Intermittent issue selecting tray

Helge Blischke h.blischke at srz.de
Fri Feb 25 05:35:54 PST 2005


Daniel Kasak wrote:
> 
> Hi all.
> 
> I'm creating a very basic PDF from Perl, opening it in gpdf, and
> printing it to a network CUPS Laserjet 4500.
> 
> It *has* to come from Tray 2 ( large internal tray ) as opposed to Tray
> 1 ( manual feed on front ).
> 
> In gpdf's printing dialog, I select the printer in the list, then click
> on the 'paper' tab, and select:
> 
> Paper tray: Tray 2
> 
> I then press print. Most of the time, it works - it prints from Tray 2.
> Sometimes, it absolutely insists on printing from Tray 1. gpdf seems to
> be sending the correct request. I've inspected some of the files in
> /var/spool/cups/ and found ones that correspond to our job:
> 
> ^A^A^@^B^@^@^@^A^AG^@^Rattributes-charset^@^Kiso-8859-15H^@ttributes-natural-language^@^Ben^BE^@^Kprinter-uri^@=ipp://screamer.nusconsulting.com.au:631/printers/Laserjet4500B^@^Yjob-originating-user-name^@^FwtookeI^@^Odocumen
> t-format^@^Vapplication/postscriptB^@
> InputSlot^@^ETray2B^@^Njob-hold-until^@^Gno-hold!^@^Ljob-priority^@^D^@^@^@2!^@^Fcopies^@^D^@^@^@^AB^job-name^UntitledB
> ^@^Yjob-originating-host-name^@tooke.nusconsulting.com.au!^@^Fjob-id^@^D^@^@=C#^@
>       job-state^@^D^@^@^@
> !^@^Zjob-media-sheets-completed^@^D^@^@^@^AE^@^Ojob-printer-uri^@>http:/
> /screamer.nusconsulting.com.au:631/printers/Laserjet4500B^job-name^Untitled!^@^Ljob-k-octets^@^D^@^@^@
> !^@^Ptime-at-creation^@^DB^^^<D6>!^@^Rtime-at-processing
> ^@^DB^^^<D6>!^@^Qtime-at-completed^@^DB^^^<D6>B^@
> job-sheets^@^DnoneB^@^@^@^Dnone^C
> 
> Amongst the other stuff, you can see the text:
> 
> InputSlot^@^ETray2B
> 
> I assume that's our 'Tray 2'.
> 
> In desperation ( couldn't get it to print to tray 2 no matter what I did
> ), I logged into the cups web admin thing, set the default tray to tray
> 2, reprinted with the same settings, and it worked! Now I've reset the
> default try to 'auto', which is where it was before.
> 
> I'm using Apple's PPD for the Laserjet4500 - it seems to work best for
> us. I've mirrored it at:
> http://www.nusconsulting.com.au/Laserjet4500.ppd if anyone is interested
> in looking at it.
> 
> Is this a problem with CUPS, with the printer, or with the PPD? Where
> should I be looking?
> 
> Dan

The PPD is OK (it's the same one we use at our site). But if the
printer's
firmware is set to automatic tray switching, the printer sometimes seems
to have it's own ideas of where to get the paper from.
What we do is to specify a dedicated media type for each tray and
use only media type selection in both CUPS' printer configuration and 
client printing (be it gui or command line).

Helge

-- 
Helge Blischke
Softwareentwicklung
SRZ Berlin | Firmengruppe besscom
http://www.srz.de
tel: +49 30 75301-360




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