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

[Helge Blischke]

Am 14.07.2014 um 21:45 schrieb Robert Heller:

> At Mon, 14 Jul 2014 21:27:54 +0200 "The CUPS user discussion list." <cups at cups.org 
> > wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> Am 14.07.2014 um 21:04 schrieb Robert Heller:
>>
>>> 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
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>> It seems that the scheduler (cupsd) is not running as root
>> ("permission denied" in your error_log).
>> I suspect the whole CUPS installation is broken.
>
> newserver.wendellfreelibrary.org% ps aux | grep cupsd
> root      9936  0.0  0.0 195956  4796 ?        Ss   14:34   0:01  
> cupsd -C /etc/cups/cupsd.conf
> newserver.wendellfreelibrary.org% dir -ld /etc/cups
> drwxr-xr-x. 5 root lp 4096 Jul 14 14:52 /etc/cups/
> newserver.wendellfreelibrary.org% dir -ldZ /etc/cups
> drwxr-xr-x. root lp system_u:object_r:cupsd_etc_t:s0 /etc/cups/
>
> No, everything seems to be ok.  Note: SELINUX is enabled and  
> enforcing.  It is
> the *stock* cups install from the distro's RPMs (CentOS 6.5).  It is  
> not some
> hand built (from source) install or anything like that.
>
>>
>> Helge
>>
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>> cups at cups.org
>> https://www.cups.org/mailman/listinfo/cups
>>
>>
>
> -- 
> 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
>
>

What about the SELinux settings?

Helge