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

[Gene Heskett]

On Thursday 08 October 2020 01:50:17 Banibrata Dutta wrote:

> On Tue, Oct 6, 2020 at 5:12 PM Brian Potkin <claremont102 at gmail.com> 
wrote:
> > > 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.
> >
> > No problem there. The problem comes next.
> >
> > > 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.
> >
> > You have very clearly said:
> >   > I have installed the manufacturer provided drivers.
>
> Sorry about the confusion I created. I had indeed installed the
> manufacturer provided drivers initially when we started the
> trouble-shooting. Then as you rightly noticed from my interaction on
> the Ubuntu forums, that I "seemed to have solved" (which turned out to
> be premature celebration, as it didn't) the problem by removing
> manufacturer provided driver and instead moved to what I think was the
> Ubuntu/Debian driverless printing setup. After removing manufacturer
> provided drivers, I connected back printer through USB, powered it on,
> which led to printer getting detected and probably these generic
> drivers getting installed. With this my hit-ratio seems to have
> improved somewhat.e. I can successfully print more jobs, but not yet
> this stubborn 4page scanned (image) PDF.
>
> The first thing I did then was to take a look at the vendor PPD. That
> is
>
> > why I asked you to generate a PostScript file. It has a line in it
> > saying
> >
> >   > *cupsFilter:    "application/vnd.cups-postscript 0
> >
> > brother_lpdwrapper_HLL2320D"
> >
> > This indicates that the final filter to be run is
> >
> >   > brother_lpdwrapper_HLL2320D
> >
> > But you have rastertobrlaser as the final filter.
>
> Okay, that is indeed strange. Maybe the manufacturer driver removal
> wasn't complete, or is it possible that this PPD is available as an
> opensource implementation from Ubuntu ? Looks like we are in a bit of
> state of limbo then ?
>
> > > 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.
> >
> > The printer-ready file is not a printer-ready file. No wonder it
> > doesn't print.How does rastertobrlaser come into the picture?
>
> Understood. Is 'rastertobrlaser' some sort of a generic printer ? Can
> I try a deeper clean of the manufacturer driver, or reinstall then try
> the process ?

I would be most interested in finding a rastertobrinkjet filter if there 
is such a beast. Is there?

Thanks.

Cheers, Gene Heskett
-- 
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