Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Wed, 05 Mar 2014 23:27:58 -0700
From:      Gary Aitken <freebsd@dreamchaser.org>
To:        Warren Block <wblock@wonkity.com>
Cc:        FreeBSD Mailing List <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>
Subject:   Re: printer woes
Message-ID:  <5318156E.8070802@dreamchaser.org>
In-Reply-To: <alpine.BSF.2.00.1403052056390.50538@wonkity.com>
References:  <5317C0E7.5010105@dreamchaser.org> <alpine.BSF.2.00.1403052056390.50538@wonkity.com>

next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
On 03/05/14 21:03, Warren Block wrote:
> On Wed, 5 Mar 2014, Gary Aitken wrote:
> 
>> Returned from being out a month, booted up, turned on printers...
>> 
>> printers are sitting on network at dedicated ip addrs.
>> 
>> When I try to print something from gimp using gutenprint, it
>> generates the print data and control files in the spool directory 
>> (cf..., df...) However, the printer never wakes up and does
>> anything. lpd is running, and the lock file indicates the pid of
>> one of the lpd processes There is an errs.xxxxxx file which is
>> empty (how is this used??)
>> 
>> status file has a message from when I set it and it never seems to
>> change
>> 
>> Any ideas why the lpd process isn't doing anything?
> 
> At a guess, because the CUPS lpr is not submitting jobs to it?  What
> does 'lpc status all' say?

$ lpc status all
lp:
        queuing is enabled
        printing is enabled
        no entries in spool area
        printer idle
epson:
        queuing is enabled
        printing is enabled
        2 entries in spool area
        printer idle

>> cups is installed and cupsd is running, although it's my
>> understanding gutenprint from gimp bypasses cups; nothing shows up
>> in the cups queues, no surprise there.
>> 
>> The gutenprint dialog shows three printers: Printer HP 8500 
>> epson3880 Attempting to print to the hp or epson fails; printing to
>> Printer prints fine to the hp8500, which is the first printer
>> listed in /etc/printcap
> 
> Use the Gutenprint "Setup Printer" button to configure how the job is
> sent.  For base lpr/lpd, use "Custom Command" with "/usr/bin/lpr
> -Pepson3880", no space after the -P.  The path to lpr is important
> because CUPS has an alternate version.

The command was set to lp; also tried lpr; both of which default to
/usr/bin.  Making the path specific did not change anything.  
However, forcing the path to the cups version (/usr/local/bin/lp)
caused the hp to work, but not the epson.  
The problem with the epson turned out to be the printer was in some
kind of hung state -- indicated it was idle, but would not accept
jobs.  Power cycling it solved the problem.  Discovered the problem
because it would not eject the paper loaded in the manual sheet feeder.







Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?5318156E.8070802>