Problem: Clicking print from ANY application causes that app to freeze for an extended period of time. If the app is left open the print panel does eventually come up but the wait time is excessive.
Things I’ve done to try and diagnose/solve the problem:
Verified the problem occured in all apps by trying KDE and GNOME apps.
Verified the problem was not USER specific by creating a new user, logging in as that user and confirming they still had the same problem.
Attempt to “resolve” the issue by upgrading from Opensuse 11.1 to the opensuse 11.2 milestone 7 edition using the dvd. This caused cups etc to be upgraded however the problem STILL occurs.
I’ve looked into the cups logs…I don’t think the issue is with cups as doing an /etc/rc.d/cups restart doesn’t cause the app in question to crash or the panel to come up. I’m thinking the issue is with the X printer panel but havent a clue what package handles that or what logs to look at. Anyone have any suggestions to point me in the right direction?
Hi famewolf. Thats a strange problem huh? You mentioned, that you’ve tried both Gnome and KDE apps, but which desktop environment? Just to clarify, is the delay before you actually press the ‘Print’ button?
A quick little CLI test (just to check CUPS out).
lpstat -r (is CUPS sheduler running?)
lpstat -p (to list printers and status)
Now try printing a pdf or txt document with something like
lpr -P your_printer_name file.pdf
Does printing start immediately?
Attempt to “resolve” the issue by upgrading from Opensuse 11.1 to the opensuse 11.2 milestone 7 edition using the dvd. This caused cups etc to be upgraded however the problem STILL occurs.
This might be a CUPS config issue rather than a CUPS version issue. What is the output of
i530:/usr/src/packages/BUILD/compcache-0.5.3 # lpstat -r
scheduler is running
i530:/usr/src/packages/BUILD/compcache-0.5.3 # lpstat -p
printer Brother_MFC-5840CN_USB_1 is idle. enabled since Wed 08 Oct 2008 03:24:28 AM EDT
printer Dell2130CN is idle. enabled since Sun 20 Sep 2009 07:42:39 PM EDT
printer dell2130cncolorlasernet1316 is idle. enabled since Sat 26 Sep 2009 09:24:48 PM EDT
printer MFC5840CN is idle. enabled since Thu 30 Apr 2009 05:10:19 PM EDT
printer pagepro1250w is idle. enabled since Sat 26 Sep 2009 09:24:48 PM EDT
i530:/home/famewolf # lpr -P checking.pdf
just sits there…does not appear to print to the default printer…leaving the command running
i530:/usr/src # cat /etc/cups/cupsd.conf
#
# "$Id: cupsd.conf.in 7199 2008-01-08 00:16:30Z mike $"
#
# Sample configuration file for the Common UNIX Printing System (CUPS)
# scheduler. See "man cupsd.conf" for a complete description of this
# file.
#
# Log general information in error_log - change "info" to "debug" for
# troubleshooting...
LogLevel info
# Administrator user group...
SystemGroup sys root
# Only listen for connections from the local machine.
Listen localhost:631
Listen /var/run/cups/cups.sock
# Show shared printers on the local network.
Browsing On
BrowseOrder allow,deny
BrowseAllow all
# Default authentication type, when authentication is required...
DefaultAuthType Basic
# Restrict access to the server...
<Location />
Order allow,deny
Allow From 127.0.0.2
</Location>
# Restrict access to the admin pages...
<Location /admin>
Encryption Required
Order allow,deny
</Location>
# Restrict access to configuration files...
<Location /admin/conf>
AuthType Default
Require user @SYSTEM
Order allow,deny
</Location>
# Set the default printer/job policies...
<Policy default>
# Job-related operations must be done by the owner or an administrator...
<Limit Send-Document Send-URI Hold-Job Release-Job Restart-Job Purge-Jobs Set-Job-Attributes Create-Job-Subscription Renew-Subscription Cancel-Subscription Get-Notifications Reprocess-Job Cancel-Current-Job Suspend-Current-Job Resume-Job CUPS-Move-Job>
Require user @OWNER @SYSTEM
Order deny,allow
</Limit>
# All administration operations require an administrator to authenticate...
<Limit CUPS-Add-Modify-Printer CUPS-Delete-Printer CUPS-Add-Modify-Class CUPS-Delete-Class CUPS-Set-Default>
AuthType Default
Require user @SYSTEM
Order deny,allow
</Limit>
# All printer operations require a printer operator to authenticate...
<Limit Pause-Printer Resume-Printer Enable-Printer Disable-Printer Pause-Printer-After-Current-Job Hold-New-Jobs Release-Held-New-Jobs Deactivate-Printer Activate-Printer Restart-Printer Shutdown-Printer Startup-Printer Promote-Job Schedule-Job-After CUPS-Accept-Jobs CUPS-Reject-Jobs>
AuthType Default
Require user @SYSTEM
Order deny,allow
</Limit>
# Only the owner or an administrator can cancel or authenticate a job...
<Limit Cancel-Job CUPS-Authenticate-Job>
Require user @OWNER @SYSTEM
Order deny,allow
</Limit>
<Limit All>
Order deny,allow
</Limit>
</Policy>
#
# End of "$Id: cupsd.conf.in 7199 2008-01-08 00:16:30Z mike $".
#
#
# hosts This file describes a number of hostname-to-address
# mappings for the TCP/IP subsystem. It is mostly
# used at boot time, when no name servers are running.
# On small systems, this file can be used instead of a
# "named" name server.
# Syntax:
#
# IP-Address Full-Qualified-Hostname Short-Hostname
#
#127.0.0.1 localhost
# special IPv6 addresses
::1 localhost ipv6-localhost ipv6-loopback
fe00::0 ipv6-localnet
ff00::0 ipv6-mcastprefix
ff02::1 ipv6-allnodes
ff02::2 ipv6-allrouters
ff02::3 ipv6-allhosts
127.0.0.2 i530.site i530
127.0.0.1 localhost
192.168.2.2 i530 i530
You asked earlier about my desktop environment. I run KDE4 however since the lpr -P command you had me try is STILL just sitting there seem’s it’s something “lower level”. Thanks for your input.
You asked earlier about my desktop environment. I run KDE4 however since the lpr -P command you had me try is STILL just sitting there seem’s it’s something “lower level”. Thanks for your input.
You might have missed what I said end of post. The printer may need to be explicitly named (as per lpstat -p).
2 of the 3 printers are network printers and the default “pagepro1250w” is on a pc in my front office however I should mention that the print panel freeze is BEFORE I select a printer or even choose “print to file”. The print panel DOES display but it’s a plain grey panel with nothing on it until alot of time has passed, then it populates with the options.
2 of the 3 printers are network printers and the default “pagepro1250w” is on a pc in my front office however I should mention that the print panel freeze is BEFORE I select a printer or even choose “print to file”. The print panel DOES display but it’s a plain grey panel with nothing on it until alot of time has passed, then it populates with the options.
As I had began to suspect. This is some kind of network problem. Can you print to a locally connected printer ok?
As previously indicated, the problem occurs BEFORE I select either a local or a network printer or just use print to file to create a pdf. I don’t think a specific printer is the issue but here is the file you requested…
# Printer configuration file for CUPS v1.3.9
# Written by cupsd on 2009-09-20 19:42
<Printer Brother_MFC-5840CN_USB_1>
Info Brother MFC-5840CN
Location Local Printer
DeviceURI usb://Brother/MFC-5840CN
State Idle
StateTime 1223450668
Accepting Yes
Shared Yes
JobSheets none none
QuotaPeriod 0
PageLimit 0
KLimit 0
OpPolicy default
ErrorPolicy stop-printer
</Printer>
<Printer Dell2130CN>
Info Dell 3100cn Foomatic/pxlmono (recommended)
DeviceURI lpd://192.168.2.134/LPT1
State Idle
StateTime 1253490159
Accepting Yes
Shared Yes
JobSheets none none
QuotaPeriod 0
PageLimit 0
KLimit 0
OpPolicy default
ErrorPolicy stop-printer
</Printer>
<Printer MFC5840CN>
Info MFC5840CN
DeviceURI usb:/dev/usb/lp0
State Idle
StateTime 1241125819
Accepting Yes
Shared Yes
JobSheets none none
QuotaPeriod 0
PageLimit 0
KLimit 0
OpPolicy default
ErrorPolicy stop-printer
</Printer>
I don’t think a specific printer is the issue but here is the file you requested…
I wasn’t suggesting it was, I just wanted to have a look at the printer URI’s. (Surprisingly, you only seem to have one network printer defined there). Anyway, I found this KDE4 bug report describing similar kind of behaviour. They mentioned
My strong suspicion is that the print dialog is initiating a network scan for
printer discovery each time it is opened. If so, this is terribly inefficent
and not very good network etiquette. Evidence of this is that setting “Browse
Off” in my cupsd.conf file causes the delay to disappear.
I wonder if a similar network scan is occurring with your system (KDE4 or not). I guess you could try turning browsing off in cupsd.conf as an experiment. Its the first time, I’ve encountered this type of reported problem with openSUSE. Maybe others have more ideas about this?
Turning Browsing off does remove the delay but it also removes the network printers. The only printer listed in the printers.conf is my local printer. The network printers are “shared”…I assume I’ll have to add them explicitly as “local” printers now to get them to show up.
The network printers are “shared”…I assume I’ll have to add them explicitly as “local” printers now to get them to show up.
Ah, I see. I have only ever had to connect to remote network printers via my openSUSE laptop, I’m not familiar with shared CUPS printers. Was this working for you up until recently? A CUPS update issue? IPP?
As an aside, there are several threads (via Google search) about Apple users facing similar issues and I note (from last link):
Due to user interface changes in Mac OS X 10.5, CUPS shared printers will not automatically appear in the print dialog. Instead, you must first run the following command to enable CUPS browsing on your system:
cupsctl BrowseRemoteProtocols=cups
Then choose each of the CUPS shared printers you want to see in the print dialog by adding them, either from the Add Printer… item in the print dialog or from the Print & Fax preference pane in the System Preferences window.
It worked fine up until my most recent reboot of the whole system…I would assume a zypper update hosed it but given the fact it had been about 3 weeks since I last rebooted the system it’s really hard to track down what one it is/was. As a workaround disabling the browsing and adding both printers in yast appears to work fine. The other pc’s in the house continue to work just fine with the shared printers.
