Print System Error in openSuSE 11.3

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#1

Strange print issue. I can print normal pages, letter size, default normal output settings. When I try to do any kind of photo printing from any application, Digikam, Konqueror (3 or 4), Dolphin, Gwenview, Gimp, where I have set specific page size and output for photo settings, nothing prints, the job dies.

Finally by using the kdeprint3 subsystem I was able to see the error, the print system in kde4 shows no helpful info in the printer applet. The message reported is ‘/usr/lib/cups/filter/pstoraster failed’.

I am running the default cups printer system that came with the standard 11.3 install and standard repositories.

Any help would be appreciated. This is a real problem since I do a lot of photo work for clients.

Thanks.

#2

Try setting up the cups server for printing.
Open a browser and go to //localhost:631
You should be able to set up the printer from there.
When it asks for an admin password enter ‘root’ and the password.

#3

The printer is already setup. I set it up without issue and did a print test through YaST. Opening the address you gave and selecting Manage Printers Option displays that print as being setup.

Any other things I can try? Keep in mind when printing ‘normal’ output such as OpenOffice documents, etc. everything prints fine. I am trying to print Photo Quality 11x17 prints to an Epson Stylus Photo R1800. Everything worked perfectly under openSuSE 11.1

#4

Did you try fine tuning the printer in the cups setup?
Also, I know with my networked hpBIJet3000, I can choose the advanced print options when I choose to print from gwenview/gimp.
… But I had to first set up the printer options in cups before it would allow me to use them. (My hp laser in particular, needs setup in cups to give duplex printing)

Sorry, that’s all I can think of at the moment.
As an aside though, I have found the new cups server options for my printers in 11.3 limited compared to 11.2. (Perhaps a downgrade of cups to the 11.2 version may work?!)

#5

As whych suggested, you can use the CUPS http interface to set print options. I know its not as elegant as setting via the app, but it should do the job. I’ve just tried this with my Epson CX500, and it works for me.

#6

Hmmm. Well, I tried as whych suggested and after I enter the password for admin to tweak the settings, I get an error that it can’t display the web page. :frowning:

Frustrating cause in 11.1 everything worked beautifully.

#7

On 2010-08-11 01:06, DMCorsa wrote:
>
> Strange print issue. I can print normal pages, letter size, default
> normal output settings. When I try to do any kind of photo printing
> from any application, Digikam, Konqueror (3 or 4), Dolphin, Gwenview,
> Gimp, where I have set specific page size and output for photo settings,
> nothing prints, the job dies.

Look up the error in the cups log. If details are not enough, increase verbosity.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.2 x86_64 “Emerald” GM (Elessar))

#8

It should be

http://localhost:631/

Its also available from menu under Applications > System > Configuration > Manage Printing

#9

For admi, try:
Username: root (not admin which I suspect you tried)
Pwd: root_pwd

#10

Hi there,

I recently had similar issues getting photos to print correctly on my new HP printer. I was unable to get them to print correctly despite any combination of settings either in the HP software or CUPS.

The solution which worked best for me was to install GutenPrint, and adjust the settings from there, printing my pictures using Gimp - this seems to work pretty well.

I have a blog post on it here: HP C309g Wireless Linux Printing & HPLIP - Mine the Harvest see the section Photo Printing – “Paper size mismatch” Error. The package I used was gutenprint-5.2.4-11.1.i586 of Suse 11.3

On the CUPS error when you login, while you could investigate the CUPS error log and find out why authentication is failing, you could also change the default policy in your /etc/cups/cupsd.conf

Explicitely set the CUPS ‘default’ policy to be used by default:

#DefaultPolicy default
DefaultPolicy allowallforanybody

End of additions by openSUSE/Novell.

Cheers,
Lews Therin

#11

I tried downgrading CUPS and Gutenprint and then nothing would print at all. So I had to rev back up to the standard 11.3 release. The driver I select is the ‘expert’ driver for the Epson R1800 which gives me all the fine tuning parameters in the applications. It appears to be one of the filters ‘pstoraster’ fails.

#12

I will try increasing verbosity as you suggest to see what it shows, have not tried that yet. The error log just pretty much repeats that /usr/libs/cups/filters/pstoraster failed with fatal error.

#13

On 2010-08-11 14:06, DMCorsa wrote:
>
> whych;2204517 Wrote:

> I tried downgrading CUPS and Gutenprint and then nothing would print at
> all. So I had to rev back up to the standard 11.3 release. The driver I
> select is the ‘expert’ driver for the Epson R1800 which gives me all the
> fine tuning parameters in the applications. It appears to be one of the
> filters ‘pstoraster’ fails.

Try another driver :-?

One thing I haven’t mentioned, because I think it is not the case, is an out of memory error in the
printer, when using postscript and large photos. When this happens, I switch from postcript to hpijs
or pcl3 (it is an hp printer). Most of the processing is then done in the computer, lots of memory
available.

But this is not your case, the pstoraster error indicates that it is trying to convert from the
system postscript format to the raster format your printer needs. I can’t guess why.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.2 x86_64 “Emerald” GM (Elessar))

#14

  1. I know nothing of printing

  2. Can you export your image to postscript (gimp, or I think you might be able to ‘print’ to postscript as well)

  3. And then run pstoraster manually from the console on the ps file, and see what error may be generated?

#15

I did try other drivers as well not using the ‘expert’ mode. Here is another thread that seems to have some of the same characteristics as my issue:
Printer not working (using driver, and then Cups)

Also, here is the tail end of the cups error log that shows ghostscript 8.70 is failing prior to the pstoraster failure.

D [11/Aug/2010:16:44:59 -0400] [Job 37] Execution stack:
D [11/Aug/2010:16:44:59 -0400] [Job 37] %interp_exit .runexec2 --nostringval-- --nostringval-- --nostringval-- 2 %stopped_push --nostringval-- --nostringval-- --nostringval-- false 1 %stopped_push 1878 1 3 %oparray_pop 1877 1 3 %oparray_pop 1861 1 3 %oparray_pop 1755 1 3 %oparray_pop --nostringval-- %errorexec_pop .runexec2 --nostringval-- --nostringval-- --nostringval-- 2 %stopped_push --nostringval-- 1782 1 3 %oparray_pop
D [11/Aug/2010:16:44:59 -0400] [Job 37] Dictionary stack:
D [11/Aug/2010:16:44:59 -0400] [Job 37] --dict:1172/3371(ro)(G)-- --dict:2/20(G)-- --dict:111/200(L)–
D [11/Aug/2010:16:44:59 -0400] [Job 37] Current allocation mode is local
D [11/Aug/2010:16:44:59 -0400] [Job 37] Last OS error: 2
D [11/Aug/2010:16:44:59 -0400] [Job 37] GPL Ghostscript 8.70: Unrecoverable error, exit code 1
D [11/Aug/2010:16:44:59 -0400] [Job 37] Gutenprint: About to start printing loop.
D [11/Aug/2010:16:44:59 -0400] [Job 37] Gutenprint: Printed total 0 bytes
D [11/Aug/2010:16:44:59 -0400] [Job 37] Gutenprint: Used 0.130 seconds user, 0.020 seconds system, 0.786 seconds elapsed
D [11/Aug/2010:16:44:59 -0400] [Job 37] End of messages
D [11/Aug/2010:16:44:59 -0400] [Job 37] printer-state=3(idle)
D [11/Aug/2010:16:44:59 -0400] [Job 37] printer-state-message="/usr/lib/cups/filter/pstoraster failed"
D [11/Aug/2010:16:44:59 -0400] [Job 37] printer-state-reasons=none

#16

I have not tried that. I did do a print preview from gimp which generated a .pdf file and I can output to .pdf from other apps as well, not sure if that’s using the same routine though. It seems to be only when trying to print photo specific settings out to the printer. I can print regular (text docs) just fine.

#17

Have a look at this from openprinting.org:
Printer: Epson Stylus Photo R1800 | OpenPrinting - The Linux Foundation
Seems like it has a problem with gimp.

#18

Strange. Under openSuSE 11.1 gimp did print just fine. I cannot print photos from any application though, not just gimp. Digikam, Dolphin, Konqueror, Gwenview all fail with the same symptom.

#19

I see from the article that your printer is the A3 version of the r800. Why not try the R800 drivers and see if they work.
You could also try installing one of their drivers from the site (it should just give you a choice of .ppd file to use.

#20

On 2010-08-12 01:06, DMCorsa wrote:

> I did try other drivers as well not using the ‘expert’ mode. Here is
> another thread that seems to have some of the same characteristics as my
> issue:
> ‘Printer not working (using driver, and then Cups)’
> (http://tinyurl.com/2b7vcrw)

The suggestion there is to upgrade ghostscript to 8.71. You will have to wait till somebody packages
it.
>
> Also, here is the tail end of the cups error log that shows ghostscript
> 8.70 is failing prior to the pstoraster failure.

Then, → bugzilla

Start with <https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=625611>

I would then suggest that you ask in the opensuse mail list. There is an expert from suse/novel that
reads it and may know more about your problem and the chances of getting the newer version.

Wait. Did you do a search for it (webpin)? I see it is already packaged for 11.2 by someone.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.2 x86_64 “Emerald” GM (Elessar))