This weekend I struggled to get CUPS working on my new Debian "Sarge" box at home. After trying twice I gave up, either nothing works at all (web interface), or I can install a printer, but nothing prints (command line interface). I even had quite a bit of help from my local LUG, but to no avail.
So I uninstalled it all, and added ye olde BSD LP package and the APS Magic filter, and it worked first time without a hitch!
This week I've got to get Samba configured, and Apache2 properly vhosting, but that's going to be easy I hope, the only snag may be getting mod_Perl running, which is a potential problem - I've not done Apache 2 and mod_Perl before.
Re:Printer?
ajt on 2004-10-25T13:05:52
"Epson Stylus Color 740" (sic) via USB.
It works perfectly under the BSD lpr package, but with CUPS from Debian Sarge, I got no "devices" to select from in the web GUI. I could add the printer manually with the command line interface, and the lpq tool reported a happy printer queue, but nothing happened, nor did the printer appear in the web GUI.
I assume it's something stupid, like a permission or something, but getting the old style lp was much simpler than CUPS. It took me less than 5 minutes to have a colour test print from the BSD lpr/APS Magic combo.
I did a Google, but got nothing helpful, I couldn't construct a search term that brought up anything like the problem I was experiencing. My colleagues on my LUG had lots of suggestions - mostly about checking that certain packages were actually installed, but no one had seen anything like it.
The machine is a pretty stock Debian Sarge install (no X), other than creating a user, and installing a few useful things, it's pretty much standard minimal net install.
Re:Printer?
Juerd on 2004-10-25T13:33:12
Some things to check:
Is the "printer" module loaded? (lsmod) If not, modprobe printer.
Is an USB driver module loaded (/^.hci/)? If not, load them until you get a load of output either to the console or in dmesg.
Is foomatic-filters-ppds installed, or otherwise at least the PPD file for your printer?
Set cups' debuglevel to something very high and check logs. Anything suspicious?Re:Printer?
ajt on 2004-10-25T14:00:59
Interesting. I will try your suggestions when I have time this week. How is CUPS different from BSD lp regarding devices?
I can "cat" directly to
/dev/usb/lp0 okay as root. I did have the GIMP-print PPD filters all installed and the foomatic-rip stuff. Pretty much everything required and suggested to install the cups ".deb".
With the basic log level, all I got when I tried to do things from the command line, was that the process exited. I tried again in debug mode, and it all went well, you saw the PPD being parsed, and the rasteriser and such, lots of message (all seemed okay), then it exited, and the file was removed from the queue.
I'm perfectly willing to believe that there is something odd ragarding the kernel. The machine is a Compaq Deskpro 2000, with a very early PCI/PnP/AGP system, that is most peculiar and the boot sequence is somewhat odd...
Re:Printer?
ajt on 2004-10-26T09:20:14
lsmod returned no printer, modprobe printer brought one up. There was a USB driver found, though I'm not 100% sure how stable the USB system is on this Deskpro.
How come BSD lpr can drive the printer over USB perfectly, but CUPS can't even find any devices (via the web GUI)?
Interestingly when I got home today, someone on my LUG group had asked the same questions you did. I must confess my understanding of the Kernel and how to select and install modules is a bit of a vague area in my Linux foo...
Re:Printer?
Juerd on 2004-10-27T08:43:37
There was a USB driver found, though I'm not 100% sure how stable the USB system is on this Deskpro.
I have used an old Compaq Deskpro as a CUPS print server for a while, actually. It worked well.
How come BSD lpr can drive the printer over USB perfectly, but CUPS can't even find any devices (via the web GUI)?
I have no idea.
