I am running Slackware64 14.2 and KDE 4.14.21. I am installing a CUPS printer for the first time. I'm having a problem. I was able to configure our network connected Ricoh Aficio MP C3002 printer using the Ricoh Aficio MP 3010 driver that shipped with Slackware. However, this driver is B&W only. I found the correct PPD file for this printer at the Ricoh site, but when I try to install it the /usr/lib64/kde4/configure-printer task hangs with 100% CPU usage and never terminates. The new PPD does not get installed.

If I delete the printer, and re-add it seems to work. Deleting the printer does delete it, but you wouldn't know it immediately. The Printer - System Settings continues to show the printer until you exit the dialog.

However, once the correct PPD file is used, I cannot make any changed to Options such as 'Color Setting'. Either it hangs altogether, or I repeatedly get the message "The current page has changes. Do you want to save them?" Answering 'Yes', does not save the changes.


I'm running the System Settings > Printers as a normal user, but when I do anything the setup program asks for credentials defaulting to the root user. I enter the root PW and continue, but get all the problems shown above.

I wonder if I'd have these problem if I did the configuration as root? I cannot run KDE as root - is there something I can do at the command line to modify these settings?

Or a problem with the PPD file?

Surely this printing system is mature enough that it must be something I'm doing. I can't imagine these problems have persisted all this time without resolution.

Do you have links or lynx installed? These are browsers that work outside of X so you can run them as root. I don't know if it would solve your problem but it would allow you to configure the printer completely as root and see if that makes any difference.

Alternatively you might like to try the lpadmin command.

Have you tried installing the ppd directly using CUPS? I've never installed printers using KDE's settings, so I'm not familiar with them.

http://localhost:631

hazel: I do have lynx and elinks, though I'm not sure that would help with the KDE setup. Besides, I don't think it is strictly root/non-root related. The non-PPD driver worked. I'll investigate lpadmin -- perhaps this is what bassmadrigal has in mind.

Also, I was mistaken about the Ricoh supplied PPD file working. Although it showed as installed (even though I couldn't modify configs) nothing appeared on the printer when using the PPD.

bassmadrigal: I've never messed with CUPS before, so no, I have not. man cups shows use of that http://localhost:631 URL you posted. Perhaps I can use hazel's suggested text browser on that. I'll check that out and see if I can figure it out.

Also, is a PPD file input-config only or does the [cups] system use it as a live config? In other words, if I make config changes via http://localhost:631, does it want to save those changes back to the original PPD file, or does it store this information elsewhere? I've not yet tried the http://localhost:631, so I may be way off target with this question.

I'm certainly no CUPS guru... I wouldn't even say I'm all that knowledgeable with it. But I'd imagine KDE's printing is just a fancy front-end for CUPS. CUPS is the defacto Linux standard with printing.

And you don't need to browse to the site in something that is root owned. You can just use your normal browser as your normal user and when you go to add a printer, it will ask for a username/password. Just input root's and you'll hopefully be on your way.

Also, make sure /etc/rc.d/rc.cups is executable and started.

After more experimentation, here's what I've got: The PPD file supplied by Ricoh doesn't work. It installs and apparently configurations can be set, but nothing prints. I've tried this several times.

I deleted the printer and reinstalled selecting the "Ricoh PDF Printer" driver. That worked. I get color print.

The http://localhost:631 interface works much better than the KDE System Settings > Printers. With the KDE interface, modifying printer options simply hangs as described above.

With the localhost page and the "Ricoh PDF Printer" driver, the Adiminstration > Default Options now shows most of the options related to this model printer. I was able to turn off the color printing, but turning off the "Double-Sided Printing" option did not work. It still printed double-sided. I can turn off double-sided printing when doing the actual print job itself, for example in Firefox > Print Preview > Print > Page Setup. I'll have to experiment with this more to see why the default single-sided option did not take and see if other options work.

Having to enter a userID and password is extremely annoying. That could make sense for a server or multi-user host, but this is an office workstation and the user should be able to do whatever they want, printer-wise. If someone knows how to turn this off, I'd appreciate the feedback. I've tried a few things I found on the web, but nothing works so far. I'll keep looking.

This is all rather more fiddly than I expected with such mature software as KDE 4.14.21 and CUPS. I'll have to put a link to http://localhost:631 on the users' desktops and perhaps even remove the 'Printer' selection in 'System Settings'. It chagrins me to say that printer setup is easier in Windows!

If I find out how to get all the default settings working properly I'll post back, but otherwise I think my issue is more-or-less resolve.

Next, I'll try hooking up a scanner!

btw - Beta version scanner/PDF software Master PDF from Code Industry Ltd. works.