USB Printer on FC2

[Calum]

hi.

i have a samsung ML-1210 USB printer, and now am using FC2 (instead of RH9, which is more or less what i have had on this machine since RH9 came out). FC2 is great and is definitely as good as RH9 (which i found to be really solid) and definitely as good as SUSE or Slack for ease of use and configuration etc. but i have this one problem with the USB printer which i will now describe:

So, the printer is plugged in, it was autodetected and everything by the system and i have even used it to print (from epiphany browser i think) since i installed it. since then, the printer has been switched on and off a few times and i think kudzu has added/removed it from the hardware database or whatever a couple of times, as various people in the household use this computer and will just turn it on/off as they do. Now i can't get the printer working. i have gone through all the GUI printer things that come with FC2 and they all seem to find the USB device, and allow me to select the driver and everything but it won't print anything.
Here's what i got when i tried to print a CUPS test page just now:

Here are the messages that appeared in the error log:

Code: Select all

I [05/Nov/2004:14:45:51 +0000] Adding start banner page "none" to job 8.
I [05/Nov/2004:14:45:51 +0000] Adding end banner page "none" to job 8.
I [05/Nov/2004:14:45:51 +0000] Job 8 queued on 'printer' by 'root'.
I [05/Nov/2004:14:45:51 +0000] Started filter /usr/lib/cups/filter/pstops (PID 2692) for job 8.
I [05/Nov/2004:14:45:51 +0000] Started filter /usr/lib/cups/filter/foomatic-rip (PID 2693) for job 8.
I [05/Nov/2004:14:45:51 +0000] Started backend /usr/lib/cups/backend/parallel (PID 2694) for job 8.

i don't understand them, and none of them look too hazardous anyway. i didn't get any error message while trying to print, it just did nothing for a second and then gave me a dialogue box asking if the printout worked ok (which it didn't).

so clearly it's some sort of software configuration problem, not a hardware one since i know i already printed out with this printer in FC2. I seem to remember having this problem or one very similar when i originally installed RH9 as well, but i can't remember how i fixed it (or if it fixed itself).

so, any ideas on what i can do to diagnose and fix the problem? i always feel frustrated by these irritating GUI tools, as i just get the feeling they are hiding stuff from me that i need to know to sort it all out. what do you recommend?

and thanks in advance of course...

[Calum]

this is pants!

i even installed samsung's software for linux. same result - printer appears to be there and working, but when i try to print a test page, nothing comes out.

i don't really have time for this and may have to just reinstall FC2. i suppose something i installed with apt-get must be responsible for this, since everything appears to be dependent on qt and gtk+ libraries etc...

[Void Main]

I seriously doubt that reinstalling FC2 will solve your problem or that installing something via apt-get has anything to do with it. I seem to recall someone else here in the last week mentioning something about Fedora Core 2 and USB printers. I think it was in reply to a message about hardware of mine in the "Why I Like Linux" thread. The only thing I have that is USB is my camera so I would have to do some searching about USB printers and FC2. Most of the printing I do is to network attached printers and I have no problem with that. I'm very sorry but I won't have a lot of time to dig into it until after the weekend so hopefully you can find the answer before then.

[agent007]

Switch off the printer, remove the entry from the config tool & run kudzu from the r00t prompt. If it prompts, remove the printer from the database. Next, power it back on and run kudzu. If it detects, try taking a print. If not, rerun the printer config tool and then try printing....

[Calum]

ok, well i am stumped.

i did that thing with kudzu, it added the printer (even though it didn't on bootup, when kudzu usually detects things) and now the kcontrol gui printer section tells me that cups is not running.

hmm, ok, now i start cupsd and the printer is suddenly there in the dialog, but sending a test page to the printer still results in no page.

thanks for your replies guys, i appreciate it. i suspect i am desperate enough to ignore void main's comments (i know, i know, it's courting disaster (or at least wasting time) but what have i got to lose?) and reinstall the system...

[dishawjp]

Hey Calum,

I was the one Voidmain referred to about posting in the "Why I Like Linux" forum on how well my USB printer install went. The actual thread is here:

viewtopic.php?t=1206

I also run FC2. I really don't know which files are modified or how, because it went so well for me. Have you run the "system-config printer" command? It should allow you to remove and then reinstall the printer. I regularly turn my printer off and only restart it if I plan on doing some printing. That has had no effect at all on how well it's worked or anything. Kudzu has never "redetected" it or tried to uninstall it even if it's turned off.

So I guess my suggestion to handle this would be to try:

1) run system-config printer to remove the printer. (or just disconnect it, reboot, and let kudzu remove it.

2) reboot and allow kudzu to redetect it.

3) once you reboot, rerun the system-config printer command to "fine tune" the setup.

Also, have you tried to print something from the command line?

lpr file.txt

or are you trying to print from applications like OpenOffice or something similar?

It's Friday afternoon and I'm going to be meeting my son at Hooters after work. Not too sure when we're going to actually get home or what condition we'll be in once we get there, but if I'm in any condition to do so, I can grep around my system to try and find out which actual files contain the configuration information for my printer.

I know that this isn't a lot of info or help, but maybe it'll give you a place to start.

Jim Dishaw

[Calum]

hi,

once again, thanks for thinking this through for me everybody, it's fixed now and i'll try to just say what i know so as to be of help to anybody else stumbling on this thread in future.

so.

yes, i tried lpr filename.txt (i tried printing using sylpheed, and the print dialogue is simply a gui for that very command), and i just fired up system-config-printer and sure enough it was one of the gui things i was fiddling with, so yes i tried it.

now that it works, the config in system-config-printer is just the same now as when it didn't work, so figure that out!

so, i did eventually take my own advice and reinstalled FC2 from the CD. I then ran kcontrol, went to the printer section under peripherals and switched to "administrator" mode. next i ran the add printer wizard and selected samsung and ml-1210, then i clicked the printer i had just added and had to select samsung and ml-1210 again in the drivers section. now when i print from any application, browser, test page etc it works fine. so, *then* i installed the dag apt and did an apt-get upgrade - it went exactly the same as it did last time, including trying to install two versions of xsane-gimp and telling me that there was a duplicate file conflict between kdelibs and redhat-menus (i think). i fixed this by doing rpm -e xsane-gimp and rpm -Uvh --force --nodeps redhat menusxxxrpm - just the same as before...

so now, the moment of truth, i kind of expected the printer not to work again, but lo and behold i printed out my CV and the lyrics to a song i am learning no problem at all. all is well and all i need do now is stop kudzu from running at startup so i don't have this problem again, which i am going to do using void main's previous advice.

thanks for everything, i thought i had better post here again before you all use up your weekends trying to fix it for me!

[Void Main]

Wow, that sounded painful. :) Glad you got it working!

[Calum]

it's alright once you figure it all out!

as it happens, i broke my system again using apt, so have gone back (once more) to red hat 9, and sure enough i had to do exactly the same to get the printer going in rh9 too, so i will just have to remember that for future reference.

ironically, the printer claims to support linux on the box and in the manual, although no linux software is provided, and only red hat instructions are given (such as they are, they basically say i should plug the printer in, switch the machine on and follow the onscreen prompts... thanks!)

[Void Main]

I don't understand how you are "breaking" your system with apt. I have been using apt since RH 8 and currently update around 25 machines of various configurations (laptops, desktops, and servers) using the Dag's apt and have never had a problem. The last time I can remember having a problem with apt was back on RH8 when I included the Planet CCRM repo and there was a package conflict. I find that the 4 repositories that are included with Dag's apt are rock solid and I don't need to include any others (except the Void Main repo of course). You *will* have problems if you use the 4 participating Dag repositories and the base Fedora repository because the Fedora repository doesn't check to see if any of the Dag related repositories already have the packages and they name them something different causing a clash. You don't need the Fedora repo anyway because Dag has everything they have plus 10 times the amount of 3rd party RPMs. Here's a page discussing the clash:

http://dag.wieers.com/home-made/apt/FAQ.php#D

Dag's apt page:
http://dag.wieers.com/home-made/apt/

If you run into a problem with apt please describe the problem here and I would be more than happy to try and help you sort it out.

[Calum]

i think it's some sort of version number thing, because my fedora install CDs claim to be rc2 but they must be some just-before-it release, because some of the software appears to be rc1 software, and i think this is what was causing it. i was just using the dag apt as it comes, no modifications to the sources.list.d files...

now i am back with good old rh9 and am happy, so until i get itchy to change again, i hope i'll not have any more issues...