I'm not sure exactly why, but before i ask for lengthy help troubleshooting, I'll first ask:

How clean would it be to go back to stable from testing?

If it's a real mess, then i'll look into fixing the printer from where i'm at now.

This is actually a good first step to a paperless office.


Since this doesn't seem to be covered in the APT how-to, here's a quick Google result:
http://www.debianplanet.org/node.php?id=880

Note that it's from December 2002, but that indicates that a downgrade can be easy and go well. Note also that in the comments afterward, APT Pinning is recommended.

Here are a couple of guides I got from a very recent thread:

Apt-Pinning for Beginners
Apt-pinning - Using Packages from Testing and Unstable on Debian Stable

HTH

A paperless office is a good idea, but my teachers would never go for it, and i want to show stuff to people sometimes away from the computer (stuff i write, etc.).

This also happened when I did an testing update ages ago -- from memory it was fixed by adding root to the list of allowed users for the printer. Also, make sure that you've also updated all of the Cups PPD's -- the old ones are sometimes fail after an update.

Either way, it is often easy to see what is happening by switching on verbose logging in Cups, attempting to print, and then checking the error messages.

Good luck !

mj

well, the HTTP interface for CUPS gives me: "Unable to open USB device "usb:/dev/usb/lp0": No such device"

how do i update the PPD's? apt-get sys i've got cupsys at the newest version, are they a seperate package or should i just try uninstalling and reinstalling CUPS?

Oh I meant that tongue in cheek. I'm a LaTeX fan and love printing my pretty documents.

Unfortunately, I've never gotten around to configuring my (non-PS) printer yet, so I can't help you much with CUPS. Hope the links I offered can help in some way with downgrading.

bump

Let us know what your solution was!

Try an ls -l /dev/usb/lp* to make sure that the device is actually listed. Assuming it is, then check all of the printer plugs and then run dmesg while pulling out and then putting back in the printer usb plug. If no response, then check that usb is running correctly (lsmod | grep usb) and that other usb devices are able to be seen/used.

Assuming all is ok, then run Good luck !

dmesg gave me:
usb.c: USB disconnect on device 00:02.0-1 address 2
hub.c: new USB device 00:02.0-2, assigned address 3
usb.c: USB device 3 (vend/prod 0x3f0/0x8104) is not claimed by any active driver.

so i guess USB is working.

However apt-get gives me:
aopen25:/home/daniel# apt-get install cupsys cupsys-client cupsys-driver*
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
cupsys is already the newest version.
cupsys-client is already the newest version.
Note, selecting cupsys-driver-gimpprint-data for regex 'cupsys-driver*'
Note, selecting cupsys-driver-gimpprint for regex 'cupsys-driver*'
Note, selecting cupsys-driver-gutenprint for regex 'cupsys-driver*'
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
cupsys-driver-gimpprint-data: Depends: cupsys-driver-gimpprint (= 4.2.7-10) but 4.3.99+cvs20050901-1 is to be installed
E: Broken packages

Downgrading looks kinda ugly, and since 2002 i've heard that testing/stable have split much farther from each other. If i were to just reinstall, how much would i actually lose?

I've got my partitions split into /boot, /, /usr, /tmp, /var, and /home. would all of them besides /home have to be cleared, or just / and /usr?

I wouldn't recommend downgrading (unless this is for a server) -- it may not seem so yet, but testing is perfectly fine for daily use.

You may not need all of the drivers, but nonetheless you should put the installed packages back into a usable state:Next, it would be worth removing (deleting) your existing printer config -- use the KDE control panel GUI if you have KDE installed, as it will tell you straight away whether there is any response from the USB device. Now, turn on your printer and attempt to re-install the printer. Hopefully all will go well this time, but if not then check the logs and post back here once again.

Cheers, and good luck.

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
cupsys-driver-gimpprint-data: Depends: cupsys-driver-gimpprint (= 4.2.7-10) but 4.3.99+cvs20050901-1 is to be installed
E: Broken packages


how does one fix this issue? pinning?

When I upgraded sarge to etch the same thing happened to me. Lsusb should show usb devices such as mouse and printer. Lsmod should show wc modules are loaded. If not look at /etc/modules and add usbcore and other usb modules to list. Then the printer should br recognized and work with previous setup or Printconfig may be needed depending on what u answered to the prompts during the upgrade.
I had to add the usbcore module before usb printer worked and pppoe.pppox modules before the dsl connexn worked again. Good luck.

Apt-get -f install will attempt to fix the dependencies by installing, and most likely removing conflicting packages. Pinning would also work, but the above will be far simpler. Lestoil could be right though regarding the remaining usb modules, so definitely check those also.

Good luck

aopen25:/home/daniel# apt-get -f install cupsys-driver*
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Note, selecting cupsys-driver-gimpprint-data for regex 'cupsys-driver*'
Note, selecting cupsys-driver-gimpprint for regex 'cupsys-driver*'
Note, selecting cupsys-driver-gutenprint for regex 'cupsys-driver*'
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.

Since you only requested a single operation it is extremely likely that
the package is simply not installable and a bug report against
that package should be filed.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
cupsys-driver-gimpprint-data: Depends: cupsys-driver-gimpprint (= 4.2.7-10) but 4.3.99+cvs20050901-1 is to be installed
E: Broken packages
aopen25:/home/daniel# lsusb
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 03f0:8104 Hewlett-Packard

EDIT:
don't worry anymore folks, this and now cdrecord doesn't work right for me when it did before. Back to stable i'll go, i'll just reinstall not downgrade. no hastle, all the important files are on a seperate partition.

That's too bad. Now I find myself wanting to downgrade my mixed system to stable. I've already got libc6 from testing, and I think it's going to be a pain. But I want to do it for the experience, and I'm likely to scrap this installation after I get a bigger hdb anyway.

I think if u edit /etc/apt/sourceforces.list to only sarge and edit /etc/apt/preferences likewise there is a apt-get --force-downgrade switch but it probably wont be pretty. Surely otheres have downgraded...