Troubleshooting Printer Problems

Support knowledgebase (jsmeix_print-fehlersuche)
Applies to

SuSE Linux: Versions up to (including) 7.3

For SuSE Linux 8.0, refer to the "Reference" manual.

Prerequisite

You have set up your printer according to the support database articles "Installing a Printer" or "Installing a Printer Since SuSE Linux 6.4" or to the articles mentioned there. You have paid special attention to the prerequisites listed in the article "Installing a Printer".

Situation

Even though the printer has been set up as described in the above-mentioned support database articles, it does not work. A print test with lpr /etc/fstab or lpr -Plp /etc/fstab fails without displaying any error messages.

A log of what happens during the execution of lpr -Plp /etc/fstab will prove very useful for troubleshooting.

Procedure

  1. Log in as root user.
  2. Open the file /var/lib/apsfilter/apsfilter with a text editor and change the lines
    #  For debugging --- see for stderr in /var/spool/.../log
    #  for output see under /tmp/ in aps_out.
    #
    #set -x
    #PRINT_TO_FILE="true"
    
    to
    #  For debugging --- see for stderr in /var/spool/.../log
    #  for output see under /tmp/ in aps_out.
    #
    set -x
    #PRINT_TO_FILE="true"
    
  3. By doing this, the printer filter activity will be logged in the corresponding log files located in /etc/printcap. The entries for the standard (color) printer in /etc/printcap look (in short) like this (in the example we have used a Ghostscript driver hpdj, paper size a4, and a resolution of 300x300dpi):
    ...
    ascii...
    ...
            :lf=/var/spool/lpd/hpdj-a4-ascii-mono-300/log:\
    ...
    lp...
    ...
            :lf=/var/spool/lpd/hpdj-a4-auto-color-300/log:\
    ...
    
    :lf= . . . :\ stands for the respective log files of the single printer queues. In this example, if we print with lpr file name or lpr -Plp file name, the log file /var/spool/lpd/hpdj-a4-auto-color-300/log will be used.

    On the other hand, if we print with lpr -Pascii file name, the log file used will be /var/spool/lpd/hpdj-a4-ascii-mono-300/log.

  4. The last print's protocol is then appended to the already existing log file, thus making log files too large and confusing. Therefore, the log files in the example should be cleared (NOT deleted) before printing again with
    cat /dev/null > /var/spool/lpd/hpdj-a4-ascii-mono-300/log
    or cat /dev/null > /var/spool/lpd/hpdj-a4-auto-color-300/log.
  5. The error messages contained in the log files after a printing attempt may help to find out the reason for the printer problems. The log files in the example above can be displayed with the following command:
    less /var/spool/lpd/hpdj-a4-ascii-mono-300/log
    or less /var/spool/lpd/hpdj-a4-auto-color-300/log
    (scroll with arrow keys, quit by pressing Q).

See also:
o Installing a Printer
o Installing a printer since SuSE Linux 6.4 and up to 7.3
o Printer Problems: Special Causes
o Printer: Reinstalling a printer

Keywords: PRINT, PRINTER, TROUBLESHOOTING, APSFILTER

Categories: Frequently asked Questions , Documentation , Printer

SDB-jsmeix_print-fehlersuche, Copyright SuSE Linux AG, Nürnberg, Germany - Version: 27. Mär 2002
SuSE Linux AG - Last generated: 22. Mai 2002 by glazzar (sdb_gen 1.40.0)