[cups.general] One-page-at-a-Time

[Dr. Scott S. Jones]

Kurt:
 
 
> Sorry, I do not visit the website of this newsgroup every day (and if I do, I may well overlook or forget to re-visit previous threads...).
> 
> I'm confused a bit now. You say you have only 1 paper tray ("lower cassette"), but you also say that you occasionally insert paper into the "MP Tray". Which adds up to two trays already...

My HP Laser Jet IIIp, has 1 (one) add-on tray, under the printer. The MP
Tray is the small fold-out tray in front, for inserting single sheets,
envelopes, odd sized papers, etc. So there are two (2) trays with my
printer, the lower cassette and the MP tray or MultiPurpose tray. Under
normal circumstances, the print pulls all paper from the lower cassette
tray. I am not using the MP tray for the issues in question here, though I
could. the Laser Jet IIIp works by pulling paper from the lower casette
unless one inserts a sheet or sheets of paper into the MP tray BEFORE
sending the print job to this printer. 

> I can't remember which actual printer model you own, but I believe it is not PostScript-capable (and your system uses "foomatic-rip" to convert PostScript into the printer's native format -- PCL?)...

I am unsure whether my printer is PostScript capable or not. 


> The next two things you can do are these:
> 
>  (1) The driver you're using contains these InputSlot names: "Default
>      Tray1 Tray2 Tray3 Tray4 Envelope Manual". Try to print a two/multi-
>      page document specifically naming each tray in turn, and see which
>      print command makes the job go through without manual intervention
>      (you can cancel each job after the first page to save paper):
>        lp -d printername -o InputSlot=Tray1 /path/to/printfile
>        lp -d printername -o InputSlot=Tray2 /path/to/printfile
>        lp -d printername -o InputSlot=Tray3 /path/to/printfile
>        lp -d printername -o InputSlot=Tray4 /path/to/printfile
>        lp -d printername -o InputSlot=Manual /path/to/printfile
>      If one of the commands succeeds, make the respective "-o InputSlot"
>      option the default one (use the web interface at localhost:631 to
>      change your printer's default InputSlot).

Tried the above steps, including Tray1-4, Manual, and Default. All attempts
required intervention, on printer keys to initiate the print jobs.

>  (2) If (1) does not succeed, install a second printqueue that "prints
>      to file", using the same PPD as your current print queue:
>      (a) Make sure there is a "FileDevice True" line in your cupsd.conf
>          (restart cupsd if you had to change it).
>      (b) Add the new queue like this (as root):
>          lpadmin -p print2file -v file:/tmp/printfile.prn -E -P /etc/cups/ppd/<your-current-printername>.ppd
>          This printqueue will save all printfiles to disk (the next job
>          will overwrite the previous one).
>      (c) You'll now have a file /etc/cups/ppd/print2file.ppd. Open it in
>          an editor, and comment out the line(s) starting "*cupsFilter",
>          or remove them altogether. (Commenting out is done by adding
>          the two chars "*%" as the first ones.) This will prevent the
>          job from being converted from PostScript to ${whatever}.
>      (d) Print. (Don't use a big file -- a simple 2-page *.txt file will
>          do; print from the commandline).
>      (e) Find the print file now as /tmp/printfile.prn. Post a link to
>          that file to this forum so someone can have a look at it.
>        (....)

I siwtched "FileDevice NO" to FileDevice True in my cupsd.conf, then ran
/etc/init.d/cupsys restart 

Then after cp'ing my existing sethlaser.ppd file to sethlaser.100507 (as
backup), I ran this: 

'lpadmin -p print2file -v file:/tmp/printfile.prn -E -P /etc/cups/ppd/sethlaser.ppd'

It returns a prompt without error, but unfortunately, when I attempted to
print, the same job I sent to print above, the printer online light went
off..signaling that I needed to manually initiate the job (same old problem)
and there was NO /tmp/printfile.prn in my /tmp folder. The
/etc/cups/ppd/print2file.ppd was indeed created by step b above, therefor i
am unable to complete step e as you suggest. 

What next? What have I overlooked? 

Scott


> Please restate your exact printer model, and the PPD file version you're using for your print queue.

Done, above