Large cups systems?

[Seth Galitzer]

Kurt Pfeifle wrote:
> Seth Galitzer wrote:
> 
>>> If you can't use a Windows/Acrobat8 workstation and take some time for
>>> testing, you could go to the user and "print to file" with various
>>> settings, and use these files to testprint them from a unix command
>>> line.
>> I have now tried reprinting one of the original source documents from a
>> Windows machine win Acrobat Reader 8.0, trying both PS v2 and PS v3 and
>> couldn't make it die.  Argh, sometimes I hate Windows. 
> 
> Might be proofed innocent here, actually, in the end...
> 
> Your remaining issue could *still* be one of shaky network connectivity,
> or buggy/old controller firmware on the printer side. It was originally
> only hurting you more, because of the default ErrorPolicy used by your
> CUPS.
> 
> 7 print jobs from last night are too little data to base final conclu-
> sions on.

Agreed, but I've only had one any more errors today, other than than the
ones I've generated by reprinting the "bad" jobs.  That job I'm still
analyzing, but it's a 40MB (wow) pdf file.  Knowing the user who
generated it, they're printing from a Mac OSX client.  The header on the
spool file does not indicate the application it was printed from.  I've
restarted the job so I can tail the error_log, and it still hasn't died
yet.  Here's the output from ps aux:

lp       26063  0.2  0.0   3204  1180 ?        S    16:59   0:00
n232-hp4600 2282 userfoo smbprn.00000234 grn.pdf 1
job-uuid=urn:uuid:2add51a9-f8b6-3aba-42c9-33cfbdc3a12b
/var/spool/cups/d02282-001
lp       26064  5.3  0.2   9764  6224 ?        S    16:59   0:14
/usr/bin/perl /usr/libexec/cups/filter/foomatic-rip 2282 userfoo
smbprn.00000234 grn.pdf 1 job-uuid=urn:uuid:2add51a9-f8b6-3aba-42c9-33cfbdc3
lp       26065  6.6  0.0   3164   884 ?        S    16:59   0:18
socket://192.168.0.22 2282 userfoo smbprn.00000234 grn.pdf 1
job-uuid=urn:uuid:2add51a9-f8b6-3aba-42c9-33cfbdc3a12b
lp       26069  0.0  0.2   9764  4596 ?        S    16:59   0:00
/usr/bin/perl /usr/libexec/cups/filter/foomatic-rip 2282 userfoo
smbprn.00000234 grn.pdf 1 job-uuid=urn:uuid:2add51a9-f8b6-3aba-42c9-33cfbdc3
lp       26070  2.6  0.3  12684  7276 ?        S    16:59   0:07
/usr/bin/perl /usr/libexec/cups/filter/foomatic-rip 2282 userfoo
smbprn.00000234 grn.pdf 1 job-uuid=urn:uuid:2add51a9-f8b6-3aba-42c9-33cfbdc3
lp       26071  0.0  0.0   3016  1236 ?        S    16:59   0:00 sh -c
gs '-dBATCH' '-dPARANOIDSAFER' '-dQUIET' '-dNOPAUSE' '-sDEVICE=ijs'
'-sIjsServer=hpijs' '-sDeviceManufacturer=HEWLETT-PACKARD' '-sDevice
lp       26072  7.6  0.5  17416 10824 ?        R    16:59   0:21 gs
-dBATCH -dPARANOIDSAFER -dQUIET -dNOPAUSE -sDEVICE=ijs -sIjsServer=hpijs
-sDeviceManufacturer=HEWLETT-PACKARD -sDeviceModel=hp color LaserJ
lp       26073  3.4  0.0   3164  1116 ?        S    16:59   0:09 hpijs

The options there look pretty much like others I've been seeing.  I'll
do a concrete comparison later.  grepping for "argv[5]" has only been
returning results like
"job-uuid=urn:uuid:2add51a9-f8b6-3aba-42c9-33cfbdc3a12b"

Wouldn't you know it, in the time it took me to put this post together,
the job finally completed.  It took several minutes, but it finished
with no errors.  Grrr...

> 
>> Actually, I hate
>> Windows all the time.
> 
> OK, but pick the right reasons for your hate  :-)

How about "does not play well with others"?  How about "breaks in
inconsistent and unintelligible ways"?  I'm sure I can think of others...

> 
>>> What would also be of interest is the Ghostscript commandline
>>> used by foomatic-rip. It's in the log, further above...
> 
> So you didn't find it??

I haven't looked for it yet.  I'll post my findings later.

> 
>> Speaking of logs, is there a way to adjust the built-in log rotation
>> policy? 
> 
> CUPS doesn't do any much log rotating; if you see that happening,
> it may be a system-wide log rotation service.
> 
> However, you can tweak the "MaxLogSize setting" of your cupsd.conf.
> 
>> I seem to be losing logs quickly, making it hard to do
>> long-term debugging.  I suppose this is documented somewhere...
> 
> Of course.
> 
> "MaxLogSize 0" lets your error_log's harddisk usage grow until the
> harddisk drive starts squeaking or bursting asunder.
> 
> This page is your friend, don't neglect it:
> 
> http://localhost:631/help/ref-cupsd-conf.html?TOPIC=References&QUERY=
> 
> It's worth at least going through each of the parameter names on the
> right hand column, and read the explanations of those that poke your
> interest. A worth while effort that lets you discover quite a few more
> things we haven't discussed yet.

Done and done.  RTFM, got it. :)

> 
>> Looks like Gentoo includes a very old version of hplip, but that hplip
>> package includes a pretty recent version of hpijs.  I tried manually
>> installing the latest hplip from tarball, but the drivers weren't listed
>> in the cups gui.  Is there any special tapdance you need to do to get
>> cups to find those files?  I thought they were dynamically read from
>> /usr/share/ppds, but that doesn't appear to be the case (unless I'm
>> missing something, which is entirely possible).
> 
> You're on your own which your Gentoo question. CUPS doesn't
> know about hplip or hpijs. It just knows about foomatic-rip
> (even though foomatic-rip isn't provided by CUPS), because
> it has a presence in CUPS "filter" directory. So it is all
> about making foomatic-rip (which is a Perl script) use the
> right binaries.

That is actually helpful, gives me more places to look now.

> 
> 
>>> I'm just expecting that in return you'll publically retract your open-
>>> ing statement where you said about CUPS "the whole system seems so
>>> flaky that if you sneeze too hard it falls apart", and bow three times
>>> towards Maryland (CUPS' birth place) to make up for your sins...
>> OK, I withdraw that statement.  It seems my cups problems are largely my
>> fault.  I think I will revise that statement so say "Windows seems so
>> flaky...".  Any argument there? :)  Hrm, MD is East of me, as is Mecca.
>>  Coincidence? ...
> 
> You alternatively bow to California, since this is Mike's new home
> since a few months. :-)
> 
>> If you ever find yourself in KS, I'll buy you a beer. :)
> 
> Nah... that's at least worth a beer and a steak, given that your bows
> are still missing   :-)
> 

Alright, alright... I'd buy you the steak anyway. :)

Thanks again.

Seth