[cups.general] Raw Printing Doesn't work...

Wed Apr 27 11:51:23 PDT 2011

Quoting Paul:
> Chris,
> it actually probably will not print period with the test page as the  
>  1.3 testpage is Postscript.  the 1.4 one is text, but even it could  
>  get flushed as it looks like this particular type of printer only   
> understands some of the Epson Charecters.  I can share with you how   
> I got around this in our implimentation, but I don't know if it will  
>  work for you.  We are 100% raw drivers as our application creates   
> fully encapsulated print jobs.  The bulk of our printers are   
> Postscript, Zebra, or Intermec.  I created a "one print job to rule   
> them all" that has Postscript, ZPL, and IPL in it.  When a users   
> sends the test page, the printer will flush the two languages it   
> does not understand and print the one that it does.  If all of your   
> printers (or perhaps just that one is your only one) you could pause  
>  the queue, send a job through the PPD file, copy off the d* file  
> and  replace testprint with it.  That would allow the "Print Test  
> Page"  to work, but it wouldn't work for printers of other
>  types probably.  Why do you have to use RAW? perhaps there is a   
> better solution to your problem as i doubt it's just being able to   
> print test pages to a raw printer.
>
> _______________________________________________
> cups mailing list
> cups at easysw.com
> http://lists.easysw.com/mailman/listinfo/cups
>

Okay...

I have set this printer up now on a Gentoo system with the current  
version of cups for this distro, 1.4.6.  I set it up raw, using the  
web interface as before.  It works beautifully.  You are right, Paul,  
in that it will not print the cups test page -- which makes  
administration more difficult -- but if it works, that's enough for now.

So, after verifying that this printer will work with CUPS, I switched  
it back to the Debian PC with cups 1.4.4-7.  Same problems manifest.   
Therefore, it is unequivocally either a problem with CUPS, Debian or  
both.  Whether this is a bug, or default misconfiguration remains to  
be seen.  I even copied my printer configuration from the working  
Gentoo system to the not-working Debian system, and that didn't help.

Here is the log output for printing a WINDOWS test page to the debian  
box (proper windows driver installed):

============================<log>=================================================
D [27/Apr/2011:14:41:39 -0400] cupsdAcceptClient: 13 from  
10.99.99.199:631 (IPv4)
D [27/Apr/2011:14:41:39 -0400] cupsdReadClient: 13 POST  
/printers/CUPS-Test HTTP/1.1
D [27/Apr/2011:14:41:39 -0400] cupsdSetBusyState: Active clients and  
dirty files
D [27/Apr/2011:14:41:39 -0400] cupsdAuthorize: No authentication data  
provided.
D [27/Apr/2011:14:41:39 -0400] cupsdReadClient: 13 1.0  
Get-Printer-Attributes 11
D [27/Apr/2011:14:41:39 -0400] Get-Printer-Attributes  
http://10.99.99.126:631/printers/CUPS-Test
D [27/Apr/2011:14:41:39 -0400] Returning IPP successful-ok for  
Get-Printer-Attributes (http://10.99.99.126:631/printers/CUPS-Test)  
from 10.99.99.199
D [27/Apr/2011:14:41:39 -0400] cupsdSetBusyState: Dirty files
D [27/Apr/2011:14:41:41 -0400] cupsdReadClient: 13 POST  
/printers/CUPS-Test HTTP/1.1
D [27/Apr/2011:14:41:41 -0400] cupsdSetBusyState: Active clients and  
dirty files
D [27/Apr/2011:14:41:41 -0400] cupsdAuthorize: No authentication data  
provided.
D [27/Apr/2011:14:41:41 -0400] cupsdReadClient: 13 1.0 Print-Job 2
D [27/Apr/2011:14:41:42 -0400] Print-Job  
http://10.99.99.126:631/printers/CUPS-Test
D [27/Apr/2011:14:41:42 -0400] [Job ???] Auto-typing file...
I [27/Apr/2011:14:41:42 -0400] [Job ???] Request file type is  
application/octet-stream.
D [27/Apr/2011:14:41:42 -0400] cupsdIsAuthorized: username=""
D [27/Apr/2011:14:41:42 -0400] Returning HTTP Unauthorized for  
Print-Job (http://10.99.99.126:631/printers/CUPS-Test) from 10.99.99.199
D [27/Apr/2011:14:41:42 -0400] cupsdReadClient: 13 WAITING Closing on EOF
D [27/Apr/2011:14:41:42 -0400] cupsdCloseClient: 13
D [27/Apr/2011:14:41:42 -0400] cupsdSetBusyState: Dirty files
I [27/Apr/2011:14:41:54 -0400] Saving printers.conf...
D [27/Apr/2011:14:41:54 -0400] cupsdSetBusyState: Not busy
D [27/Apr/2011:14:42:00 -0400] cupsdAcceptClient: 13 from  
10.99.99.199:631 (IPv4)
D [27/Apr/2011:14:42:00 -0400] cupsdReadClient: 13 POST  
/printers/CUPS-Test HTTP/1.1
D [27/Apr/2011:14:42:00 -0400] cupsdSetBusyState: Active clients
D [27/Apr/2011:14:42:00 -0400] cupsdAuthorize: No authentication data  
provided.
D [27/Apr/2011:14:42:00 -0400] cupsdReadClient: 13 1.0  
Get-Printer-Attributes 11
D [27/Apr/2011:14:42:00 -0400] Get-Printer-Attributes  
http://10.99.99.126:631/printers/CUPS-Test
D [27/Apr/2011:14:42:00 -0400] Returning IPP successful-ok for  
Get-Printer-Attributes (http://10.99.99.126:631/printers/CUPS-Test)  
from 10.99.99.199
D [27/Apr/2011:14:42:00 -0400] cupsdSetBusyState: Not busy
D [27/Apr/2011:14:42:02 -0400] cupsdReadClient: 13 POST  
/printers/CUPS-Test HTTP/1.1
D [27/Apr/2011:14:42:02 -0400] cupsdSetBusyState: Active clients
D [27/Apr/2011:14:42:02 -0400] cupsdAuthorize: No authentication data  
provided.
D [27/Apr/2011:14:42:02 -0400] cupsdReadClient: 13 1.0 Print-Job 2
D [27/Apr/2011:14:42:03 -0400] Print-Job  
http://10.99.99.126:631/printers/CUPS-Test
D [27/Apr/2011:14:42:03 -0400] [Job ???] Auto-typing file...
I [27/Apr/2011:14:42:03 -0400] [Job ???] Request file type is  
application/octet-stream.
D [27/Apr/2011:14:42:03 -0400] cupsdIsAuthorized: username=""
D [27/Apr/2011:14:42:03 -0400] Returning HTTP Unauthorized for  
Print-Job (http://10.99.99.126:631/printers/CUPS-Test) from 10.99.99.199
D [27/Apr/2011:14:42:03 -0400] cupsdReadClient: 13 WAITING Closing on EOF
D [27/Apr/2011:14:42:03 -0400] cupsdCloseClient: 13
D [27/Apr/2011:14:42:03 -0400] cupsdSetBusyState: Not busy
==================================</log>======================================

As a recap, this printer works with this very same windows driver on  
my win7 machine flawlessly. It likewise works flawlessly via IPP and  
this same printer/driver combination served from my Gentoo/CUPS box.   
It is only the Debian/CUPS 1.4.4-7 box that has a problem (three  
separate Debian/CUPS boxes, actually...)

Any help is appreciated.

Thank you!

-Chris