difficulty sustaining configuration of printer using KDE
 

Hi!

I am just a simple home user and know next to nothing about Linux and most programs in general but am trying to install and set-up SuSE Linux 9.0 and have had really extensive trouble when trying to make my printer work.

I have no MS Windows OS on my computer. I have a Pentium 3 computer and the printer is Epson Stylus Color 740.The first time I installed Suse Linux everything went OK and I could print my old Word or Excel files from Open Office, however not from my browser, e.g. Mozilla browser, or my Mozilla email browser.

So I uninstalled Linux altogether and re-installed Linux from scratch and after this the printer did not work at all. I got the advice to use a diagnostic tool site on the net called localhost:631, but it did not let me in the second time because it did not accept my password, which I know was right!

Then I read one could use a KDE wizard by calling it up from the second printer window that comes up after one has already given the order to print in a first window. KDE is apparently connected to localhost:631. You guessed it: there was no permanent solution for me!

Anyway, in the second window, which also has various choices like CUPS, there is an icon which looks like a torch and which activates the KDE wizard. Somewhere in the middle of all the configuration process it invites one to test the printer. I tried to test it but KDE would not let me because the password I was required to enter for the test was not accepted. I continued anyway, and lo the printer worked, not only from Open Office but also from my browser and email browser. Success.

End of story? No. Next day the printer does not work again. I try to repeat the prodecure with with the KDE wizard but the printer continues to print rubbish for about six lines then spews out copious sheets of paper.

Any ideas on both the printer configuration or how to get a new password on localhost:631? Incidentally I did try configuring via YaST hardware at an earlier stage before I tried KDE, but just went round in circles. The printer showed the same behaviour then too. Epson have instructed per telephone to run tests on the printer and it is OK, and the cable connections are OK. I get the same problem whether using a parallel pot or USB.

I would be grateful for some help on this vexing problem.

Thanks

273Chris

Sounds like you are using CUPS as the printer daemon. This works as a daemon that sits on udp port 631. The configuration for CUPS is based in the directory /etc/cups and has both a server and client configuration.

It maybe that each time you start/shutdown the machine, the daemon is being started/shutdown. Try opening up a terminal and testing with the following:

bash> su
enter password: <this would be the root password>
bash> /etc/init.d/cups stop (shuts down the daemon)
bash> /etc/init.d/cups start (starts the daemon)

The cupsd.conf file configures the cups daemon while the cups.conf file configures the client.

Hi phantompgr...

Thanks for the reply!

I opened up a terminal and did as you said but the reply came 'no such file or directory'.

Is there some corruption?
Should I go into YaST and uninstall utilities and reinstall them?

By the way, any idea how I can get a new password on localhost:631? It just won't let me in!

Hope you see this.

Ciao

273chris

Okay some things to look at first...

Suse, Mandrake and Redhat tend to adopt the use of cups as the default method for getting to printers. Cups exists as an installed package independant of KDE or any other window manager.

Localhost:631 is not a net tool as such but a browser configuration tool. Cups uses port 631 for all connection requests so that another computer on a network can connect to the printer simply by connecting via port 631 much the same way as a mail client connects to an SMTP server via port 25. Localhost is your computer.

So ...

Open a terminal and try the following:

su to root or login with root (the former is much safer)
type 'netstat -an | more' This displays all listening ports on your machine (ie. all services running open ports) and if cups is installed and running then you should see something like:
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:631 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN
udp 0 0 0.0.0.0:631 0.0.0.0:*
If it doesnt then either cups is not running or not installed. For the latter... try
typing 'rpm -qa | grep cups' and you should see something similar to (but not exactly the same as you are Suse and not Mandrake):
cups-1.1.20-5.1.100mdk
libcups2-1.1.20-5.1.100mdk
cups-common-1.1.20-5.1.100mdk
cups-drivers-1.1-138.2.100mdk

If not then you will have to install cups.

Assuming cups is installed or you have installed it, then the YAST type tools, if like drakconf in Mandrake, deal with the daemon part of cups (installs the printer and makes it available on port 631) while KDE tools will deal with connecting to any Cups served printers on the network (in your case one computer).

Hope this helps....

The Phantom

Hi phantomgpr

Hectic week...

I reinstalled everything and then I did as you said and the tcp * LISTEN and the udp * are there.

When I again tried to use YAST the printer prints rubbish. When I try and use the KDE wizard to configure the printer it installs new drivers but before it is finished it asks me (with my user username pre-provided) for my password, but does not accept it! (Despite the total reinstallation from scratch during which I had to give my username and password.) I have looked for a place to find my user username's password with no success. KDE will not accept root as username plus root's password either.
I had the same problem before the complete reinstallation.

Any ideas what I should try to do now?

Regards

273Chris

I seem to have lost phantom.... :(

Can any one else help?

thanks

273chris

To all

I did ask for this thread to be closed because of the lack of continuation. In the meanwhile,
since so many new visitors look at it every day, some may want to continue looking at the throes and woes in this problem as they are continuing on my other thread:
'Difficulty getting CUPS to configure the printer'

These same issues are not yet resolved.

273chris