Printer test

bmike,

couple of remote possibilities, I think.

when you finished with the install did it show it to be actually
installed, but just the print test failure?

If a canon multi-inktank printer is low or out of ink in just one
tank it will not respond at all.

when in kcontrol/periferals/printers, click on the printer model
just added and click on 'properties/users' and do you see
'all users allowed' ? Is a job description showing up under 'jobs'?

There is also a possibility of cups-driver choice.

If no luck still, you can try http://localhost:631 typed into
a browser location box.

Hope one of those helps.
Larry

only root can install the printer.
in the printer install wizard, put in root and give the root password. root is really appropriate, because there is a problem here, and you have do this several times, before it happens.
I think that cups works better overall, and i think we need a printer howto.
liz

I have been having a similar problem after adding a HP DeskJet 722C printer to a box already installed with Mepis. With another box already hooked up to a HP DeskJet 1120C printer, Mepis discovered and installed the drivers with no effort or any problems.

When I try the GUI tools for configuring the printer and CUPS server everything seems to go alright. However, when it is time to test or use the printer. I got the following message:

A print error occured. Error message received from system:

cupsdoprint -P 'hp722c' -J 'KDE Print Test' -H 'localhost:631' -U 'root:bettermep' -o ' multiple-document-handling=separate-documents-uncollated-copies orientation-requested=3' '/usr/share/apps/kdeprint/testprint.ps' : execution failed with message:
client-error-not-possible

When I attempt to browse to http://localhost:631 I get a 404 error, perhaps hinting at a permissions or firewall problem. I was sure to use root privileges when setting up the server and I also got the curious multiple password entry effect where it seems to take after four or five tries.

Here are some of the last lines of my /var/log/cups/error_log:

I [26/Feb/2004:13:59:38 -0800] Printer 'hp722c' modified by 'root'.
I [26/Feb/2004:13:59:42 -0800] Saving printers.conf...
I [26/Feb/2004:13:59:42 -0800] Printer 'hp722c' now accepting jobs ('root').
I [26/Feb/2004:13:59:47 -0800] Printer 'hp722c' started by 'root'.
I [26/Feb/2004:13:59:58 -0800] Denying user "root" access to printer "hp722c"...

They show that it was configured and started by root. However, even with root's privileges it wasn't enough and access was denied. I tried setting the debug level of logging higher but the output was just too much for me in size and complexity of detail.

Right now I don't have the time or knowledge of CUPS to dig in much further myself. However, if someone finds an answer to this problem before I do, I will be happy to write up a howto.

---
Kurt

I went through the KDE Print Manager at K-menu> [Print System]> [Print Manager] and carefully went through the Toolbar Menus for [Print Manager], [Print Server], and [Printer]. I'm sorry I didn't take notes at the time so I can't document all the changes I made but I do remember changing some allow/deny settings among a few others. After doing that I stopped getting the error message whenever I tried to test the printer after installing it.

Unfortunately for me I seem to still have issues with my particular printer that I haven't resolved yet, but CUPS is reported to be working fairly well with most of the major printer brands and models. By carefully going through the KDE Print Manager utility you might find it to be enough to fix most of your CUPS related problems when adding a printer after MEPIS is installed. When it works CUPS is a great printing system.

The KDE Print Manager has documentation you can read by clicking on the Help Menu in the Menubar. Take your time and if you don't know what a particular server setting does you can click on the [Short Help] button in the [Print Server]> [Configure Server] application and point and click at the entry field in question. The answer may be terse but should give enough information to be able to fill it in correctly or to make it easier to do more research. You can set the debugging level higher in the [Print Server]> [Configure Server]> [Log] section by clicking on Log Level: and selecting [Debug Information]. Try that setting before taking it higher since the output will be tremendous at the highest setting.

You can add your printer under the [Add] Toolbar selection by selecting [Add Printer/Class] and following the wizard. If your printer shows up as a selection in the wizard you should be able to get it to work if you don't have other problems.

Be sure to check for new posts here in this forum first since you will find answers specific to MEPIS, then try some other resources. MEPIS is based on Debian so solutions for other types of Linux distributions like Red Hat or Mandrake may or may not apply to MEPIS. There are several man pages that may help, try man lp and man lpstat if you haven't already done that.

Here are some additional resources I found that might help with printer problems:

http://cups.org/ For More Information on CUPS
/var/log/cups/error_log Read this local log file for clues to CUPS problems.
http://www.linux.com/howtos/Debian-and-Windows-Shared-Printing/troubleshooting.shtml Howto
http://www.linuxquestions.org/hcl/index.php May help research printer's Linux compatibility.

---
Kurt

The inkvats are most likely dry so that may be why it won't work. Bu then again why did the FAX print (tried) a usage report?
:-)~MIKE~(-:

i added that bit to the howto I did, thanks for the extra info.
Liz