Hello, some additional explainations
Yast recognizes, installs and prints a test page but the printer does not accept print jobs in regular use.
The YaST testpage printing is no dirty hack or fake. When YaST prints a testpage it does: - YaST installs the queue (using y2test as queue name) - YaST prints by calling the usual lpr or lp command - YaST waits until the user clicked [OK] or [Stop] - in case of [OK] YaST removes the queue in case of [Stop] YaST deletes the print job and kills any proccess which is accessing the printer device and finally YaST removes the queue I.e. if testpage printing works then this proves that it really works. It doesn't matter that YaST runs as user root because the printing system runs as lp regardless which user sends a print job to the printing system - see http://portal.suse.com/sdb/en/2003/09/jsmeix_print-einrichten-90.html Therefore: If testpage printing worked but regular printing doesn't work then it is a really strange problem.
I got the printer to print. I had suspected that the problem might be how yast sets up the connection. Yast list the printer connection as //samsung blah blah blah idle:40000 . . . When I changed the connection to the more sane and logical /dev/usb/lp0 then the printer worked.
Therefore it was one more of the well known USB hotf*** problems. The strange looking USB DeviceURI usb://samsung... is what the CUPS backend /usr/lib/cups/backend/usb results - for example: root~ # /usr/lib/cups/backend/usb direct usb://HP/LaserJet%201220 "HP LaserJet 1220" "USB Printer #1" direct usb://HP/DeskJet%20990C "HP DeskJet 990C" "USB Printer #2" direct usb:/dev/usb/lp2 "Unknown" "USB Printer #3" direct usb:/dev/usb/lp3 "Unknown" "USB Printer #4" The ordering of the kernel USB devices /dev/usb/lp0, /dev/usb/lp1, depends on the sequence how several usb printers are switched off and on. For example when I switch both printers off and then on but in the opposite sequence I get root~ # /usr/lib/cups/backend/usb direct usb://HP/DeskJet%20990C "HP DeskJet 990C" "USB Printer #1" direct usb://HP/LaserJet%201220 "HP LaserJet 1220" "USB Printer #2" direct usb:/dev/usb/lp2 "Unknown" "USB Printer #3" direct usb:/dev/usb/lp3 "Unknown" "USB Printer #4" Now /dev/usb/lp0 and /dev/usb/lp1 are exchanged. If I used /dev/usb/lp0 and /dev/usb/lp1 sa DeviceURI for those printers I would now get the data for the DeskJet 990C sent to the LaserJet 1220 and vice versa. If I use the special CUPS USB DeviceURI, then I get the data always sent to the matching printer. Unfortunately the whole USB hotf*** stuff never worked really reliable and there are no module or kernel parameters to force the USB hotf*** stuff to be set up in a fixed defined way. In particular I cannot force the kernel to use /dev/usb/lp0 for the LaserJet 1220 and /dev/usb/lp1 for the DeskJet 990C. This is why I recommend to use the parallel port whenever possible. As there are module or kernel parameters to force the parallel port to be set up in a particular way (which must match to the BIOS settings) - see the Administration manual - it is always possible to set up the parallel port so that it works reliable (except the hardware is broken). Regards Johannes Meixner ----------------------------------------------------------- SUSE LINUX AG, Deutschherrnstr. 15-19 Mail: jsmeix@suse.de 90429 Nuernberg, Germany WWW: http://www.suse.de/ -----------------------------------------------------------