Fresh 11.3 KDE 4.4 Cant print from Firefox. CUPS Network printer tests OK

I have a fresh install of 11.3 KDE 4.4 and am trying to set it up to print via CUPS over the network. The printer tests OK from the YAST set up page and will print fine using OO. The HPLIP icon is showing in the system tray.

When I try to print from Firefox the printer is never discovered and Firefox quits responding so does Thunderbird when you try to print an email. Kwin pops up a message about terminating the application which you have to accept. Konqueror just locks up when you try and print from it and you are forced to kill the application.

Printing works perfectly on the Host machine regardless of the application used.

This is a real showstopper here. It’s the wife’s new machine and she must be able to print from Firefox and Thunderbird.

Hi FlaimBait. Not sure what might be wrong here or whther I can be of any help…

Read the ‘Troubleshooting’ section of this guide. Where did you get the HPLIP packages from?

Make sure that the packages which provide the HPLIP software come from one same repository (i.e. do not mix packages from PackMan with those from openSUSE). You can check the repository of the package in Versions tab of YaST’s software management. openSUSE provides HPLIP in the packages hplip and hplip-hpijs but PackMan provides HPLIP in the packages hplip and hplip-hpcups.

How did you configure the printer? Via hp-setup or CUPS web interface?

Interesting thread here (may or may not be relevant):

http://www.faulhammer.org/archiv-mainmenu-31/35-gentoo/325-more-test-requests-cups-14

I checked and both computers hplip versions match and are the ones shipped with openSUSE 11.3. hplip was just there when I enabled the newtork printer in YAST2 on the client machine.

I didn’t understand anything in that gentoo thread at http://www.faulhammer.org/archiv-mai...quests-cups-14.

Being able to print from Open Office but not from Firefox and Thunderbird seems to be to indicate something. What I am not sure.

This is a clean install with only .mozilla and .thunderbird and the content of the /Documents directory bought over from the old computer via thumb drive.

I don’t have the luxury of spending months trying to fix this. She is not going to put up with it. It’s an openSUSE 11.3 problem as far as I can tell. All this worked in 11.1.

I used YAST > Printer to set up the the client machine.

Try launching the applications from a console. Maybe you’ll get an error message when attempting to print. It is also worth checking /var/log/cups/error_log for any useful indications of what might be failing.

(The link I gave was just to illuminate problems brought about by CUPS 1.4 for some users - probably not helpful to your situation).

Printing works perfectly on the Host machine regardless of the application used.

Can you post /etc/cups/printers.conf here?

Here is the dump of the CUPS error log. I have no idea what this means.

E [30/Dec/2010:23:20:34 -0800] Unable to fork /usr/lib/cups/backend/ipp - Cannot allocate memory.
E [30/Dec/2010:23:20:34 -0800] [Job 1] Stopping job because the sheduler could not execute the backend.
E [30/Dec/2010:23:20:34 -0800] Unable to fork /usr/lib/cups/backend/ipp - Cannot allocate memory.
E [30/Dec/2010:23:20:34 -0800] [Job 2] Stopping job because the sheduler could not execute the backend.
E [30/Dec/2010:23:20:34 -0800] Unable to fork /usr/lib/cups/backend/ipp - Cannot allocate memory.
E [30/Dec/2010:23:20:34 -0800] [Job 3] Stopping job because the sheduler could not execute the backend.
E [31/Dec/2010:02:09:13 -0800] Unable to fork /usr/lib/cups/backend/ipp - Cannot allocate memory.
E [31/Dec/2010:02:09:13 -0800] [Job 1] Stopping job because the sheduler could not execute the backend.
E [31/Dec/2010:02:09:13 -0800] Unable to fork /usr/lib/cups/backend/ipp - Cannot allocate memory.
E [31/Dec/2010:02:09:13 -0800] [Job 2] Stopping job because the sheduler could not execute the backend.
E [31/Dec/2010:02:09:13 -0800] Unable to fork /usr/lib/cups/backend/ipp - Cannot allocate memory.
E [31/Dec/2010:02:09:13 -0800] [Job 3] Stopping job because the sheduler could not execute the backend.
E [31/Dec/2010:02:09:13 -0800] Unable to fork /usr/lib/cups/backend/ipp - Cannot allocate memory.
E [31/Dec/2010:02:09:13 -0800] [Job 4] Stopping job because the sheduler could not execute the backend.

Here is the access log. It does work just not wiht Mozilla or Thunderbird or KDE apps like Kwrite (which I just tested.)

localhost - - [30/Dec/2010:08:14:11 -0800] "POST / HTTP/1.1" 401 72 CUPS-Get-Devices successful-ok
localhost - root [30/Dec/2010:08:14:11 -0800] "POST / HTTP/1.1" 200 1629 CUPS-Get-Devices -
localhost - - [30/Dec/2010:22:46:35 -0800] "POST / HTTP/1.1" 401 72 CUPS-Get-Devices successful-ok
localhost - root [30/Dec/2010:22:46:35 -0800] "POST / HTTP/1.1" 200 1629 CUPS-Get-Devices -
localhost - - [30/Dec/2010:23:13:10 -0800] "POST /printers/hpofficejetj4500series HTTP/1.1" 200 248 Create-Job successful-ok
localhost - - [30/Dec/2010:23:13:10 -0800] "POST /printers/hpofficejetj4500series HTTP/1.1" 200 71642 Send-Document successful-ok
localhost - - [30/Dec/2010:23:15:46 -0800] "POST /printers/hpofficejetj4500series HTTP/1.1" 200 406 Create-Job successful-ok
localhost - - [30/Dec/2010:23:15:46 -0800] "POST /printers/hpofficejetj4500series HTTP/1.1" 200 17638 Send-Document successful-ok
localhost - - [30/Dec/2010:23:16:11 -0800] "POST /printers/hpofficejetj4500series HTTP/1.1" 200 406 Create-Job successful-ok
localhost - - [30/Dec/2010:23:16:11 -0800] "POST /printers/hpofficejetj4500series HTTP/1.1" 200 17638 Send-Document successful-ok
localhost - - [31/Dec/2010:02:08:18 -0800] "POST /printers/hpofficejetj4500series HTTP/1.1" 200 406 Create-Job successful-ok
localhost - - [31/Dec/2010:02:08:18 -0800] "POST /printers/hpofficejetj4500series HTTP/1.1" 200 17638 Send-Document successful-ok

# Printer configuration file for CUPS v1.4.4
# Written by cupsd on 2010-12-31 02:08
# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE WHEN CUPSD IS RUNNING

Sorry, forgot you have a remote CUPS server, so no printer config at client end…

Just a thought: I wonder if this could be a permissions issue? Try launching Konqueror as root

kdesu konqueror

Does that print to remote printer ok?

Trying to print from Konqueror (as SU) failed

The relevant part of /etc/cups/client.conf

#ServerName /domain/socket
#ServerName foo.bar.com
#ServerName 11.22.33.444
#ServerName foo.bar.com:8631
ServerName 192.168.1.100

That is the address of the server.
For some reason KDE 4.4 doesn’t look at that file and do anything useful.

Trying to set up hplip from the CLI as SU as per the first URL posted in the thread fails. The it fails when I try and configure it. YAST > Printer tests fine and can print a test page and I can print a text file from Open Office after hiplip fails to configure as SU.

Please post output of:


lpstat  -t

Check page settings in FF/TB.

This is the output on the client machine

ann@linux-v1ac:~> lpstat  -t
scheduler is running
no system default destination
device for hpofficejetj4500series: hp:/usb/Officejet_J4500_series?serial=CN8AE5813C052T
hpofficejetj4500series accepting requests since Fri 31 Dec 2010 02:34:03 AM PST
printer hpofficejetj4500series is idle.  enabled since Fri 31 Dec 2010 02:34:03 AM PST
        ready to print

When I try the “Page Setup” in FF and TB the applications, revert back to “any printer” when the HP printer is selected and the application locks up before “apply” can be selected.

Its hard to get a handle on this. I wonder whether manually configuring the print queue at the local clent machine might help

lpadmin -p hpofficejetj4500series -E -v ipp://192.168.1.100/printers/hpofficejetj4500series

If you prefer to do this graphically, use the CUPS web interface:

http://localhost:631/

This archlinux thread caught my interest, but although initial printing symptoms appeared similar, the solution doesn’t make sense to me.

If you have the time and hard disk space, (or a LiveCD available), it would be good to know if printing from a Gnome desktop presents the same printing problem. At least that would help isolate the problem between CUPS and the KDE4 printing subsystem.

I am baffled by this this.

ann@linux-v1ac:~> lpadmin -p hpofficejetj4500series -E -v ipp://192.168.1.100/printers/hpofficejetj4500series
Absolute path to 'lpadmin' is '/usr/sbin/lpadmin', so running it may require superuser privileges (eg. root).
ann@linux-v1ac:~> su
Password: 
linux-v1ac:/home/ann # lpadmin -p hpofficejetj4500series -E -v ipp://192.168.1.100/printers/hpofficejetj4500series
lpadmin: Forbidden
 

I had already added the user to the group lp.

I loodked at etc/cups/cupsd.conf and really didn’t see where to add that line in cupsd.conf. This system has to be set up to autologin to KDE so adding Gnome isn’t a option really. I don’t know Gnome at all. I’ll see about aquiring a live CD.

The old computer on this same eithernet cable had the same problem. Could it be the server? I always thought it was the fact I took hte printer off the that machine when I installed 11.3 on this machine and relocated the printer over on this one and the older sytesms configuration was just missmatched. It had the same symptioms. I never solved the problem with that machine.

Try adding the remote printer via the CUPS web interface instead. (IIRC, the first time you do this, you usually need to supply authentication details). It will create a printer entry in /etc/cups/printers.conf.

Unable to connect 
Firefox can't establish a connection to the server at localhost:631. 

I burned a Gnome LiveCD and booted with it. No joy either with the automatic configuration or a manual one.

I can’t believe I am the only one who has had this problem with 11.3, KDE, CUPS, and hplip and printing over the the network.
This just worked in 11.1 and was no problem. Open Office works. Kwrite, Konqueror, Firefox and Thunderbird do not work.

Unable to connect 
Firefox can't establish a connection to the server at localhost:631.

Something is wrong with your CUPS config if this is not working (ie listening on port 631).

Try

ping localhost

Post contents of /etc/cups/cupsd.conf

Maybe something is wrong here.

You could try this from your browser too

http://127.0.0.1:631

If that works then we’d better take a look at /etc/hosts to make sure it contains

127.0.0.1               localhost