I've been using mepis for some time and like it but this is a new one for me. Currently I'm running Mepis 6.5 (recently upgraded from 6.0) with kernel 2.6.15-27-desktop-smp. Everything was working fine, but a few days ago something went haywire with the print system. All of a sudden, a print command in any program results in a long wait with the program hanging. Finally when a dialog box comes up none of the installed printers are visible. This isn't a general network problem as I can access the internet.

Here's the fun part . Whenever I mouse over the "Print System" option on the KDE start menu, the entire system hangs. I cannot even bring up a process table and have to restart X.

I've googled around for a while and tried a bunch of things. I cannot even access cups via localhost:631, but can ping localhost fine. Tried removing and reinstalling CUPS with Synaptic but that didn't help. Also tried upgrading my kernel (I used to have the non-smp version) and that didn't help. I'm totally mystified. I can't think of any changes I made to anything that would have affected the print system.
Please help!!

Seems you have 2 problems that started w/ the switch to 6.5 (http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...hreadid=558741)

Needless to say, I suspect that that's the problem. I see 3 ways out:

• Go on to 6.5.02.
• Go back to 6.0 via the mechanism promised on the MEPIS web site. http://www.mepis.org/node/13330 (2nd para.), referenced here: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...70#post2734770
• Re-install 6.0.

20-20 hindsight: Don't trust upgrades in the future -- do a fresh install.

thanks, but actually I did do a fresh install of 6.5- twice- I did not just upgrade from 6.0. The print system was working fine for several weeks after that. The thing that confuses me is why it should break all of a sudden and apparently on its own.

6.5.what? There has been at least 1 bug fix release since "6.5".

Personally, I am sticking w/ 6.0 for a while.

Look through synaptics history (synaptic/file/history) and see what you downloaded that may have started the trouble. You may have upgraded some packages that caused the grief.
What kind of computer, cpu, ram, hard drive or hard drives and the partitions do you have? Is MEPIS the only operating system? How long were things good before they went bad?
What kind of printer are you talking about? Which version of 6.5?

lectrix,
Again, 6.5.what? there is a 6.5.02 & some mirrors I was at yesterday also show a "6.5.00", not plain "6.5".


mepnoob2005,
Is Synaptics the only pkg. mgr. to keep a history? What about KPackage, Aadept, even aptitude?

mepnoob2005,
Is Synaptics the only pkg. mgr. to keep a history? What about KPackage, Aadept, even aptitude?[/QUOTE]
Good question. I have no idea as I rarely use any package manager other than synaptic package manager. Synaptic package manager honors MEPIS's configuration better than kpackage. Konsole and apt-get is not as easy as synaptic. When MEPIS started adding synaptic package manager back in 2004 I quit kpackage except to use kpackage for installing any compiled debs. As far as aadept I have never seen it on a MEPIS install. Synaptic has the easiest history to access but I would imagine that all the others have files somewhere that a guy could look through if you knew which ones they were.

What do mean by "Synaptic package manager honors MEPIS's configuration better than kpackage."? How does it do better?

I have extreme problems seeing Synaptic's output terminal, so I have stuck w/ KPackage, & not noticed any problems. I especially like its ability to do 1 click on .deb installs.