various LPD errors occuring on RH8.0

fishsponge · 07-07-2005, 10:16 AM

we have a network here, consisting mainly of RedHat 8.0 machines. We also have a PostScript print plugged into the network called "printer.domain".

All RedHat 8.0 machines have this printer configured as "raw@printer.domain", and this is the only (and the default) printer installed.

All machines can print to the printer with no problems whatsoever, but one machine keeps having problems every few days, and it seems that the only thing that fixes it is a reboot.

The most recent error we have received is as follows:

Code:

job 'username@client+167' transfer to raw@localhost failed
error 'ERROR TRANSFERRING DATA'
error msg: '^B server load too high'

...or something very much like that anyway.

Also, we can successfully stop lpd from running by typing '/etc/init.d/lpd stop' and when we start it up again using the same method it says it started fine, but in actualy fact, the lp daemon is not running and when '/etc/init.d/lpd status' is run, it says:

Code:

lpd is dead but subsys is locked

Does anyone have any idea what is happening here?

I have looked in Google already and all i can find are referenced to name lookups, but putting the following into '/etc/hosts' doesn't make any difference:

Code:

192.168.1.50 printer.domain printer

Any help is massively appreciated!

Inhibit · 07-07-2005, 10:27 AM

I'm not sure about the problem entirely, but if you're getting an error reading "transfer to raw@localhost failed" and you don't have "localhost" as an alias for 127.0.0.1 in your /etc/hosts file, it might be causing a problem. Something like:

Code:

127.0.0.1                   localhost.localdomain           localhost

to define localhost should exist at the head of /etc/hosts. Sounds like it might be having trouble transfering the printjob to the local spooler to send out if it really is related to the system's name. Might be something else entirely though.

fishsponge · 07-07-2005, 10:30 AM

we do actually have that line in /etc/hosts, but i was only showing you the line i added.

With regards to "raw@localhost", this is probably part of the problem... the default printer is "raw@printer.domain", so it shouldn't even be trying to print to "raw@localhost".

Any ideas?? lol

Inhibit · 07-07-2005, 10:57 AM

Heh, knew that'd be too easy

. Wish I had actually used RH 8.0. The only other thing that comes to mind is something funky with the target of the printjob. the @localhost makes me think it's printing to the spooler "raw" on the local machine and then that's spooling out to the printer. Could be it's choking somewhere in there (on a tmp file or something).

The lock error usually means there's a file hanging out in "/var/lock/subsys" (or your systems equivalent). Those get removed on boot on some of the Unix systems I've used.

As for the error, if you know which spooler RH8 uses or if someone else does it might help diagnose the problem. One place to check for additional errors would be the /var/log lp or cups logs, and those would depend on what type of spooler it's got. Also, you may be able to run the spooler in a more verbose mode or run it interactively to get better output for a handle on what's happening.

fishsponge · 07-08-2005, 04:34 AM

the log entries show the following right up until we rebooted the machine (which did fix the problem temporarily):

Code:

./messages:Jul  7 13:32:12 stg-mkc6 Waiting[846]: lpd: fork() failed - Resource temporarily unavailable
./messages:Jul  7 14:53:41 stg-mkc6 Waiting[846]: lpd: fork() failed - Resource temporarily unavailable
./messages:Jul  7 14:55:11 stg-mkc6 Waiting[846]: lpd: fork() failed - Resource temporarily unavailable
./messages:Jul  7 14:55:11 stg-mkc6 Waiting[846]: lpd: fork() failed - Resource temporarily unavailable
./messages:Jul  7 14:55:22 stg-mkc6 lpd: lpd shutdown succeeded
./messages:Jul  7 14:55:26 stg-mkc6 MAIN[31423]: lpd: main() dofork failed - Resource temporarily unavailable
./messages:Jul  7 14:55:26 stg-mkc6 lpd: 2005-07-07-14:55:26.286 stg-mkc6 lpd: main() dofork failed - Resource temporarily unavailable
./messages:Jul  7 14:55:26 stg-mkc6 lpd: lpd startup succeeded
./messages:Jul  7 14:55:44 stg-mkc6 lpd: lpd shutdown failed
./messages:Jul  7 14:55:44 stg-mkc6 MAIN[31454]: lpd: main() dofork failed - Resource temporarily unavailable
./messages:Jul  7 14:55:44 stg-mkc6 lpd: 2005-07-07-14:55:44.508 stg-mkc6 lpd: main() dofork failed - Resource temporarily unavailable
./messages:Jul  7 14:55:44 stg-mkc6 lpd: lpd startup succeeded
./messages:Jul  7 14:58:57 stg-mkc6 lpd: lpd shutdown failed
./messages:Jul  7 14:58:58 stg-mkc6 MAIN[31552]: lpd: main() dofork failed - Resource temporarily unavailable
./messages:Jul  7 14:58:58 stg-mkc6 lpd: 2005-07-07-14:58:58.004 stg-mkc6 lpd: main() dofork failed - Resource temporarily unavailable
./messages:Jul  7 14:58:58 stg-mkc6 lpd: lpd startup succeeded
./messages:Jul  7 14:59:51 stg-mkc6 lpd: lpd shutdown failed
./messages:Jul  7 14:59:51 stg-mkc6 MAIN[31590]: lpd: main() dofork failed - Resource temporarily unavailable
./messages:Jul  7 14:59:51 stg-mkc6 lpd: 2005-07-07-14:59:51.987 stg-mkc6 lpd: main() dofork failed - Resource temporarily unavailable
./messages:Jul  7 14:59:51 stg-mkc6 lpd: lpd startup succeeded
./messages:Jul  7 14:59:55 stg-mkc6 lpd: lpd shutdown failed
./messages:Jul  7 14:59:57 stg-mkc6 MAIN[31615]: lpd: main() dofork failed - Resource temporarily unavailable
./messages:Jul  7 14:59:57 stg-mkc6 lpd: 2005-07-07-14:59:57.065 stg-mkc6 lpd: main() dofork failed - Resource temporarily unavailable
./messages:Jul  7 14:59:57 stg-mkc6 lpd: lpd startup succeeded

it'd be nice if it said *which* resource is unavailable, wouldn't it! lol