Mailinglist Archive: opensuse (4054 mails)

[Johannes Meixner <jsmeix@xxxxxxx>]

Hello,

On Jan 3 00:01 Dave Howorth wrote (shortened):
> > > > I've bought an RX620
...
> > The basic situation is that both Yast and CUPS claim the printer is
> > configured and I can print raw text to it (cat some-file > /dev/usb/lp0)
> > but when I try to print from an application or use Yast or CUPS test
> > print they all think the print has finished but the printer does
> > nothing.

When you do
cat some-file > /dev/usb/lp0
you don't use the printing system at all.
If the printer prints this way, it shows that the basic
low-level data transfer via USB works.
I.e. you know then that your USB system can send data to
your printer (for example this would fail if wrong USB kernel
modules are loaded or if USB kernel modules are missing).

When you print from an application or do the YaST or CUPS test print,
you use the full printing system. See
http://portal.suse.com/sdb/en/2004/05/jsmeix_print-cups-in-a-nutshell.html
how the CUPS printing system works.

> CUPS error log
...
> I [02/Jan/2006:16:31:51 +0000] Started
> filter /usr/lib64/cups/filter/rastertopips (PID 20234) for job 17.
...
> E [02/Jan/2006:16:31:51 +0000] PID 20234 stopped with status 22!

I.e. the filter /usr/lib64/cups/filter/rastertopips
stopped with an error.

This filter is not included in any of the Suse Linux packages.
As fas as I know this filter is part of the Epson Avasys driver.

Because of "lib64" you have a 64-bit architecture.
Does the Epson Avasys driver really work on 64-bit architectures?
What does the Epson Avasys documentation say about non-i386
architectures?
See for example
http://portal.suse.com/sdb/en/2005/03/jsmeix_scanner-setup-93.html
for an example about problems with a not-100%-free driver (iscan)
on non-i386 architectures.

I tested one Epson Avasys printer driver once on a i386 system
and it shows that this software is somewhat broken-by-design:
I set up a CUPS queue to print into a file but this nice
proprietary driver didn't care how I had set up the queue.
It simply spits out its printer specific binary stuff directly
on my first USB printer (a real good PostScript printer)
which printed tons of sheets with nonsense characters.
On the other hand this indicates that their driver may work
if the first USB printer is the right printer for their driver
(e.g. when only one printer is connected to the system).

Since a long time I had desribed in detail in
http://portal.suse.com/sdb/en/2003/11/jsmeix_print-info-for-manufacturers.html
which conditions a driver software must meet so that we can
integrate it into our products and the HP drivers show
how successful such drivers can be.
But we can neither itegrate the Epson Avasys printer driver
into our products nor do we support broken-by-design software.

Therefore you can only ask those who made this software
how to use it on your (non-i386) system.

> (1) /usr/lib64 everywhere but isn't some of the driver software 32-bit?

Right!
As far as I know their proprietary library (which includes all
what is really interesting of this driver) is only 32-bit
and therefore it may not work in a 64-bit environment.

Some details (assuming you have an AMD 64-bit (x86_64) system):
On the one hand on x86_64 hardware 32-bit i386 software can work.
But on the other hand 32-bit software requires 32-bit libraries.
Only the kernel on x86_64 has a special interface to accept both
64-bit and 32-bit system calls.
On x86_64 from user application down to the kernel interface
(but excluding the actual kernel which is of course the same)
64-bit software and 32-bit software are totally seperated:
64-bit application -> 64-bit library -> 64-bit kernel interface
32-bit application -> 32-bit library -> 32-bit kernel interface

Therefore you must either ask Epson Avasys for a 64-bit version
of their driver or you must try to compile and link their driver
only with 32-bit libraries.
I don't know how their driver is linked with other libraries.
If their 32-bit driver runs as a stand-alone 32-bit application
it should work even on a 64-bit system.

You can get rid of all 32-bit/64-bit problems when you simply
install the 32-bit version of Suse Linux on your 64-bit system.
This would be the same as if you install 32-bit Windows on your
64-bit system.


Kind Regards
Johannes Meixner
-- 
SUSE LINUX Products GmbH, Maxfeldstrasse 5      Mail: jsmeix@xxxxxxx
90409 Nuernberg, Germany                    WWW: http://www.suse.de/