Print Panel takes 5 to 10 minutes to come up.

**famewolf** · 26-Sep-2009, 17:02

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:

1) Verified the problem occured in all apps by trying KDE and GNOME apps.

2) 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.

3) 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?

**deano_ferrari** · 26-Sep-2009, 19:28

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?

3) 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

cat /etc/cups/cupsd.conf

**famewolf** · 26-Sep-2009, 20:02

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

Code:

                                                           
#                                                                                                   
# "$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 $".
#

**deano_ferrari** · 26-Sep-2009, 20:03

Another left-field thought I had - Can you ping localhost ok?

ping localhost

cat /etc/hosts

Please ignore if not relevant. :-)

**deano_ferrari** · 26-Sep-2009, 20:06

i530:/home/famewolf # lpr -P checking.pdf

*just sits there...does not appear to print to the default printer...leaving the command running*

That will also happen if no default printer assigned.

lpstat -d (to see default printer if any)

**famewolf** · 26-Sep-2009, 20:06

Originally Posted by deano_ferrari

Another left-field thought I had - Can you ping localhost ok?

ping localhost

cat /etc/hosts

Please ignore if not relevant.

I can ping localhost without an issue.

i530:/usr/src # cat /etc/hosts

Code:

#                                                                   
# 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.

**deano_ferrari** · 26-Sep-2009, 20:12

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).

**deano_ferrari** · 26-Sep-2009, 20:16

Do you have any network printers defined in CUPS? Are you connected to a network currently (other than internet)?

**famewolf** · 26-Sep-2009, 20:16

Originally Posted by deano_ferrari

You might have missed what I said end of post. The printer may need to be explicitly named (as per lpstat -p).

Your post and mine showed up at the same time so I didn't see it at the time of my reply...in any case, there IS a printer default.

i530:/usr/src # lpstat -d
system default destination: pagepro1250w

Any other suggestions?

**famewolf** · 26-Sep-2009, 20:20

Originally Posted by deano_ferrari

Do you have any network printers defined in CUPS? Are you connected to a network currently (other than internet)?

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.