[cups.general] Printing with landscape, mirrored options.

[Stroller]

Hi there,

I'm having a bit of a problem printing in landscape format, and it  
appears that `lp -o mirror test-portrait.ps` doesn't work, either.  
I've kinda blundered into CUPS configuration, so I apologise if  
there's something blatantly dumb or obvious I've missed.

My aim is to use Gentoo Linux on a PII Compaq Proliant to print to a  
networked (JetDirect) HP LaserJet 5, and initially this was very  
easy. I believe the printer is in fact a 5M, as this is what it says  
on the front, and I believe it to have the Postscript option  
installed. I have been using this printer with my Apple Mac running  
OS X for some time.

The easy initial setup was to `emerge cups` on the Linux box and open  
the web-based admin tool. Seeing the format of the webpages I  
realised that I had seen the same thing running on my Mac, so was  
able to copy & paste the settings (essentially only the  
socket:hostname) from the Mac's working installation.

Subsequently:
    $ cat /etc/cups/printers.conf
    # Printer configuration file for CUPS v1.1.23
    # Written by cupsd on Tue Oct 24 10:52:11 2006
    <DefaultPrinter HPLaserJet5M>
    Info HP LaserJet 5M via Jet Direct
    Location
    DeviceURI socket://laserjet.stroller.uk.eu.org/?bidi
    State Idle
    Accepting Yes
    JobSheets none none
    QuotaPeriod 0
    PageLimit 0
    KLimit 0
    </Printer>
    $

I have no idea what the "?bidi" suffix to the "DeviceURI socket:"  
indicates, only that this is how I found the same printer setup on my  
Mac (setup using the Mac's GUI tools may moons ago) and it seems to  
work fine. I was impressed that completion of the wizard & clicking  
"test page" worked immediately. When setting up the Linux box I  
initially chose the default generic laserjet printer but subsequently  
upgraded to the model-specific .ppd file [1] I found at  
LinuxPrinting.org, and this worked at least as well.

What I'm really trying to do, however, is print in landscape format,  
and all that seems to happen is that a sheet of A4 is printed in  
portrait format, with the image halfway down the sheet and falling  
half off the page. The manual <http://www.cups.org/doc-1.1/ 
sum.html#4_1_2> states that "-o landscape option will rotate the page  
90 degrees to print in landscape orientation", which is what I'd like  
to achieve.

I wondered if this could be a problem with the Postscript rendering  
on the printer & tried changing to the non-postscript version of the  
driver. I have managed to reduce the errors I encountered by  
installing hplip & foomatic, but I still get the same problem.  
Mirroring doesn't work, either, and I use this as an example to  
ensure that my problem isn't something absolutely stupid involving  
positioning of the paper in HP's hardware.

 From the attached cups-foomatic.log file I refer in particular to  
the lines:
   D [24/Oct/2006:12:55:57 +0100] [Job 55] ESP Ghostscript 815.03:  
Unrecoverable error, exit code 1
and
   D [24/Oct/2006:12:55:57 +0100] [Job 55] Process dying with  
"Possible error on renderer command line or PostScript error. Check  
options.", exit stat: 3

The job is then printed, but it is NOT mirrored - I assume the mirror  
option should show "d as b" and so on, just like Alice Through The  
Looking Glass, right?

Returning the printer to the model-specific .ppd file [1] allows the  
job to finish with no errors - see attached cups-ps.log - but does  
not seem to be so accommodating about printing pdf files and also  
does not mirror the printed image.

With both drivers `lpr -o landscape test-landscape.ps` just prints a  
sheet of A4 in portrait format, with the image halfway down the sheet  
and falling half off the page.

Versions installed on my system:
$ eix -I cups -oI ghostscript -oI foomatic -oI eix -I hplip  \
 > --format "Package: <name> \t Version: <installedversions> \n    
Description: <description>"
Package: ghostscript-esp         Version: 8.15.3
    Description: ESP Ghostscript -- an enhanced version of GPL  
Ghostscript with better printer support
Package: cups    Version: 1.1.23-r8
    Description: The Common Unix Printing System
Package: foomatic        Version: 3.0.2
    Description: The Foomatic printing meta package
Package: foomatic-db     Version: 20050910
    Description: Printer information files for foomatic-db-engine to  
generate ppds
Package: foomatic-db-engine      Version: 3.0.2
    Description: Generates ppds out of xml foomatic printer  
description files
Package: foomatic-filters        Version: 3.0.2-r1
    Description: Foomatic wrapper scripts
Package: ghostscript     Version: 0
    Description: Virtual for Ghostscript
Found 7 matches.
$


I would be very grateful indeed for any advice or comments,

Stroller.




[1] http://www.linuxprinting.org/foomatic-db/db/source/PPD/HP/ 
mono_laser/HP_LaserJet_5M.ppd
[2] http://www.linuxprinting.org/ppd-o-matic.cgi? 
driver=hpijs&printer=HP-LaserJet_5&show=1
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