[cups] CUPS Disaster: printer queues going AOL or becoming disfunctional

Robert Heller heller at deepsoft.com
Mon Jul 14 12:04:31 PDT 2014


At Mon, 30 Jun 2014 11:07:03 +0200 (CEST) "The CUPS user discussion list." <cups at cups.org> wrote:

> 
> 
> Hello,
> 
> On Jun 29 19:04 Robert Heller wrote (excerpt):
> > Printing a test page resulted in a
> > client-error-document-format-not-supported type of error.
> > Deleting and re-installing the print queues fixed it.
> > Why did this happen?
> > And why does re-installing the print queues fix it?
> 
> At least for me impossible to find out from your information.

OK, I did a *minor* update, updating these packages:

Updated:
  gdb.x86_64 0:7.2-64.el6_5.2
  initscripts.x86_64 0:9.03.40-2.el6.centos.3
  libsmbclient.x86_64 0:3.6.9-169.el6_5
  lzo.x86_64 0:2.03-3.1.el6_5.1
  nfs-utils.x86_64 1:1.2.3-39.el6_5.3
  samba-client.x86_64 0:3.6.9-169.el6_5
  samba-common.x86_64 0:3.6.9-169.el6_5
  samba-winbind.x86_64 0:3.6.9-169.el6_5
  samba-winbind-clients.x86_64 0:3.6.9-169.el6_5

*none* of these packages have anything to do with cups or any of the filters 
involved.  I just tried to print a test page:

newserver.wendellfreelibrary.org% lp /usr/share/cups/data/testprint
lp: Unsupported format 'application/vnd.cups-banner'!

What is going on here?

Also:

newserver.wendellfreelibrary.org% lp login.ps
lp: Unsupported format 'application/postscript'!

(login.ps is the result of 'a2ps .login -o login.ps')

And it is a *PostScript* printer.  The *filter* should be like /bin/cat, 
right?

This is in the error log:

E [14/Jul/2014:14:34:56 -0400] Unable to remove temporary file "/var/spool/cups/tmp/.fontconfig" - Is a directory
E [14/Jul/2014:14:35:02 -0400] Returning IPP client-error-document-format-not-supported for Send-Document (ipp://localhost:631/printers/BlackandWhiteLaserjet) from localhost
E [14/Jul/2014:14:35:27 -0400] Unable to backup printers.conf - Permission denied
E [14/Jul/2014:14:35:27 -0400] Unable to save printers.conf - Permission denied
E [14/Jul/2014:14:35:27 -0400] Unable to restore printers.conf - Permission denied
E [14/Jul/2014:14:39:08 -0400] Returning IPP client-error-document-format-not-supported for Send-Document (ipp://localhost:631/printers/BlackandWhiteLaserjet) from localhost



> 
> > (Longing for the good old days of LPD! -- CUPS can be a total pain
> > in the butt at times.)
> 
> Using a LPD spooler won't help when the filtering fails.
> 
> Regardless that CUPS reported the error, very likely the root cause
> is not CUPS itself but elsewhere - in particular because a
> "document-format-not-supported" error indicates that "something"
> with the filtering got "somehow" messed up.
> 
> Usually it is not CUPS itself that converts the original data
> that your application had submitted as print job to CUPS.
> Actually CUPS calls various "external" programs that do the data
> conversion.
> 
> When different CUPS versions in different Linux distribution versions
> make a difference regarding the filtering, the usual reason is not
> CUPS itself but that different Linux distributions use different
> "external" programs (or different versions of the "external" programs).
> 
> For example after printer driver software upgrades, the filtering for
> an existing print queue may no longer work because print queue's PPD
> may no longer match the upgraded driver software.
> 
> I assume the root cause is "something" in the particular Linux distributions
> that you use so that you may get better help from the particular Linux
> distributions mailing lists whereto you also already reported your issue.
> 
> 
> Kind Regards
> Johannes Meixner

-- 
Robert Heller             -- 978-544-6933 / heller at deepsoft.com
Deepwoods Software        -- http://www.deepsoft.com/
()  ascii ribbon campaign -- against html e-mail
/\  www.asciiribbon.org   -- against proprietary attachments


                                                                       



More information about the cups mailing list