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Old 04-04-2005, 02:58 PM   #1
geoff
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Registered: Jan 2003
Distribution: Sarge,FC3,Suse9.1,Xandros3,Mandrake10
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Sarge printer dead


Hello,
Can anyone help with this problem please?
Since installing Sarge about two weeks ago I have been unable to use my printer (Lexmark Z22) which is connected via USB. I have installed the necessary CUPS and Foomatic packages which immediately detect the device and provide the correct driver. Everything looks good, until I print a test page; which is sent to the printer, but then nothing happens.
If I then go back to "Printer Properties" in the CUPS gui I see "Ready, Printer fault".
CUPS error.log reveals:
"unknown device:lxm3200"
"possible error on renderer command line or Postscript error, check options, exit stat 3"
"error, illegal seek"
The printer works fine with other distros and I am familiar with CUPS and Foomatic. I have come to a dead end here. I have studied the forums and find other people report the same problem in Sarge, but there are no answers. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
 
Old 04-06-2005, 05:54 AM   #2
intuxicator
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Registered: Jun 2004
Distribution: Fedora Core 4
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Quote:
I have come to a dead end here
believe me you'll stay there because i've tried out 3 varios printer versions on Sarge and neither works or works like it should. First my LexmarkZ600 was recognised but would not print out anything. The same was with my Epson Stylus OUX40 allthough there is a specific driver for that device, and Epson Stylus Color 460 which would actually work but print out nothing when summoned. I think that people working on debian should fix that problem, because AFAIK this problem follows them for a while (for example Lexmark 3200 also won't work on Woody too)
 
Old 04-06-2005, 11:52 AM   #3
geoff
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Registered: Jan 2003
Distribution: Sarge,FC3,Suse9.1,Xandros3,Mandrake10
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Thanks for the info, you have confirmed what I already suspected. Seems that I will give up on Debian for now, I also found the same problem with Woody. Not much use without a printer is it?
 
Old 04-08-2005, 04:27 AM   #4
failsafe
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Registered: Mar 2005
Location: Cambridge, UK
Distribution: Debian Sarge
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I had a similar problem with my usb connected EPSON STYLUS PHOTO R300. When I installed Sarge and now boot it up the usb printer seems to be recognised fine. Later in the boot sequence it appears that default lp0 gets assigned to my parallel port rather than the usb port. Trying to print something to the printer was like printing to a black hole. I googled for ages to try to see how to fix it from others with the same problem, but to no avail.

The fix for me (finally) was to run the CUPS browser configuration tool (browse to http://localhost:631/ on your Debian system) and to check everything seemed well. In my case, there were some problems with some of the settings.

You might try the following to fix your "no printing" problem.
  • Browse to the CUPS admin tool on your system (http://localhost:631/)
  • Click "Do administration tasks" on the main CUPS menu and log in as root.
  • Click on "Manage Printers" (in my case just my stylus_photo_r300 is listed).
  • Click "Configure Printer" and alter any settings there that seem wrong for your printer. (In my case a low resolution b/w was there that I set to higher res, colour, etc.)
  • Click "Set As Default" button to set your printer to be the default one.
Clicking on the "Print Test Page" button should now spark your printer into life.

Of all these things, the original fault in my case (I think) was that the usb printer wasn't the default printer on the system; the empty parallel port was. Good luck, and I hope this helps. It would be a real shame if a simple thing like printer configuration stopped you using Debian!

Cheers, Failsafe
 
Old 04-08-2005, 01:40 PM   #5
geoff
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Registered: Jan 2003
Distribution: Sarge,FC3,Suse9.1,Xandros3,Mandrake10
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Hello Failsafe,
Thanks for the advice, I too am getting messages in the kernel log which suggest that lp0 is first assigned to USB then later on is re-assigned to parport0. I have tried reconfiguring using the CUPS browser but no luck. Oh well, think I'll go sailing instead!
 
Old 04-12-2005, 06:45 PM   #6
mipia
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Registered: May 2003
Location: lake michigan
Distribution: Debian, Mint, Slackware
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lol i have also had bad luck with debian and printing as well. I think in my case it's just the printer. I can't for the life of me get my canon s600 to work worth a damn. Closest I ever came was being able to print at 600 dpi without any black ink, just the other colors. Worked flawlesly on my win boxes etc.
Buuuut I have had great luck with my HP photosmart printer through usb. Worked right from the start.
 
Old 04-12-2005, 09:06 PM   #7
jstuckey
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Registered: Apr 2005
Location: Lakewood, Ohio, USA
Distribution: Debian Sid
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Similar issue

I had a similar issue with my HP PSC 750. It would just sit there, even though it was properly configured. To get the printer to work, I had to turn it off, deactivate it in CUPS, turn it back on, then re-activate it in CUPS. Then it would work, at least until I logged out or the printer went into power-save mode.

Strangely enough, since I replaced my ink cartridges it has worked perfectly without having to go through any of that garbage.

Jon
 
Old 04-12-2005, 11:58 PM   #8
Dead Parrot
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Registered: Mar 2004
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Having so many printer problems sounds very strange to me. I've set up a HP deskjet printer, an Epson Stylus Photo printer and a Samsung laser printer (all local printers) on Debian Sarge with CUPS and they've all worked flawlessly, so I thought that Debian developers must have done excellent job with solving all printing problems. Well, maybe I've just been lucky with my printer choices but here's the general procedure I followed to get my printers working:

1) Install the needed software:
# aptitude -r install foomatic-bin cupsys-driver-gimpprint

Aptitude will install all the other needed packages as dependencies. HP printers don't actually need the cupsys-driver-gimpprint package -- it's mainly for Epson printers, I think.

2) Configure the printer by pointing your web browser to http://localhost:631/admin

I'm not sure if I needed to reboot to get the print server working but, all in all, setting up local printers on Debian Sarge has been really easy, in my experience.

Of course, you should always first check from www.linuxprinting.org that your printer is actually supported under Linux.
 
Old 06-16-2005, 05:24 AM   #9
geoff
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Registered: Jan 2003
Distribution: Sarge,FC3,Suse9.1,Xandros3,Mandrake10
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After many hours of investigation I have solved this problem, I hope that this may help others:
It seems that the version of Ghostscript which is installed by default in Sarge and other Debian releases does not contain all the available Ghostscript printer drivers, (Lexmark Z22 is certainly not there). So even though the Cups printer set up application lists this driver it is not installed unless your version of Ghostscript has it.
Ghostscript ESP ("gs-esp" in Synaptic) has many more drivers including the one I needed. Just install gs-esp and the problem is solved (easy if you know the answer).
I must say that it seems to me that this is the kind of thing that stops Linux becoming a real option for the average user,
why is gs-esp not the default option?
 
  


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