally what a package maintainer does...

[Michele Giacomoli (michele-giacomoli)]

The problem already exist. In fact if you do something before the steps I described in my last comment then also if you do the right things the foward button isn't enabled. Till, you have an HP printer, maybe you should have to use the HP Printer (HPLIP) section, did you try to use that system? About the freeze also my system-config-printer freeze for some second, maybe you should wait a little more.

[Till Kamppeter (till-kamppeter)]

I have tried the current snapshot now and it is even worse: The "Probe" button is permanantly gray. It does not get activated when typing in an IP.

When typing a queue name, the "Forward" button does not get activated. The drop-down list is empty (this is OK, as the queue names which there before were not useful).

Now I cannot set up an LPD printer any more.

Note that I use the printers wioth HPLIP for daily use.

[Till Kamppeter (till-kamppeter)]

Tim, I have looked more deeply into it. It can be also a GTK bug or a bug in the Python bindings for GTK.

The widget for entering LPD host and queue is a GtkComboBoxEntry. According to the documentation

http://library.gnome.org/devel/gtk/unstable/GtkComboBoxEntry.html

every character typed and also any change by the drop-down list emits a "changed" signal and this should lead to a call of the call-back function on_entNPTDevice_changed(). In the actual system-config-printer (in Jaunty) this happens only when choosing an item from the drop-down list.

This probably also affects any other UI part using a GtkComboBoxEntry widget, like setting up SMB or Socket printers.

The bug is most probably not in system-config-printer.

[Till Kamppeter (till-kamppeter)]

Milestoning becuase it is an important problem. It also affects other applications, not only system-config-printer.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

lowering the setting since there has been no other complain about that and the issue seems limited to one application, do you still get the issue? having a small testcase would be useful, unsetting the milestone too since jaunty is frozen now

[Michele Giacomoli (michele-giacomoli)]

Using the RC Live the problem with the Foward button seems to be solved

[Delan Azabani (azabani)]

Closing as invalid for now until more testcases and a broader userbase has this problem. Using 1.2.3+20100723 here, the 'forward' button is only ever disabled if the 'host' field is empty. Otherwise, it's always enabled.

[gf (gf-interlinks-deactivatedaccount)]

Hello
This bug was reported in 2009 and Ubuntu and the system-config-printer package have been updated since then.

Could you confirm that this is no longer a problem and that we can close the ticket?

Thank you again for helping make Ubuntu better.
G
[Ubuntu Bug Squad volunteer triager]

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for system-config-printer (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]