SOLVING PRINTER PROBLEMS AND CUPS PROBLEMS

Issues related to hardware problems
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dha-cen
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Joined: 2014/12/05 09:40:10

SOLVING PRINTER PROBLEMS AND CUPS PROBLEMS

Post by dha-cen » 2017/08/17 15:03:57

SOLVING PRINTER PROBLEMS AND CUPS PROBLEMS

/X/ are footnotes

1 BUG-ID 8045
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In https://bugs.centos.org/ I described in detail that as of CentOS 6.5 printing
with my Brother MFC-8420 Postscript Printer was no longer possible.

Until now the bug had not been handeled. As the MFC-8420 is a commonly used printer being in
the CUPS/Linux list I was disappointed to be left without printing overnight. I need printing
for my business. So I was forced to find a solution where CUPS (origin of the bug) was no longer
needed.

This is to share my investigations and my solution with CentOS/Linux users having similar
problems with printers.


2 BASIC CONSIDERATIONS
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Following the specs the MFC-8420 understands "PCL6" /A/ as well as "PostScript 3" /B/.

CentOS 6 / Gnome 2.28 generate "Postscript Level 2" files /C/ which I will call "y.ps" below.

So it was obvious trying to send y.ps directly to the printer assuming downward compatibility
for the printer. This was successful as described below.

3 FUNCTIONING OF CUPS
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

CUPS and its libraries are processing y.ps at the same time incorporating PPD /D/ settings.
Finally this agglomeration of data is sent to the printer. You may look at these data using /E/.

The PPD may add features like addressing a second paper tray, duplex printing, stapling, ...

CUPS' Test Page is created artificially and says little about real life.

On top of CUPS you may install a package called "hpijs-pcl5e" which converts PostScript to PCL.
Of course this can only function if your printer understands PCL. I tried this and the results
for the MFC-8420 are totally unacceptable.

4 SENDING y.ps TO THE PRINTER DIRECTLY
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

4.1 The printer will be connected to your computer with an USB cable. Upon connection CentOS
(version 6.9 in my case) allocates the device '/dev/usb/lp0'.

Now you can do 'cat y.ps > /dev/usb/lp0' and the printer will receive y.ps. Do not
forget resetting the printer (off/on) when experimenting.

4.2 The printer is connected to a (residential) gateway, FritzBox in my case.
You do 'nc -w 2 192.***.***.*** 9100 < y.ps' to make your printer receive y.ps. For 'nc'
see /E/. '192.***.***.*** 9100' is the same term CUPS would use : IP address of your
router + port 9100. Do not forget resetting the printer (off/on) when experimenting.

5 SIMPLE SCRIPT TO REPLACE CUPS
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Between the '---' lines below my script is printed (personal data are *ed or .ed).
The script is now in "production" for more than one year.

The script should function on each Linux system where PostScript-Version-X files are
generated by a print dialog AND the printer's PostScript version is greater or equal X.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# DHA 12-AUG-2017 (last change)
#
# note that script is called with "bash /...full path .../tr537.sh"
#
# this is DHA's Print Service (replacing CUPS)
# postscript files $TEFI are automatically sent to the printer using nc (netcat)
#
# note that a PID is allocated for this script before this line is read !!!
FIPI=`pgrep -f "bash /...full path .../tr537.sh"` ; set -- $FIPI
if test $# -gt 1 ; then exit ; fi # do not start script again when logging off/logging on
#
shopt -s dotglob # include hidden files e.g. ".ps"
TEFI=/...full path .../*.ps
while true ; do
if test -f $TEFI ; then
sleep 0.2
nc -w 2 192.***.***.*** 9100 < $TEFI
zenity --window-icon=/home/...full path .../print.png --notification --timeout=2
rm -f $TEFI
fi
sleep 0.5
done
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SCRIPT COMMENTS
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

this "service" is started at logon (or startup/autologon) via
"sys/pref/startup-appl" with "bash /...full path .../tr537.sh <&- &>/dev/null";
calling a script with 'bash x.sh' has some advantages and is clearer than 1.line method

note that this is no genuine Linux service/daemon,
the script consumes 2 PIDs per second; I did not find any limitation to this end; patient
users may increase 0.5 s to whatever they like; killing the script may leave an orphan

the $TEFI directory is also my sceenshot place but you may define it as part of a RAM disk

the zenity statement presents a printer icon in the panel when transfer to printer is done

note that * is for possible different names of 1 file and NOT for a group of files

the "sleep 0.2" is for the case that the test is applied to an emerging file

note that test -f "$TEFI" results to FALSE in case more than 1 file *.ps would exist !
if, for any reasons, 2 files would exist nothing happens and the number of files not being
printed would increase; I did not experience such a case but it may need consideration

all being beyond the features of the normal Print-to-File menu would need scripting effort,
i.e.changing y.ps before it is sent to the printer

Of course the script shall not be run under elevated privileges.


FOOTNOTES
~~~~~~~~~~~

/A/ PCL, HP's Printer Command Languge (versions 1...6) is the de facto industry standard;
PCL Technical Reference Manuals are available online

/B/ Brother says 'BR-S3' where 'BR-S3' is footnoted as 'PostScript 3 Emulations'.

"LanguageLevel 3" specs are published in a 897 pages Adobe document "PostScript Language
Reference third edition" of 1999 (available online)

/C/ having GEDIT open with "x.txt" do file/print/print to file/tick 'Postscript' (Name turns
to "x.txt.ps")/set "Save in Folder"/(optionally change "Page Setup" or "Text Editor")/
hit "Print". Now you can open "/.../x.txt.ps" in GEDIT and look at it. Of course you can
generate *.ps files from all applications having a print-to-file dialog with the
'Postscript' option. Do not be surprised about the sizes of *.ps files : Even if x.txt
would just contain the letter "a" then x.txt.ps is likely more than 10 k caused by the
graphical representation. The header of these *.ps files contains "LanguageLevel: 2".

/D/ PPD = PostScript Printer Description File; specs are published in a 236 pages Adobe
document "PostScript Printer Description File Format Specification" Version 4.3 of
9 February 1996 (available online)

/E/ Follow CUPS instructions to create a printer 'TEST' using the PPD belonging to your printer
(normally published by the vendor) or any modified PPD. Tick "AppSocket/..." and enter
as connection : "socket://127.0.0.1:9100" Thus the destination is port 9100 of your own
computer and not a network place ! Use nc (=netcat=nc-1.84-24.el6.x86_64=basic repo)
from command line 'nc -l 9100 > info.txt'. Now print whatever you want using the printer
'TEST'. The raw data the printer would have received are now in info.txt.

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