[cups.general] Clean Print Heads

[Bill Moseley]

I'm running Linux with CUPS 1.2.7.

Printing on a Epson Stylus 870 Photo today photos had a blue tone.  Normally
it prints photos quite nicely.

The ink is reasonably new but the printer is not used that often.  I
wasn't sure if cleaning the print heads was recommended or not.  I
first tied using the CUPS interface "Clean Print Head" but that
generated the following error:

(about 2000 lines trimeed)

[...]
E [24/Mar/2007:13:48:54 -0700] [Job 1082] /undefined in #CUPS-COMMAND
D [24/Mar/2007:13:48:54 -0700] [Job 1082] Operand stack:
D [24/Mar/2007:13:48:54 -0700] [Job 1082] 
D [24/Mar/2007:13:48:54 -0700] [Job 1082] Execution stack:
D [24/Mar/2007:13:48:54 -0700] Discarding unused printer-state-changed event...
D [24/Mar/2007:13:48:54 -0700] [Job 1082] %interp_exit   .runexec2   --nostringval--   --nostringval--   --nostringval--   2   %stopped_push   --nostringval--   --nostringval--   --nostringval--   false   1   %stopped_push   1   3   %oparray_pop   1   3   %oparray_pop   1   3   %oparray_pop   1   3   %oparray_pop   .runexec2   --nostringval--   --nostringval--   --nostringval--   2   %stopped_push   --nostringval--
D [24/Mar/2007:13:48:54 -0700] [Job 1082] Dictionary stack:
D [24/Mar/2007:13:48:54 -0700] [Job 1082] --dict:1122/1686(ro)(G)--   --dict:0/20(G)--   --dict:108/200(L)--
D [24/Mar/2007:13:48:54 -0700] [Job 1082] Current allocation mode is local
D [24/Mar/2007:13:48:54 -0700] [Job 1082] Last OS error: 2
D [24/Mar/2007:13:48:54 -0700] [Job 1082] ESP Ghostscript 815.03: Unrecoverable error, exit code 1
E [24/Mar/2007:13:48:54 -0700] PID 28668 (/usr/lib/cups/filter/pstoraster) stopped with status 1!
D [24/Mar/2007:13:48:55 -0700] [Job 1082] Gutenprint 5.0.0 Starting
D [24/Mar/2007:13:48:55 -0700] [Job 1082] Gutenprint using PPD file /etc/cups/ppd/Stylus870.ppd
[...]

Should cleaning the print heads operation work via the CUPS interface?


I then tried the "escputil" utility:

    # escputil -r /dev/usb/lp0 -i
    Escputil version 5.0.0, Copyright (C) 2000-2006 Robert Krawitz
    Escputil comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details type 'escputil -l'
    This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it
    under certain conditions; type 'escputil -l' for details.

             Ink color       Percent remaining
                 Black                      58
                  Cyan                      50
               Magenta                      49
                Yellow                      45
            Light Cyan                      37
         Light Magenta                      34

Then I used the -c option to clean the heads.  After that point
printing would go through the motions (feed paper and scan print head)
but the page was blank.  Maybe not such a good idea after all.

After power cycling the printer, restarting CUPS, and doing a little
dance the printer started to work again.  Color was still off.
So, to the next printer:


I also have a Epson PictureMate (4"x6" photo printer).  I hooked that
up, CUPS detected it and I added it with the suggested Gutenprint
driver.  That prints as if the printer can't print green.  I'm not
having much luck today.  :(   The printer, when connected directly to
a Mac iBook (using the Epson provided drivers, IIRC) printed
perfectly.

http://www.linuxprinting.org/show_printer.cgi?recnum=Epson-PictureMate

Any tips on how to resolve these color problems?

-- 
Bill Moseley
moseley at hank.org