Network printer: remote jobs hang,print if requeued locally

[Frnak McKenney]

Kurt,

Thank you for joining in.

>I didn't have time to follow this threat in detail.

Ah! A man with respect for his eyesight. <grin!>

>However, one question:  could it be....
>
>....that the original job is passing CUPS unfiltered (your Windows
>client + Samba server + CUPS setup makes the job print as "raw"),
>which format is not what your print device is able to consume?

I know I _intend_ to send Postscript to CUPS, since (a) that's what
worked before and (b) that's my understanding of what the Brother
PPD file from

  http://solutions.brother.com/linux/sol/printer/
                                   linux/cups_drivers.html

is expecting.  Here's part of the header from the PPD file:

----
*PCFileName: "MFC420CN.PPD"
*Manufacturer: "Brother"
*Product: "(MFC-420CN)"
*1284DeviceID: "MFG:Brother;MDL:MFC-420CN"
*cupsVersion: 1.1
*cupsManualCopies: False
*cupsFilter: "application/vnd.cups-postscript 0 brlpdwrapperMFC420CN"
*cupsModelNumber: 6
*ModelName: "Brother MFC-420CN"
*ShortNickName: "Brother MFC-420CN"
*NickName: "Brother MFC-420CN CUPS v1.1"
*PSVersion: "(3010.106) 3"
----

(I just noticed its "cupsVersion" is 1.1.  Could that be relevant?)

The spool data file (e.g.  d00082-001) created by the original
sumbission from 'office' _looks_ like good Postscript, at least to
the untutored eye.  It even ends with

  ----
  %%Trailer
  end
  showpage
  %%DocumentSuppliedResources:
  %%+ font Courier Bold
  %%EOF
  ----

I've tried enabling the driver option to append a *NIX EOF (ctl-D
a.k.a ^D), but this doesn't seem to make a difference.

Or am I responding to the wrong question?  Is there something in the
spool control file (e.g.  c00082) that affects how the data file is
processed _after_ the data has been received?  If so, is there a way
of displaying this intelligibly (e.g.  other than in raw hex)?

If it's relevant, here's the relevant section of my printers.conf
file:

  ----
  <DefaultPrinter mfc420cn>
  Info Brother MFC-420CN Printer / Scanner / FAX
  Location Computer Lab
  DeviceURI socket://brn_60fb75:9100/
  State Idle
  StateTime 1182472928
  Accepting Yes
  Shared Yes
  JobSheets none none
  QuotaPeriod 0
  PageLimit 0
  KLimit 0
  OpPolicy default
  ErrorPolicy stop-printer
  </Printer>
  ----

>....that your 2nd shoot, where you submit the spool file from the
>CUPS server triggers the CUPS "auto-typing" function for jobs and
>that leads to the correct filtering chain applied?

Certainly a possibility, in this "best of all possible worlds".  In
fact, "Murphy" practically guarantees it.  <grin!>

>I'd advice you to monitor your error_log for the filters that get
>applied by CUPS for each job.  Also, you may be able to open the
>first job (the spool file) in an editor and look at the PostScript
>code.

Where would I look to figure out how my installed copy of CUPS was
making its "type" decision?

>You could use my primitive "2file" CUPS backend which I posted here
>some days ago
>
>  (http://www.cups.org/newsgroups.php?gcups.general+v:29728)
>
>to setup another queue with the same PPD, but which "prints to
>file", and then use "sdiff -sbB" to compare the files for
>significant differences.

Thanks for the pointer.

I _suppose_ I could even do a diff to compare the two spool data
files, couldn't I?  (loud THWACK as hand hits forehead)

I have to go shortly, but I'll take a look at your backend later on
today. Thanks again for the help.


Frank
--
    Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first,
    the lesson afterward.    -- Vernon Law, baseball pitcher
--
Frank McKenney, McKenney Associates
Richmond, Virginia / (804) 320-4887
Munged E-mail: frank uscore mckenney ayut minds pring dawt cahm (y'all)