Printing problems - where to start?

[bigjohn]

I've noticed a pronounced delay when I send anything to a printer. It doesn't seem to matter whether it's to my parallel connected inkjet or to the networked laser printer.

 

The delay is between 30 seconds and 2 minutes.

 

Previously (prior to install of KDE 3.5.2) it (well, they) would print almost instaneously i.e. maybe 2 to 10 seconds.

 

Where or what should I be looking at, to try to see what the problem might be?

 

regards

 

John

[arctic]

Run from a terminal

dmesg

[bigjohn]

Run from a terminal

dmesg

OK did that, but it generates one hell of a lot of stuff. Most of which is currently meaningless to me right now.

 

Would there be any particular "sections" that I might need to look into? (I can post it if need be, but didn't want to clutter things up).

 

regards

 

John

[Ixthusdan]

Are you using CUPS?

[arctic]

In dmesg, look for everything that reveals that the printer got contacted in any way or that something got blocked. If you are unsure what to look for, please attach the output as a .ttx file for download, so we can take a look at it. It might help on the issue with the parallel printer.

 

Also take a look at /var/log/cups/error_log

 

Most probably it is due to some bug in the KDE3.5.2 packages. 3.5.2 is known to be very buggy on almost any distro.

[bigjohn]

In dmesg, look for everything that reveals that the printer got contacted in any way or that something got blocked. If you are unsure what to look for, please attach the output as a .ttx file for download, so we can take a look at it. It might help on the issue with the parallel printer.

 

Also take a look at /var/log/cups/error_log

 

Most probably it is due to some bug in the KDE3.5.2 packages. 3.5.2 is known to be very buggy on almost any distro.

TVM artic, that could explain quite a few things. Like the difference in output I'm getting between the two alternative drivers - one will print colour and black, but the colour looks banded, whereas the other driver, the black is a bit faint but the colour is perfect.

 

Hum? curious. Well I'll try again in the morning, because I haven't added my laser printer yet but I've got to configure hpoj too see if that makes any difference.

 

I'll check the dmesg output again and post anything that looks printer related.

 

@ Ixthusdan, yes I am using cups. Is there anything I might need to check there? as I've not had any problems with it before.

 

Again, thanks for the responses.

 

regards

 

John

[Ixthusdan]

Yes. Check to see if there is more than one driver that can work. Also, I use the "localhost:631" address in a browser to configure it.

[Gowator]

John,

did you by chance save your old /etc directory... OK its a bit late if you didn't but I had similar probs when I updated KDE but just copied my old cups.conf over the top and it allworks fine now. Sorry I didn't keep the old one and compare but it might just be one line with an error in the config file.

[bigjohn]

John,

did you by chance save your old /etc directory... OK its a bit late if you didn't but I had similar probs when I updated KDE but just copied my old cups.conf over the top and it allworks fine now. Sorry I didn't keep the old one and compare but it might just be one line with an error in the config file.

No I don't think I did.

 

I'm now wondering if it might be a KDE 3.5.2 "thing" - I'm sure I recall it printing fine before.

 

I've been doing some stuff for my partner (shes a teacher and wanted some number flash card type sheets made up for the class - kindergarten age). I tried to copy the ones that I did originally with MS office (but with OOo now). It threw up a bit of a problem inasfaras, the printer (HP Deskjet 840C) printed showing banding if I used the Foomatic/hpijs driver - the colours are out between whats show on screen and what prints as well. So OK thinks me, I know that theres another driver option, so I managed to change it to the gutenberg (gutenburg ?) driver option - but with that, the colours are a lot better i.e. no banding at all (which suggests it's not a hardware/cartridge problem) the colours are still out some, but even more strangely, the black lettering beneath each number didn't print at all.

 

Now I also recalled (having had so many KDE 3.5.2 problems recently) that when I was booting up, there was a little note in the boot dialogue about "hpoj" not being set up. It mentioned that I'd have to run

/etc/rc5.d/S14hpoj setup

which I did.

 

Now that managed to see my hp840C but couldn't communicate with it - it did manage to setup my networked hp LaserJet 4050 though (I had to tell it the IP address - but it seems to have set it up OK).

 

I'm unable to locate the hpoj documentation to see if theres anything in that might help with troubleshooting the hpoj thing.

 

A different, but equally odd symptom, is that when I was making up the aforemention flash cards, it didn't matter whether I tried to print to the laser or inkjet, it still took a long time (a minute or two) for either device to actually start, and it also made Open Office freeze until it had started printing.

 

Sooooooooo, if anyone has any ideas as to what might be causing this, I'd much appreciate any direction as to what I need to look into.

 

regards

 

John

 

p.s. Oh and I'll have a look at dmesg later - got to go to the "outlaws" for Sunday lunch.

[iphitus]

dont bother with dmesg. printer drivers are generally dealt with in userspace by cups. dmesg is kernel only, and will not report anything of use -- unless there's actually a hardware fault.

[bigjohn]

dont bother with dmesg. printer drivers are generally dealt with in userspace by cups. dmesg is kernel only, and will not report anything of use -- unless there's actually a hardware fault.

Oh, OK thanks for that iphitus.

 

Hum? It seems to be getting more confusing by the minute. Having managed to setup the laser with the hpoj facility, I get perfect test prints from it - but it's taking forever i.e. 1 to 2 minutes.

 

I found the hpoj docs, but still couldn't make the beggar talk to the inkjet - it recognises it but won't communicate.

 

I also found hplip - I think I managed to set up the printer correctly, according to what I read in the docs, but when I send it a test print the quality isn't there, bits of black missing (like the text info that usually prints in the bottom two boxes just about where it says "mandriva linux", the colour is off and showing banding.

 

I'm pretty sure that it's not a hardware thing, but what it could be ???

 

As ever, any advice/suggestions etc are very much appreciated.

 

regards

 

John

[arctic]

dont bother with dmesg. printer drivers are generally dealt with in userspace by cups. dmesg is kernel only, and will not report anything of use -- unless there's actually a hardware fault.

It can help to find out if there is a usb-connection/udev related problem and timeouts or blockings.