[cups] Guidance on troubleshooting printing to USB-connected brother laser printer

[Banibrata Dutta]

On Thu, Oct 1, 2020 at 9:26 PM Brian Potkin <claremont102 at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Thu 01 Oct 2020 at 19:55:12 +0530, Banibrata Dutta wrote:
>
> > >> It would be good to confirm that this device is capable of working
> with
> > >> the IPP-over-USB protocol. Please give what you get for
> > >>
> > >>   lsusb -v | grep -A 3 bInterfaceClass.*7
> > >>
> > >
> > > Output of above command, follows:
> >
> > Couldn't open device, some information will be missing
> > Couldn't open device, some information will be missing
> > Couldn't open device, some information will be missing
> > Couldn't open device, some information will be missing
> > Couldn't open device, some information will be missing
> >       bInterfaceClass         7 Printer
> >       bInterfaceSubClass      1 Printer
> >       bInterfaceProtocol      2 Bidirectional
> >       iInterface              0
> > can't get debug descriptor: Resource temporarily unavailable
> > Couldn't open device, some information will be missing
> > Couldn't open device, some information will be missing
> > Couldn't open device, some information will be missing
> >
> > Does it confirm that this printer supports IPP-over-USB ? The complete of
> > lsusb -v output, just for this device:
>
> It does not indicate that the printer supports IPP-over-USB. One would
> expect lines with "bInterfaceProtocol      4" in the output. On Ubuntu
> 20.04, 'systemctl status ippusbxd' should show an active and running
> service. This is all explained at
>
>   https://wiki.debian.org/CUPSDriverlessPrinting
>
> So we go back to complete the previous debugging task.
>

Thanks again Brian for the suggestions, got a chance to try them today.

Execute
>
>  sudo cupsfilter -p PPD_in_/etc/cups/ppd -m printer/foo -e
> your4-pagePDF > out.dat 2>log
>

Done. Let me know if I should put the output & log file on a pastebin or
something ?

Check log for errors.


Only INFO and DEBUG lines in it, no ERROR lines, but I do see this:

DEBUG: pdftopdf: Last filter determined by the PPD: rastertobrlaser;
FINAL_CONTENT_TYPE: application/vnd.cups-raster => pdftopdf will not log
pages in page_log.
DEBUG: OUTFORMAT="(null)", so output format will be CUPS/PWG Raster
DEBUG: PDF interactive form and annotation flattening done via QPDF
INFO: pdftopdf (PID 128082) exited with no errors.
DEBUG: Color Manager: Calibration Mode/Off
DEBUG: Calling FindDeviceById(cups-cupsfilter)
DEBUG: Failed to send: org.freedesktop.ColorManager.NotFound:device id
'cups-cupsfilter' does not exist
DEBUG: Failed to get find device cups-cupsfilter
DEBUG: Calling FindDeviceById(cups-cupsfilter)
DEBUG: Failed to send: org.freedesktop.ColorManager.NotFound:device id
'cups-cupsfilter' does not exist
DEBUG: Failed to get device cups-cupsfilter
INFO: Color Manager: no profiles specified in PPD
DEBUG: Color Manager: ICC Profile: None
DEBUG: Ghostscript using Any-Part-of-Pixel method to fill paths.

and ends with what looks like no errors.

INFO: Rendering completed
INFO: gstoraster (PID 128083) exited with no errors.
INFO: rastertobrlaser (PID 128084) exited with no errors.


> out.dat is a printer-ready file. Send it directly
> to the printer with
>
>  sudo sh -c 'cat out.dat > /dev/usb/lp0'
>
> (I would do 'cat out.dat > /dev/usb/lp0' as root, but I think this works
> with sudo).
>
> Does out.dat print?
>

So this didn't print. The printer "Ready" LED (which is dimly lit to
indicate waiting), starts flashing bright green (to indicate data /
commands being received), for about 10-15 seconds, the drum/roller do not
spin up (whirring sound), and then goes back to dimly lit green.

I found 2 data (d*) files in the /var/spool/cups folder for prints which
were unsuccessful earlier (print didn't come, but no failures reported by
application firing print either), and I tried to use them in place of the
"out.dat" file, i.e. sending them to /dev/usb/lp0 as well, however both
resulted in a blank sheet of paper being printed out. But in case of the
manually generated out.dat (from commandline), even that didn't happen.

-- 
regards,
Banibrata