I have an HP CP1025, an old brute of a printer.

I can print a Libre Office document, but when I want to print a pdf, nothing happens, although I get a message 'job completed', I also get a 'system error' message. The little light on the printer keeps flashing, and only a reboot can get it to print a Libre Office document.

I am using Ubu 18.04, which I am finding very beta. Often it freezes on shutdown, the network connection gets lost when switching from vpn back to normal, Libre Office can freeze the computer, moan, moan.

Anyone know a fix for this problem of pdfs not printing?

I installed the printer using hplip-3.18.7.run from HP. It needs a proprietary software not supplied by Ubu.

Does the printer print PDFs successfully using any other distro or operating system?

What application are you trying to print the .pdf with? I use Okular on a regular basis without problems.

There are some .pdf's that are password protected, and who know what else. What is the source of the file(s) you are having problems with?

I only have Ubuntu at home, no other distro. I'm not an expert, and Ubu is relatively easy to use.

I had no problem doing this in 16.04.

The pdfs are not protected, I generated them.

Whatever default pdf reader comes with Ubu 18.04, that's what I have, seems to be Document Viewer 3.28.2

Also, this is only a problem with the HP printer. My Epson printer has no problem. At work a Brother printer also works fine.

I've heard, HP printers work well with Linux. Maybe that was so in the past, but not now. There is some kind of protected software which Ubu does not have.

hplip-3.18.7.run seems to work, installs the proprietary software and prints a test page. I thought, everything OK now, but a pdf will not print.

Maybe Ubu 18.04 is just too young!

So, just to confirm, you printed exactly the same pdf on exactly the same printer when you had Ubuntu 16.04 but it worked?

Yep, I print a lot of pdfs generated by a multiple choice marking program, Formreturn, answer forms for 7 classes nearly every week.

I would recommend checking the CUPS error_log (/var/log/cups/error_log) after sending a PDF print job to the HP printer. First, CUPS should be put into debug mode with

then send a print job and examine the log (with an editor). It's likely to contain lengthy output, so if you need help understanding it consider copying the content to https://pastebin.com/ and share the link to it here.

Thanks!

I just tried to print 1 page pdf, did not work, now the printer status light is flashing and the printer is unusable. I called this print queue hplaser1025, so I looked for that in the error log. The whole error log is too long to paste, exceeds the permitted size.

https://pastebin.com/DQg6Nsxk

How do I turn off the debug-logging please??

Often a good idea to delete the exiting log before starting these diagnostic exercises. It will get recreated the next time CUPS starts. Or just identify the relevant print job (or time stamp) and examine just that section.

To turn it off again do

Unfortunately, the snippet you shared isn't complete for the print job concerned. I want to see filter-related information and that is not there.

Sorry about that.

I tried to print again. I waited until my computer clock got past 08.41 to 08.42, then clicked print. The error log shows 08.42.05 I copied the next 10 seconds, up to 08.42.15.

Maybe that will give you a clue?? The error log is still a lot longer!!

https://pastebin.com/6YAZ5FpH

Hi again and sorry to bother you with this!

I cleared all jobs in the print queue.

I started a new print job at [18/Sep/2018:09:16:04 +0800] then quickly copied the error log to the end, because it just keeps getting longer!

Just for things like this, I have 2 printers at home and 2 in the office. I have found, if you rely on one printer, just when you really need it, it balks!

https://pastebin.com/dwsLfFLv

One fine day, after an update, I'm sure this will work again! Like I said, the latest Ubu is a bit iffy!

For future reference, the error_log can be deleted with
then restart CUPS and it should get recreated.


Anyway, the filter chain is present in your last posted log...
...and from examining that I can see that it is hpcups that fails further down....
This error is the same reported in this recent Slackware thread so likely a regression with HPLIP itself (the hpcups backend is part of HPLIP).

For now, I would try downgrading hplip.

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Work around: we have an old laptop here at home with Win 7. I installed the hp software from the cd which came with it. At least, if I want to print a pdf, I can plug a usb stick in and print from there!

Whatever works for you

If it were me I would be reverting to HPLIP v 3.18.4
http://ubuntuhandbook.org/index.php/...18-04-support/

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