[cups.bugs] [HIGH] STR #1339: printer hangs after printing files processed with psutils

[Peter Englmaier]

[STR New]

Hello,

when printing a file processed with any program in the psutils package,
the printer hangs (service error), however, when sending the 
processed file directly to the printer (using direct 'ftp' transfer to the
printer or the printers web form) it prints perfectly. 

Interestingly, the printer hangs usually when the next job is printed, not
when the first print job with the bad file is processed. This is even
getting worse when the next job is sent while the paper of the first job
is still in the print path: the printer stops and the paper gets stuck!
This happens even if the next print file is only an empty postscript file
(only the %! header with some empty lines after it).
Normally such empty postscript files print just fine (no paper waste).

The system is fedora core 4 linux with cups-1.1.23. The printers are: HP
LaserJet 4200 and HP Color LasterJet 4650. 

The psutils where used like this:

psnup -2 test.ps >test1.ps
lpr test1.ps

The file test1.ps is attached for reference. The same error
happens when using any other psutils program, at least with psnup,
pstops, and psbook.

Since the file prints fine with direct ftp transfer without
causing any trouble, it must be a problem with the cups software.

After some debugging, it looks to me like the problem is the 
transfer in the backend.
The device URI is: socket://astl3:9100/

It looks like, the socket connection is not closed properly, since
the error happens when the next print job is printed, but not
when the printer is power-cycled immediately after the first job
and the problem happens with different printers (albeit all from HP).

So perhaps there is a problem both in cups and HP postscript printers
and both should be more 'fault-tolerant'.

I didn't find any bug report similar to this, but many pages all over
the web talking about printer service error 49.4C02 with cups in
different environments.

Best,
Peter.

Link: http://www.cups.org/str.php?L1339
Version: 1.1.23
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