Printer not connected; will retry in 30 seconds...

[Chris Gregerson]

After upgrading to gimp-2.4 (including related applications like gimp-print, ghostscript, and others), my (previously working) CUPS system will only report:

<p><tt>"Printer not connected; will retry in 30 seconds..."</tt></p>

<p>This applies to both of my printers, an HP LaserJet 1012 and Canon i9900 photo printer (both are USB). When I remove and re-install the printers in CUPS, it sees the printer in the "add printer" dialog.

<p>There are no error messages related to a connection problem in <tt>/var/log/cups/error_log</tt> (just "cupsdAuthorize: No authentication data provide", which does not seem to be related).

<p>I have already tried:</p>
<ul>
<li>Removing and re-adding the printers in CUPS
<li>Upgrading to latest CUPS version (1.2.12-r2)
<li>Removing and re-installing CUPS (completely)
<li>Turning off and disconnecting both printers, rebooting the system, re-adding the printers in CUPS again
<li>Looking for any error messages in dmesg, /var/log/everything/current, and /var/log/cups/error_log
</ul>

My CUPS version is 1.2.12-r2. My system is Linux 2.6.20-gentoo-r6 #1 SMP i686 Intel(R) Pentium(R) D CPU 2.80GHz. Below is the output of <tt>lpstat -v</tt>:
<pre>device for hp_LaserJet_1012_USB_1: usb://HP/LaserJet%201012
device for tp0: usb://Canon/i9900</pre>

<p>Below is the output of <tt>/usr/libexec/cups/backend/usb:</tt>
<pre>direct usb://HP/LaserJet%201012 "hp LaserJet 1012" "hp LaserJet 1012 USB #1" "MFG:Hewlett-Packard;CMD:PJL,MLC,BIDI-ECP,DW-PCL;MDL:hp LaserJet 1012;CLS:PRINTER;DES:Hewlett-Packard LaserJet 1012;MEM:5MB;COMMENT:RES=600x2;"</pre>

<p>Below is the output of <tt>lpstat -t</tt>, just after a test page is sent to the HP LaserJet, and again 30 seconds later:
<pre>scheduler is running
no system default destination
device for HPLaserJet_1012: usb://HP/LaserJet%201012
device for tp0: usb://Canon/i9900
HPLaserJet_1012 accepting requests since Fri Nov 30 12:20:21 2007
tp0 accepting requests since Thu Nov 29 20:29:16 2007

printer HPLaserJet_1012 now printing HPLaserJet_1012-510. enabled since Fri Nov 30 12:20:21 2007
        Printer not connected; will retry in 30 seconds...
printer tp0 is idle.  enabled since Thu Nov 29 20:29:16 2007</pre>

<p>Using <tt>echo "Hello" &gt; /dev/usb/lp0 </tt> causes the HP LaserJet to print a page with the text "Hello" (the printer is connected and working). Again, I have the same problem with both of my printers, HP and Canon, so it's not printer-specific. It started after upgrading gimp, gimp-print, and ghostscript, but there are no error messages anywhere indicating anything is wrong. The printers are visible via lsusb and usbview, so the "not connected" message is not accurate.</p>

<p>I've tried a variety of fixes posted on different forums (none helped), I'm not really interested in wild guesses but rather some idea of what the problem is, or a method of isolating the problem.

<p>Chris Gregerson
<br>chris at cgstock.com
<br>www.cgstock.com