Hi everyone!! I have installed the latest version of CUPS and Ghostscript, but still cannot print. If I echo a line to /dev/usb/lp0, I see the light flash on the printer showing its receiving data. If I do localhost:631, raw printer, it will also blink. Still, no printing. I'm using a canon s300 printer. The local host gives this error "/usr/lib/cups/filter/rastertoprinter failed".

I have followed the tutorials, but still same error. The CUPS version is 1.2, and the Ghostscript should be 8.15.1. I did ./configure, make, make install for Ghostscript, however I don't know where it should show up in KDE. I went through the menus, but I couldn't see it; I don't know whether its a background utility or so. Any help would be appreciated. JF

What kind of files are you trying to print?
Can you print from an application---eg word processor, graphics editor, etc.?
Can you print a plain text file at the CLI?

AFAIK--anything but a plain text file takes some pre-processing---(I think) this is done in CUPS using "front-end drivers". (These are normally tied to specific apps--don't know how it works at the CLI)

I can't print even when you set the printer up and try to print a test page. Won't print that either. What is CLI? JF

Don't send bytes directly to the printer device in /dev. You're supposed to use printer drivers, as pixellany already mentioned.
The CLI is an abbreviation for Command Line Interface, which is simply said the command line of your terminal window where you type in commands.

Try using the "lp" command to print documents.
ie try:
echo "this is a test" | lp -d /dev/usb/lp0/
You can add other options too.

I know -d is used to specify the printer device, but I'm not 100% sure it accepts using the device file.
You may need to specify the name that the printer was installed on (in Cups). lp will use Cups to find the right driver, convert the text to the printer language (typically either PostScript or some version of PCL - the Printer Command Language) and then send it off to the printer.
Unless you know PCL or PS (PostScript) syntax yourself, I don't recommand that you try sending stuff directly to the printer. Use "lp" instead.

On my machine, it's "lp /dev/usb/lp0" The -d flag wants the printer name as an argument.

Nice to have checked that, pixellany.
I was unsure about the right syntax for the -d option of lp.

Thanks for the replies. I'm currently away from my machine but will try ASAP. Thanks.

Finally got my machine to print nicely. After looking at other threads and reinstalling linux due to a repartitioning issue, I copied the ppd file into the /usr/share/cups/model directory and loaded it using the localhost. After that, it worked great. A serious issue I had was that I ran out of space in the usr directory. I decided to repartition the disk and reinstall a fresh unaltered copy of linux. I followed the cups quickstart guide in the linuxprinting.org website and am happy to say that this one is finally nailed. Thanks everyone!!