lpd hanging/looping when printing via Opera/Firefox

aturnquist · 01-21-2005, 05:37 PM

Hoping someone can help me here...

I'm running SuSE 9.1, kernel 2.6.10, and lprng. It was upgraded from an original SuSE 8.0 install.

When I go to print from either Opera or Firefox, both will hang before opening the print dialog. Running 'top', I find that lpd is suddenly chewing up 25-30% of the CPU time, like it's getting stuck in a loop. As soon as I do a '/etc/init.d/lpd restart', the dialog appears and then--at least with Firefox--I can print. Printing with Mozilla and other programs (OpenOffice, anything via lpr) works fine.

If I print from my laptop (9.1, kernel 2.6.10, too) with Opera through the print server on this machine, there's no hanging. Everything's fine. The laptop only has queue 'lp' and 'color' defined, which send the data straight to the main server for all processing.

Any ideas what's going on or how to fix it? Or even where I should start looking?

Thanks in advance for any help y'all can give.

--Andrew

On the server, I have installed:

lprng-3.8.25-37
lpdfilter-0.45-248.5
cups-drivers-1.1.20-60
cups-libs-1.1.20-108.13

My /etc/printcap is as follows:

Code:

color
high:\
        :cm=lpdfilter drv=upp method=auto color=yes:\
        :lp=/dev/lp0:\
        :sd=/var/spool/lpd/high:\
        :lf=/var/spool/lpd/high/log:\
        :af=/var/spool/lpd/high/acct:\
        :if=/usr/lib/lpdfilter/bin/if:\
        :la@:\
        :tr=:cl:sh:
photo:\
        :cm=lpdfilter drv=upp method=auto color=yes:\
        :lp=/dev/lp0:\
        :sd=/var/spool/lpd/photo:\
        :lf=/var/spool/lpd/photo/log:\
        :af=/var/spool/lpd/photo/acct:\
        :if=/usr/lib/lpdfilter/bin/if:\
        :la@:\
        :tr=:cl:sh:
djraw:\
        :cm=lpdfilter method=raw color=no:\
        :lp=/dev/lp0:\
        :sd=/var/spool/lpd/djraw:\
        :lf=/var/spool/lpd/djraw/log:\
        :af=/var/spool/lpd/djraw/acct:\
        :la@:\
        :tr=:cl:sh:
#
# Fax-Printer for SuSEFax
#
fax|faxprint:\
        :lp=/dev/null:\
        :sd=/var/spool/lpd/faxspool:\
        :lf=/var/spool/lpd/faxspool/err.log:\
        :if=/var/spool/lpd/faxspool/filter:\
        :mx#0:\
        :sh:\
        :sf:
high-prempaper:\
        :cm=lpdfilter drv=upp method=auto color=yes:\
        :lp=/dev/lp0:\
        :sd=/var/spool/lpd/high-prempaper:\
        :lf=/var/spool/lpd/high-prempaper/log:\
        :af=/var/spool/lpd/high-prempaper/acct:\
        :if=/usr/lib/lpdfilter/bin/if:\
        :la@:\
        :tr=:cl:sh:
prempaper:\
        :cm=lpdfilter drv=upp method=auto color=yes:\
        :lp=/dev/lp0:\
        :sd=/var/spool/lpd/prempaper:\
        :lf=/var/spool/lpd/prempaper/log:\
        :af=/var/spool/lpd/prempaper/acct:\
        :if=/usr/lib/lpdfilter/bin/if:\
        :la@:\
        :tr=:cl:sh:
hp_deskjet840c:\
        :cm=lpdfilter drv=upp method=auto color=yes:\
        :lp=/dev/lp0:\
        :sd=/var/spool/lpd/hp_deskjet840c:\
        :lf=/var/spool/lpd/hp_deskjet840c/log:\
        :af=/var/spool/lpd/hp_deskjet840c/acct:\
        :if=/usr/lib/lpdfilter/bin/if:\
        :la@:\
        :tr=:cl:lk:sh:
lp:\
        :cm=lpdfilter drv=upp method=auto color=yes:\
        :lp=/dev/lp0:\
        :sd=/var/spool/lpd/lp:\
        :lf=/var/spool/lpd/lp/log:\
        :af=/var/spool/lpd/lp/acct:\
        :if=/usr/lib/lpdfilter/bin/if:\
        :la@:\
        :tr=:cl:lk:sh:
color:\
        :cm=lpdfilter drv=upp method=auto color=yes:\
        :lp=/dev/lp0:\
        :sd=/var/spool/lpd/color:\
        :lf=/var/spool/lpd/color/log:\
        :af=/var/spool/lpd/color/acct:\
        :if=/usr/lib/lpdfilter/bin/if:\
        :la@:\
        :tr=:cl:lk:sh:
highq:\
        :cm=lpdfilter drv=upp method=auto color=yes:\
        :lp=/dev/lp0:\
        :sd=/var/spool/lpd/highq:\
        :lf=/var/spool/lpd/highq/log:\
        :af=/var/spool/lpd/highq/acct:\
        :if=/usr/lib/lpdfilter/bin/if:\
        :la@:\
        :tr=:cl:lk:sh:

aturnquist · 02-25-2005, 07:58 PM

Solved my problem.

LPRng under SuSE 9.1 by defaults listens on the ipp port (631), which is apparently what CUPS does, too. But whatever function this port serves, it doesn't seem to work under LPRng.

When firefox opens the print dialog, it seems to try to get a list of printers via this interface, and goes into an endless loop of sending http POST requests that lpd can't understand. Firefox gives up if the connection is refused (i.e., the server goes away).

Simple solution (but not well documented it seems) is to add the line

Code:

ipp_listen_port@

to /etc/lpd.conf, which tells lpd not to listen on that port. Firefox gets an immediate connection refused and continues on happily.

Maybe this will help others using lprng and firefox...

--Andrew