A recent update to CentOS 6.6 from 6.5 included an update to Cups to cups-1.4.2-67.el6.x86_64 from cups-1.4.2-52.el6_5.2.x86_64. This has introduced a "feature" which is I find totally unacceptable.

The older version of Cups-PDF would create a pdf file in which I could select and copy text. The newer version produces what appears to be a pdf of an image. I cannot select anything within the pdf.

I have also verified this performance in the Cups-PDF program in Debian and Ubuntu 12.04. It looks like I need to find an alternative to Cups-PDF. Can anyone offer any suggestions? Cups-PDF being "built in" to most distros seems to be the standard and I am having trouble finding anything else.

TIA,

Ken

Are you actually using cups-pdf or selecting print to file from the application's print menu? As far as I know the print to file feature is a Gnome function and does not use cups.

The actual cups-pdf virtual printer backend is not part of cups and and any upgrade should not have any bearing on its operation.

I will have to check out my CentOS box.

You are correct michaelk. The package in question is cups-pdf-2.5.1-1.el6.x86_64. I suspect it was also upgraded at the same time. Still, I need a better pdf creator. I have cups-pdf setup as a "printer" and was printing from the browser to the pseudo printer. My Brother HL5170DN networked printer is also not working correctly. I cannot print from Thunderbird nor from Eye of Gnome image viewer. I have tried deleting and recreating the printer in Cups but it still does not work.

This upgrade to CentOS 6.6 has hosed a lot on my machine. I keep finding more as I go along. I do not look forward to spending a couple of weeks rebuilding and tweaking everything to my liking.

Ken

That is strange. An upgrade gone wrong/incomplete perhaps?

Maybe some useful error messages will be reported in /var/log/cups/error_log? (Of course CUPS logging verbosity may need to be increased first.)
Then try a print job, and observe /var/log/cups/error_log

This is worth reading for diagnostic purposes
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/How_to...nting_problems

Looks like I have the same issue. After doing some additional research it seems this problem is not new. I assume that part of the problem is due to the fact that linux printing has moved to creating PDFs as the standard print format vs PS and that it is some kind of cups filter problem.

I didn't see a quick fix.

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...df/+bug/820820
https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/32968

Yes, I recall this issue (hit openSUSE and other distros) a few years back, but Centos 6.6 uses cups-1.4.2, so late to the party. However, KDE and Gnome both provide 'Print to File' capability, and I am still able to capture text via okular when needed. So perhaps the workflow is different when invoked like this?

Yes, I really have not played with cups-pdf lately since there is print to file and windows pdfprinter.

Thanks ferrari - I was in the process of running the recommended tests on Thunderbird when I noticed an option under Page Setup to select the printer. I changed it from Any printer to Brother HL5170DN. The email printed fine. I checked again and it had reset to Any printer - but it still printed the email just fine. I have found that the CentOS 6.6 upgrade seems to have reset a bunch of similar preferences throughout the system. Things I had set years ago and forgotten about. What a PITA!

I do not see print to file - probably have to set it up or perhaps it is only available in some situations.

Thanks again michaelk. Perhaps I need to run windows pdfprinter under wine

Ken

That's usually just a matter of setting the default printer.
Which DE? (Assuming Gnome?)

The laser printer IS the default printer. I am not sure why I had to kick Thunderbird in the butt to get it to work. Although it will only print plain text email. I tried one with some images and the printout was:

ERROR NAME;
undfined
COMMAND;
Q
OPERAND STACK;

The printer is then off-line and I have to power cycle it to get it to respond. I found the same issue trying to print a graphic from eye of gnome. I do not see anything which I recognize as error speak in the log file.

I have a new 240 GB SSD on order. When it arrives I will build a Ubuntu 12.04 system with gnome or mate and if that works I will plug it in in place of this CentOS drive. Or I may try Debian/Mate. I went to CentOS back at Ubuntu 10.04 when Ubuntu was unstable with my dual monitor setup. I had hoped that CentOS would provide stability - and it has with a couple of exceptions such as when my video card was no longer installed. As to the current mess... I do not have the time nor interest to deal with this crap.

Off my soap box now. And again thanks,

Ken

Well, actually I was looking in the wrong place. Print to File is available at print time in several programs such as Firfox and Thunderbird which do not have a save as pdf option. I was looking under System; Administration; Printing for Print to File so I could check out its configuration. The option works fine for Firefox, my main need, except that it will not produce unique file names as cups-pdf would. Every time it wants to save the file as mozilla.pdf. But I can deal with that.

It looks like I am good to go.

Thanks all for your input.

Ken

Glad that it works for you.