Hej Peacedog

There are 836 lines in the cupsd file. Pico can cut and paste but it says nothing about copying!
Is there any way I can copy it to another file? Also, unfortunately the pico window will not stay open while I copy by hand to this window but I am baulking a little at the prospect of copying down 836 lines to paper and then once again to this window.

Any ideas on how to copy?

273chris

This has really been a bear of a problem. I might suggest removing all the printers, and reinstalling them. I know that may be a pain, but, so is waiting for days on end for more help. Try removing and reinstalling, and post any subsequent problems. I'll be here with any fresh ideas googling to the end.
good luck.

Hi Peacedog

OK, first I tested the two printers installed on localhost631 and established that they were still playing up, and then I checked that there were no outstanding jobs on locahost 631.

I then went ahead and deleted the two printers (in reality the printer-driver configurations?) in localhost631 and installed new ones with the numbers 1 and 2 instead of 3 and 4, using the drivers as before that produced better results than the other two available drivers.

When I had installed the printers I pressed the testpage button and no test page came but some old stuff came out (now where did that come from?) plus pages of hieroglyphics, usually with the printer aborting each page after 0-15 lines. I had to switch off the printer 3 times each time for a minute, before the printer calmed down and began to be ready to accept new docs.

I rebooted and chose a document from Open Office to print out. Lo and behold a full and complete colour test page came out, but then followed by my OO doc with only 15 lines and then a few or one or two (or no) lines on the following pages. The lines that are put onto the second and third pages are all from the original page. It would seem that the printer breaks off printing after circa 15 lines, then puts a couple down on the next page but gets interrupted there again. Both printers play up more or less the same way, irrespective of driver.

What is also strange is that localhost631 shows a job as complete when the printer is still spewing out paper and cannot be stopped, and when no complete page has been done. Is there perhaps something wrong with the queuing system?

On one of the panels at locahost631 is a connection to a company Easy Software selling some CUPS printer software. Do you know anything about it -(it costs $49). They allow test downloads. Maybe worth a try?

cheers for now

273chris

HI again Peacedog

You know, before I go downloading testsoftware, since we established I have not used the update function for my Linux software since I installed it, perhaps I could download the updates and see if any new ones make a difference, or would it be better to keep things simple for the moment?

cheers

273chris

The updates could help. Keep in mind though they also sometimes break things. I've located a guide specific to suse 9. You can find it here.

http://portal.suse.com/sdb/en/2003/0...ichten-90.html

good luck.

Thanks Peacedog

I'll try the updates first and get back to you.

Oh and the guide specific to SuSE 9,0.. You can find it higher up in the thread. I copied the advice page on 9,0 down there in case you understood any of it. I don't understand much.

Thanks anyway.

Keep in touch!

273chris

OK I fetched all the updates and dowloaded the lot and rebooted.
I tried to print using an OO document.
The same pattern occurred. After printing two perfect pages the printer aborted the third page after about 45% of the page was printed. Thereafter the printer wrote gobbledegook (often only on a few lines or just half a line) for a few pages and/or chruned out unprinted paper. Impossible to stop without switching off the printer three times, waiting a minute each time.

Localhost631 Jobs function was no help in stopping the printer since the job is shown there as complete.

273chris

This is just a guess, but what are your system specs, and what type of document are you trying to print? This is starting to sound like a system resources problem. I've seen many printers "choke" on large files over a network, not so much with linux, as with windows. That's about the only other thing I can reason at this point. Maybe you'll need to set the printers up on a server with fewer services running. As I said, that's just a guess.
good luck.

Hi Peacedog

Computer resources:

Gateway with Intel 500MHZ Pentium III processor
Intel 440BX chipset
512K L2 Cache
128MB 100MHZ SDRAM
13.6 GB Quantum hardrive ( 5GB used, 8.6 free)
Phoenix BIOS
1 Parallel, 2 Serial Ports, 2 USB Ports

I am running SuSE Linux only, no Windows.

I have an Epson Stylus Color 740 printer (connection to computer is fine). Epson had me run through a mechanical test on it and it was fine. It has parallel port connection to the computer and it is working. The last test page just a couple of days ago (that didn't come through at the time but strangely enough the next day at the front of another job) was fine.

When I first installed SuSE Linux the printer worked perfectly when printing saved MS Word files from Open Office. It would print as many pages as you wanted.

At that time I could not get Mozilla browser or Mozilla email to print out, but left it for a few months until I had time to sort the Mozilla problem out. I didn't even know what YaST localhost631, CUPS or KDE were - I never had to use them.

The problems came when I started going through the configurations with YaST. I was told to use localhost631, CUPS and KDE, but did not really improve anything.

Since the system used to print before I would think it must have enough resources.

I have tried re-installing everything from scratch but it does not help.

273chris

Yeah, the system specs look ok. You could try uninstalling the printer, disconnecting it, restarting the machine, then shut it down, reconnect the printer, then start up the machine. I don't have any other fresh ideas, I'll give it some more thought and get back. It shouldn't be this tough to install a printer. I'm going to do some googling as well.
good luck.

HI Peacedog,

Ok I will try that procedure. However, I need to be clear in my newbie head what exactly I need to do.
Is it:
1 Does uninstalling the printer mean deleting printer in localhost631, or does it mean going into YaST and uninstalling it there as hardware AND software, or all three?

(Just to be absolutely sure)
2 When you write 'machine' I assume you mean the computer/CPU?

Thanks for the clarification.

Ciao

273chris

Deleting from one should delete it from the system, if not, then delete them all.

Correct.
good luck.

Hi Peacedog

I did exactly as you said, then of course the system refused to print without a driver so I installed a couple in localhost631 and tried out the printer but the same behaviour occurred. It is as if it gets a command to abort a certain time after it starts printing.

One page is OK, which is why the test pages often come out OK, since they are one page.

What is spooling? A queuing system? Could there be a problem there? How does one look into that?

Cheers for today

273chris

Spooling shouldn't come into play unless you have multiple documents. It may or may not be a problem. I'm going to do some googling and get back to you.
good luck.

Hey Peacedog

No-one is going to believe this, and I can hardly believe it myself. Over 6 and a half months transpired without any improvement in the printer problem. No help from Novell, because they say that printers are not their problem. No one else has been able to help me fix it. Others tried. You tried your utmost. Altogether I must have spent the equivalent of 3 or 4 months of a full-time job trying to sort that printer out.

Nothing improved since we last exchanged ideas, and on Saturday I was feeling really down again because the printer was still not working, whether from OO, Mozilla browser, email, whatever, and I really needed some printing done!

The printer printed one page and then half the next and then churned out rubbish. Having listened to it thousands of times now I had learned to hate and loathe the agonisingly slow sounds my Epson makes when it puts all the right gears and clutching pads into place to move the paper. Each cluck and click and whack and whirr churns up my stomach when I suspect it is going to abort and then in an infuriatingly slow fashion spew out and waste sheet after sheet without stopping. Each attempt wastes a good ten minutes before I can attempt it again because I have to switch it off to clear its memory. As usual I switched it off, and with a heavy heart, as so many times before, I left it.

I was then overcome by frustration and felt desolate beyond belief. Next day, being Sunday, I first went to church as usual and, unusually, I prayed there to Almighty God to REALLY help me fix this printing problem. Then when I got home I said 'Dear Lord, I cannot fix this. Nobody can, but you. Please, you fix it'.

I tried again. The first papers which came out were gobbledegook once more, so I switched it off and waited a couple of minutes in disbelief, thinking that this cannot be the result after my heartfelt and impassioned prayers. When I switched it back on, without ordering print at all, it suddenly printed the document I had wanted, all by itself. Since then it has been 100% OK, and printed several copies of varous docs, some more than two pages if necessary and Word and Excel or pdf files from OO, Mozilla browser and Mozilla email.

It has been like this for these last five days now. But how did it fix itself?? For the last few weeks I have not configured anything, not used YaST, not fiddled with KDE or CUPS or anything. The whole thing is inexplicable. I know that people will think it is just a coincidence, but as I have had to suffer this problem almost every day trying solutions for almost seven months, I cannot accept that. It is just far too much of a coincidence. It just has to be: a miracle. I have been wondering what the Lord changed to get it to work. But if I think about that too long I get into doubting the miracle. Also, I hardly want to breathe near the printer, in case it does what it did last time it printed one or two things OK and then reverted.

So I am leaving the printer and everything the way it is. I am not going to touch anything in doubt of the miracle and in curiosity of what could have happened to become OK.

Anyway thanks for your support during those bad and tough times. It is a pity we couldn't find out what was going on then. But now I don't mind so much. I think God is trying to tell me something.

273chris