[cups] empty page_log file

[Brian Potkin]

On Sat 21 May 2016 at 17:14:45 -0700, Spike wrote:

> Dear all,
> 
> i'm running Ubuntu Server 14.04 with cups 1.7.2. I have configured two
> printers, HP M401dne and HP M225dw. Both printers are working, but in some
> cases I get a "filter failed" and no logs for me to look at for debugging
> as both page_log and error_log are empty.

I cannot explain the empty error_log. Presumably it isn't empty when
printing is successful? In what cases do you get "filter failed"? Is it
with a class of file (PDF etc), files from certain applications or a
particular file? Does it happen only with one printer?

> # cupsd.log
> ...
> LogLevel debug
> PageLogFormat %p %u %j %T %P %C %{job-billing} %{job-originating-host-name}
> %{job-name} %{media} %{sides}
> 
> #cups-files.conf
> ...
> ErrorLog /var/log/cups/error_log
> PageLog /var/log/cups/page_log
> 
> I'm using the ppds from hpliprinting.org, latest
> 3.16.5, hp-laserjet_400_m401dne-ps.ppd
> and hp-laserjet_pro_mfp_m225_m226-ps.ppd . they both use hpps as a backend:

hp-laserjet_400_m401dne-ps.ppd is in printer-driver-postscript-hp on
Debian (cups 1.7.5-11+deb8u1). I tested it by printing to file. See

  https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingPrintingProblems#Getting_the_data_which_would_go_to_the_printer

and the Debian wiki.

The page_log was not updated.
 
> administrator at printer-srv:~$ egrep -i '^\*nickname|^\*cupsfilter'
> /etc/cups/ppd/*
> /etc/cups/ppd/M401dne.ppd:*NickName: "HP LaserJet 400 M401dne Postscript
> (recommended)"
> /etc/cups/ppd/M401dne.ppd:*cupsFilter: "application/vnd.cups-postscript 0
> hpps"

Commenting out this line with a "%" leads to the page_log being updated
after cups is restarted.

> /etc/cups/ppd/M225dw.ppd:*NickName: "HP LaserJet Pro MFP M225-M226
> Postscript (recommended)"
> /etc/cups/ppd/M225dw.ppd:*cupsFilter: "application/vnd.cups-postscript 0
> hpps"
> 
> any idea what might be wrong?

The page_log issue appears to be a bug in the hpps driver; it has to
provide the page logging for cups to use. Please see

  http://www.cups.org/pipermail/cups/2009-April/018592.html

Reporting a bug against hplip can be done from Ubuntu's launchpad.
Please let us know the bug number if a report already exists or you do
report it.

Regards,

Brian.