CUPS cannot print : filter failed [SOLVED]

xaviermiller · Last edited by xaviermiller on Mon Feb 24, 2014 7:44 pm; edited 1 time in total

Hello,

I installed CUPS on a raspberry pi and it works really well for a Windows host, but I cannot print from my Gentoo machine

I can print if I plug the printer on the Gentoo machine.

Here is the error log extract:

dambacher · Posted: Sat Feb 15, 2014 10:38 pm Post subject:

xaviermiller · Posted: Sun Feb 16, 2014 2:23 pm Post subject:

The error log in on the server: the printer is thus well on USB.
_________________
Kind regards,
Xavier Miller

dambacher · Posted: Sun Feb 16, 2014 4:20 pm Post subject:

only to get it right: the data above is from your server ?
what messages do you get on your client?
what kind of file are you trying to print? judging from the output it is some kinde of zipped postscript?
Did you try to send a simple postscript file, no pdf?
the log sais

xaviermiller · Posted: Sun Feb 16, 2014 5:00 pm Post subject:

Hello,

I was printing a mail from claws-mail, just a text file.
Even the test page from CUPS failed:

xaviermiller · Posted: Sun Feb 16, 2014 5:03 pm Post subject:

The test page is OK from the server.
_________________
Kind regards,
Xavier Miller

dambacher · Posted: Sun Feb 16, 2014 5:22 pm Post subject:

if you google

xaviermiller · Posted: Sun Feb 16, 2014 6:26 pm Post subject:

No filesystem problem, and the locales should be OK.

I don't understand that the server can print the CUPS test page and that my laptop can also locally print with the same USB printer.
_________________
Kind regards,
Xavier Miller

xaviermiller · Posted: Sun Feb 16, 2014 6:50 pm Post subject:

Update : on the desktop, I have other problems : in place of showing the CUPS print page, I see a message that the driver is wrong.
It's better there, I will then first fix the desktop, then the laptop.

EDIT: trying to use foomatic filters in place of cups-filters[foomatic]
EDIT: same problem

The printer is a HP LaserJet100; driver should be lj4dith from foomatic PPDs, it worked before and work on the raspberry pi, but no on the 2 amd64 machines

_________________
Kind regards,
Xavier Miller

xaviermiller · Posted: Sun Feb 16, 2014 7:27 pm Post subject:

Workaround : print to PDF files, send them to the NFS common share, then call "lp" to print from the server.
_________________
Kind regards,
Xavier Miller

xaviermiller · Posted: Mon Feb 17, 2014 8:42 pm Post subject:

Tried with HPLIP. It still doesn't work.
When I connect the printer locally, I got only the graphics, but not the text describing the driver and parameters...

It seems the problem is not on the server, but on the laptop.
_________________
Kind regards,
Xavier Miller

cboldt · Veteran Joined: 24 Aug 2005 Posts: 1046

I can't print from ghostscript-gpl-9.10. "Unknown device: pswrite"

I haven't figured out how to revert to ghostscript-gpl-9.05 (short of editing the cups-filters ebuild), but that is going to be my next experiment.

I have a suspicion that this ghostscript issue is also the source of some cups failures. I can print from the machine that is connected to the printer, but I cannot print from any machine that contacts the print server over the network. The print package is gunzipped successfully, then delivers a filter error, which is essentially a ghostscript error.

cboldt · Veteran Joined: 24 Aug 2005 Posts: 1046

Erroneous suspicion - the call to pswrite device, by ghostview, is unrelated to inability to print from computers that are networked into the print server.

ghostview was relying on defaults set in /etc/X11/app-defaults/GV, at GV.gsCmdConvPDF:

cboldt · Veteran Joined: 24 Aug 2005 Posts: 1046

My problems are [Solved]

The inability of gv to print was that use of deprecated pswrite DEVICE, as orders by X11 defaults file.

The inability to print from client machine to printserver, manifested by a filter failure at the printer server, was cured by providing a /etc/cups/client.conf file. In my case, the network machine that is connected to the printer is called "hypoid," and one line in /etc/cups/client.conf set all the filtering "square."

xaviermiller · Posted: Mon Feb 24, 2014 7:43 pm Post subject:

Solved for me : the problem persists in the CUPS print page, but I can print in all other applications.

I followed the Printing Guide in the Wiki, and set the ServerName to point to the server.
_________________
Kind regards,
Xavier Miller

palettentreter · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 06 Feb 2006 Posts: 104

I ran into this, too. A local, manually configured connection to the remote printer resulted in this problem. However that was only necessary because recent CUPS factored out the network browsing functionality into a separate daemon (which I didn't realize). The problem with setting the server in client.conf is that it all your applications will now talk to that server, instead of the cupsd on localhost. Should be obvious how that breaks a laptop.

So the proper solution to this is starting cups-browsed on the client:

xaviermiller · Posted: Fri May 16, 2014 1:14 pm Post subject:

Hello,

Do you start it on the server or client ?
_________________
Kind regards,
Xavier Miller

palettentreter · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 06 Feb 2006 Posts: 104

cups-browsed performs the task of scanning the network for available printers and making them available locally, so it needs to be started on the client.