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cyberslober 08-10-2013 05:40 PM

Debian lan network printing problem
 
Hi all:

I am new to any forum and also new to Linux, I try to find solutions to problems on my own as I feel learning the how and why of the way programs work stays with a person better than just a given answer but this printing problem I just can't figure out. Here is where I am at ...... I have muddled through setting up a debian wheezy file & print server with Samba for a home network with a raid 5 array in the past few months.

Everything is working really well and I am able to access all of the files and find the debian printer from my three windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit computers but this is where the problem comes in ....... I can print all files except .pdf and .txt from my windows machines to the shared debian USB HP printer. I can print all files when I am on the debian machine and also print all files from my windows machines to another USB HP printer shared on one of my windows machines.

When I try to print pdf or txt to the debian server from my windows machine it shows that it is printing and then the window disappears but nothing goes to the print cue, prints out or gives an error. I can change the extension of the pdf to docx and it prints but not in the proper format I also tried printing the pfd to an image file with no luck. Changing the txt file to docx file works fine.

Please, please help if anyone has a solution or work around for this printing issue as I am at my wits end, I have spent many hours researching via web pages and phone calls to friends without any answers. I also have tried this without any luck ......... 4.3. CUPS Configuration
Windows printer drivers format their output for the printer before sending it across the network. You must configure CUPS to accept the pre-formatted output by uncommenting the following line from /etc/cups/mime.convs:

application/octet-stream application/vnd.cups-raw 0 -
Also uncomment the following line from /etc/cups/mime.types:

application/octet-stream

lleb 08-10-2013 07:18 PM

posts the section of your cups file for that specific printer. could be a setting there that is off, also when you configured the HP printer that is physically connected to the Debian box did you use the HP drivers, or the drivers that are built into the OS? how did you install the printer? manually via lpadmin or via the web interface for CUPS, or some other way?

All of that will help narrow down the issue with pdf and txt files.

also the specific model of the printer will help.

cyberslober 08-10-2013 08:26 PM

hope this is what you need to help
 
3 Attachment(s)
Thank you for your responds:

I am very new to Linux so I hope this is what you want me to post: The printer is an older USB HP Photosmart D5160 and I used a driver from Debian's site.... (hplip-3.13.6). As soon as I installed the driver and plugged in the printer debian found the printer I then accessed and shared the printer via web 631.

I don't really know how to post my .conf files but I will try. raw.types # This file was generated by the cups package. You may change it, or
# reconfigure this file with dpkg-reconfigure. If it is removed, it
# will be regenerated by the package scripts.

application/octet-stream
I converted the other conf files to text and uploaded them as one of them is quite long, I hope you can tell from this.

Thank you.

PECONET009 08-11-2013 09:31 AM

You need to try Foxit from here....
 
http://www.foxitsoftware.com/downloads/

In the window that says "Windows 32/64-bit" you just put your mouse over it and left click to bring up your choices of operating system(s), in your case select "linux" and just install it by clicking on the software in your "downloads" file.
I had to do this for my PDF files as I had the similar problem as you.

Hope this helps you.


If you find this helpful and cures your problem then please mark as Helpful.

lleb 08-11-2013 12:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cyberslober (Post 5007021)
Thank you for your responds:

I am very new to Linux so I hope this is what you want me to post: The printer is an older USB HP Photosmart D5160 and I used a driver from Debian's site.... (hplip-3.13.6). As soon as I installed the driver and plugged in the printer debian found the printer I then accessed and shared the printer via web 631.

I don't really know how to post my .conf files but I will try. raw.types # This file was generated by the cups package. You may change it, or
# reconfigure this file with dpkg-reconfigure. If it is removed, it
# will be regenerated by the package scripts.

application/octet-stream
I converted the other conf files to text and uploaded them as one of them is quite long, I hope you can tell from this.

Thank you.

as you are using the GUI, just open up a terminal (konsole) and cat the files. you should be able to cat them all as user, but if not the system will say you dont have permissions. if you get that error just switch to root and cat them again.

copy/paste into here using code flags::: [ code ] [ / code ] just remove the spaces and what you put there will be exactly what you see in the terminal.

so for example:

Code:

[user@server TV_Shows]$ cat /etc/cups/printers.conf
cat: /etc/cups/printers.conf: Permission denied
[user@server TV_Shows]$ su -
Password:
[root@server ~]# cat /etc/cups/printers.conf
[root@server ~]#

as you can see my server does not have CUPS configured for the simple reason i have a network printer that all of my workstations access and my server is for NFS only.

you can also see i had to elevate to root in order to cat my printers.conf

cyberslober 08-11-2013 03:46 PM

Hope this is right:

root@Debian:/home/mike# cat /etc/cups/printers.conf
# Printer configuration file for CUPS v1.5.3
# Written by cupsd
# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE WHEN CUPSD IS RUNNING
<DefaultPrinter HP_Photosmart_D5100_series>
UUID urn:uuid:561b7372-2a03-36c9-798e-ecf21087dae1
Info HP Photosmart D5100 series
Location Debian Server
MakeModel HP Photosmart d5100 Series, hpcups 3.12.6
DeviceURI hp:/usb/Photosmart_D5100_series?serial=MY68C1120C04SJ
State Idle
StateTime 1375061774
Type 8425484
Accepting Yes
Shared Yes
JobSheets none none
QuotaPeriod 0
PageLimit 0
KLimit 0
OpPolicy default
ErrorPolicy stop-printer
</Printer>
root@Debian:/home/mike#

Thank you:

cyberslober 08-11-2013 04:11 PM

Thank you
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by PECONET009 (Post 5007257)
http://www.foxitsoftware.com/downloads/

In the window that says "Windows 32/64-bit" you just put your mouse over it and left click to bring up your choices of operating system(s), in your case select "linux" and just install it by clicking on the software in your "downloads" file.
I had to do this for my PDF files as I had the similar problem as you.

Hope this helps you.


If you find this helpful and cures your problem then please mark as Helpful.


Thank you PECONET009;5007257 for the info., first I would like to try and figure out what causes the printing error but if this fails I will try your suggestion. I did follow you link but could please let me know extactly which foxit app. you downloaded as there are so many PDF app's on that site?

lleb 08-11-2013 05:48 PM

also try adding this package:

http://pkgs.org/download/foomatic-filters

in addition to updating both cups and cups client via apt-get.

cyberslober 08-12-2013 01:48 AM

Thanks for the input
 
Thanks for the input but I have already installed that filter and completed apt-get update as well as apt-get dist-upgrade. Have you seen anything wrong in my printer.conf or other problems anywhere?

I have been chasing this issues so long sometimes I get frusterated and have to step back for a while and then come back to try something new. A couple of friends have told me they think it would have to do with the debian server permissions but I just don't know.

PECONET009 08-12-2013 02:03 PM

The first app that says "Foxit Reader"...
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by cyberslober (Post 5007414)
Thank you PECONET009;5007257 for the info., first I would like to try and figure out what causes the printing error but if this fails I will try your suggestion. I did follow you link but could please let me know extactly which foxit app. you downloaded as there are so many PDF app's on that site?

The first app that says "Foxit Reader" is the one you need for your PDF issue as this will make your PDF files more easy to print out when needed.
Like I said, I had the same issue that you are having now, I could not print out any PDF files without purchasing the software from Adobe.
Foxit was able to do just that, to print out stuff that we need.

If you click on the link I gave in my post it will take you to the page and the app that you will want will be looking at you, the first one that says "Foxit Reader" there will be second window to your right that says "Windows 32/64bit", this is the window that you left click on and then select "Desktop Linux". This will then download into your "Download" section of your desktop, click on this when it has finished downloading and it will install. It is a very good piece of software that I have saved for future use so that I can reuse when I do a full install of a different linux system.

Give it ago and see for yourself.

Hope it all works out for you.

cyberslober 08-12-2013 06:11 PM

Thanks
 
Thanks PECONET009 for the respond but I had figured that out and downloaded the file once I stopped and really thought about you description of the win32 or win64 drop down. Thanks again for all your help but I am running Wheezy 64bit so that app. will not install on my machine. I did however find a Linux version of adobe reader for free which installed OK but must be for 32bit because it will not open a PDF file. Even if adobe did work I am not sure it would help the printing issue to the Wheezy printer from windows.

I am starting to believe that the printing issue is in PDF format communication between the windows machine and the Wheezy machine, I will keep trying from time to time to find a fix for this printing issue.

Huge Thanks to all that have offer suggestions.

michaelk 08-12-2013 06:22 PM

If you can not print from any windows PC then it could be due to samba. Is your smb.conf setup for raw printing i.e. cups options = raw?

cyberslober 08-12-2013 07:34 PM

michaelk;

Thank you for the input, below is a cat of the printing portion of my smb.conf file and also what is happening when I print. As you can see I am having no problems printing from windows to debian except for .pdf files.



I can print all files except .pdf from my windows machines to the shared debian USB HP printer. I can print all files when I am on the debian machine and also print all files from my windows machines to another USB HP printer shared on one of my windows machines.

When I try to print pdf to the debian server from my windows machine it shows that it is printing and then the window disappears but nothing goes to the print queue, prints out or gives an error. I can change the extension of the pdf to docx and it prints but not in the proper format I also tried printing the pfd to an image file with no luck.






[printers]
comment = All Printers
browseable = no
path = /var/spool/samba
printable = yes
guest ok = no
read only = yes
create mask = 0700

# Windows clients look for this share name as a source of downloadable
# printer drivers
[print$]
comment = Printer Drivers
path = /var/lib/samba/printers
browseable = yes
read only = yes
guest ok = no
# Uncomment to allow remote administration of Windows print drivers.
# You may need to replace 'lpadmin' with the name of the group your
# admin users are members of.
# Please note that you also need to set appropriate Unix permissions
# to the drivers directory for these users to have write rights in it
; write list = root, @lpadmin

michaelk 08-12-2013 08:50 PM

Check to see if this option is in the global section and add if not.
cups options = raw

cyberslober 08-13-2013 11:19 AM

cups options
 
michaelk;

Cups options = raw was not included in the Global section so I added as you suggested and restarted cups but still the same printing issues persist

Thank you for your suggestion, I will continue to research I refuse to give up and although no solution has yet come from all of the suggestions from everyone I am very grateful for the suggestions as I have learned other things about Linux through the experience.


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