[cups.general] lpd queues frequently jamming

[Johannes Meixner]

Hello,

On Nov 8 12:01 Matt wrote (shortened):
> SuSE Enterprise 10, with cups-1.1.23-40.6 and share the printers
> via samba-3.0.22-13.18
....
> The queue on a printer will jam.
.... 
> printer is on device 'lpd' speed -1
>         queuing is enabled
>         printing is disabled
>         XX entries
>         daemon present
> 
> I'll then run /usr/bin/enable printername to enable printing,
> at which point the jobs usually start printing again.
> 
> So far this problem has only occured on two printers.
> A Xerox Phaser 8200 and an HP 5SI Mopier.
> All our printers are setup as LPD queues and we don't do local filtering.

Many printserver boxes and network printers have somewhat problematic
implelentations of the LPD protocol (and for the IPP protocol
it is even worse) and then the CUPS lpd backend (or IPP backend)
fails to communicate correctly with such a device.

It is recommended to use the simple TCP socket data transfer if it is
supported by the printserver box / network printer because usually 
there is no need for a complicated protocol (LPD - or even IPP)
for only the plain data transfer to a network printer.

Look for the ports at your printserver box / network printer
(often it is port 9100 - in particular for any HP network
printer is is port 9100) and read your printserver box or
network printer manual or use "nmap" to scan it for ports.

See for example our online manual (package suselinux-manual_en):
/usr/share/doc/manual/suselinux-manual_en/manual/cha.p.html
"11.4.2. Network Printers" and "11.7.4. Network Printer Connections"
and for some general information have a look at
http://www.cups.org/documentation.php/network.html
and
http://en.opensuse.org/SDB:CUPS_in_a_Nutshell
(in particular see the "The Backends" section).


Kind Regards
Johannes Meixner
-- 
SUSE LINUX Products GmbH, Maxfeldstrasse 5      Mail: jsmeix at suse.de
90409 Nuernberg, Germany                    WWW: http://www.suse.de/