[opensuse-factory] [Canon] cups unconfigurable in 12.2
Can anyone print with any kind of Canon? This has always been unnecessarily painful since "upgrading" from a reliable old LaserJet to a Canon MF, but it was easier prior to 11.3, when printing became totally impossible for nearly a year until Canon released a driver update compatible with post-11.2 Cups. In my current 24/7 11.4/KDE3 system I can only count on printing to work printing of plain text files with Firefox. Anything more complicated or in random other apps is likely to flood the print spool and/or cause the printer to error and halt. Same thing happens in 12.1, trying to print a web page in Firefox or Konq4 makes printer "printer data error". This time on a 12.2 system, with a Canon driver updated by Canon just last month, regular user is blocked trying to configure a printer in YaST2 by "restart locally running cups daemon". As root on first in YaST2, I get the printer apparently setup, but nothing happens trying to test print besides what shows up in the cups logs attached, apparently from the sample.drv. On subsequent tries, root gets the same failures as trying to set up as user. Naturally printing from M$ works just fine. Cups output from rpm query is also attached. -- "The wise are known for their understanding, and pleasant words are persuasive." Proverbs 16:21 (New Living Translation) Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 ** a11y rocks! Felix Miata *** http://fm.no-ip.com/
Hello, On Aug 29 23:00 Felix Miata wrote (excerpt):
As root on first in YaST2, I get the printer apparently setup, but nothing happens trying to test print besides what shows up in the cups logs attached, apparently from the sample.drv.
You can ignore messages about sample.drv - those are unrelated. You got: ------------------------------------------------------------------- E [29/Aug/2012:21:44:44 -0400] [Job 1] pstoufr2cpca write error,9. ------------------------------------------------------------------- If "error,9" means errno = 9 it would be EBADF "Bad file number" according to /usr/include/asm-generic/errno-base.h --------------------------------------------------------------- EBADF 9 /* Bad file number */ --------------------------------------------------------------- but I have no idea what the actual root cause is here. pstoufr2cpca is not provided by an openSUSE package. I assume pstoufr2cpca is provided by Canon's driver software. If my assumtion is right, it is likely Canon's driver software that fails here and then you should contact Canon to provide driver software that works. Addendum: When I see how much time you already spent with your printer during the past with your various trouble reports on various free software forums where unfortunately nobody could help, it looks as if this piece of hardware has become somewhat hopeless to be used with nowadays Linux printing systems. You may have a look at: http://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Purchasing_a_Printer_and_Compatibility ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The most important precondition for smooth printer operation is to use a suitable printer. ... problems caused by an unsuitable printer can usually not be eliminated by modifying the configuration of the print server. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- http://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Printer_buying_guide ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Printers that support a standard printer language (preferably PostScript level 3) cost more money. But you don't have so much trouble in getting fine printouts from those printers, as you might have with others. If you buy a printer, you should also calculate ... what any trouble until you get your printer to work may cost you. If you sum up this costs, a printer that supports a standard printer language (preferably PostScript level 3) gets suddenly comparable with other models. ... Of course "the more expensive the better" is not right in any case. It depends on the particular use-case. But usually you get what you pay for. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Kind Regards Johannes Meixner -- SUSE LINUX Products GmbH -- Maxfeldstrasse 5 -- 90409 Nuernberg -- Germany HRB 16746 (AG Nuernberg) GF: Jeff Hawn, Jennifer Guild, Felix Imendoerffer -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-factory+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse-factory+owner@opensuse.org
On 2012/08/30 05:57 (GMT-0400) Johannes Meixner composed:
If "error,9" means errno = 9 it would be EBADF "Bad file number" according to /usr/include/asm-generic/errno-base.h --------------------------------------------------------------- EBADF 9 /* Bad file number */ --------------------------------------------------------------- but I have no idea what the actual root cause is here.
pstoufr2cpca is not provided by an openSUSE package.
I assume pstoufr2cpca is provided by Canon's driver software. If my assumtion is right, it is likely Canon's driver software that fails here and then you should contact Canon to provide driver software that works.
Addendum:
When I see how much time you already spent with your printer during the past with your various trouble reports on various free software forums where unfortunately nobody could help, it looks as if this piece of hardware has become somewhat hopeless to be used with nowadays Linux printing systems.
http://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Purchasing_a_Printer_and_Compatibility ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The most important precondition for smooth printer operation is to use a suitable printer. ... problems caused by an unsuitable printer can usually not be eliminated by modifying the configuration of the print server. ----------------------------------------------------------------------
http://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Printer_buying_guide ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Printers that support a standard printer language (preferably PostScript level 3) cost more money. But you don't have so much trouble in getting fine printouts from those printers, as you might have with others.
If you buy a printer, you should also calculate ... what any trouble until you get your printer to work may cost you. If you sum up this costs, a printer that supports a standard printer language (preferably PostScript level 3) gets suddenly comparable with other models. ... Of course "the more expensive the better" is not right in any case. It depends on the particular use-case. But usually you get what you pay for.
It would have been wonderful if I had actually seen all that before going printer shopping, but what happened was: 1-the HP LaserJet that had had good Linux compatibility had died again, with no hope to again revive it, and I was in need of both printing and copying 2-the LaserJet was a good fit for my limited space, so what I needed was a new device with a similarly suitable size, shape, refill access, paper tray access, and output trajectory 3-I went shopping locally, unprepared 4-the Canon MF4370dn was an excellent fit for the limited available space 5-the Canon MF4370dn box listed Linux as a supported OS (This was a lie WRT North American purchasers/users until early 2010) 6-the Canon MF4370dn included ethernet input method, which the LaserJet had and I needed 7-the MSRP seemed high enough to consider the Canon MF4370dn to not be a junk printer Suffice to say I'm unlikely ever to buy anything made by Canon again, or recommend Canon to anyone. But, I have what I have, and have yet to see on any store shelf any other MF printer model with both suitable physical characteristics and acceptable feature set. It would be really nice if whatever changed in CUPS that broke the proprietary Canon driver post-11.2 was reverted. It's a shame CUPS needs be so complicated that a big international company like Canon seems unable to produce a printer driver compatible with it. Complaining to Canon so far has proved futile. NAICT, new UFR2 driver rpms from Canon do no more than include new models. This rpm grows substantially with each release. Its cups-common rpm was growing until around the time of 11.3 release, when it dropped in size by about 26%. It has since changed in size very very little. I avoided need to print for many years, but eventually found need to print and to copy without leaving the building compelling. I still do pretty good at avoiding need to print, but doing so entirely is impossible. So, I print what I can by limiting to printing pure plain text, and what I can't, I boot an extra PC to Windows just to print, then shut it back down. -- "The wise are known for their understanding, and pleasant words are persuasive." Proverbs 16:21 (New Living Translation) Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 ** a11y rocks! Felix Miata *** http://fm.no-ip.com/ -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-factory+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse-factory+owner@opensuse.org
On 2012/08/30 10:35 (GMT-0400) Felix Miata composed:
Complaining to Canon so far has proved futile.
After sending this I made a follow-up complaint to Canon. Then I tried again on a different 12.2 host. I only tried as root so far, but everything has printed just as good as in WinXP, even web pages from Firefox. Now the question is how do I best figure out what's different between this system (host gx260) and the several other 12.2s I've failed with. -- "The wise are known for their understanding, and pleasant words are persuasive." Proverbs 16:21 (New Living Translation) Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 ** a11y rocks! Felix Miata *** http://fm.no-ip.com/ -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-factory+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse-factory+owner@opensuse.org
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA256 On 2012-08-30 16:35, Felix Miata wrote:
Suffice to say I'm unlikely ever to buy anything made by Canon again, or recommend Canon to anyone.
I had one Canon printer. No more. I might suggest to try the commercial turbo print drivers: that's what I used with my old printer and results were good. They were priced below 50€, IIRC. Now I have an HP printer, and I don't even need the drivers that hplip provides, it works out of the box. I had a good look at what cups supports before purchasing - a good look over two months. I did not trust manufacturers that claimed "Linux support", I wanted support by the community. Pity that Canon makes good looking hardware... but awful Linux support. - -- Cheers / Saludos, Carlos E. R. (from 11.4 x86_64 "Celadon" (Minas Tirith)) -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.16 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org/ iF0EAREIAAYFAlBAfIUACgkQja8UbcUWM1ynNgD4uEnP0gi9LpeSHhem5TtUCIDx 7AnXJTo+GqI9A32GUQD+L8ngqAKpNjAa1/fmfFFDoPbXmOopuepGGwhCYFb+Njc= =ocMz -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-factory+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse-factory+owner@opensuse.org
Hello, On Aug 30 10:35 Felix Miata wrote (excerpt):
It would be really nice if whatever changed in CUPS that broke the proprietary Canon driver post-11.2 was reverted. It's a shame CUPS needs be so complicated that a big international company like Canon seems unable to produce a printer driver compatible with it.
The basic CUPS interface how the cupsd calls external programs (so called "filters" and "backends" in CUPS speech - see "man 7 filter" and "man 7 backend") like printer driver programs is stable "since ever". For details see http://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Using_Your_Own_Filters_to_Print_with_CUPS and http://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Using_Your_Own_Backends_to_Print_with_CUPS how everyone can make his own filters and backends for CUPS. I do it, other users do it, free software projects do it, HP does it, Canon fails. It's a shame that a big international company like Canon seems unable to make a printer driver for CUPS while another big international company HP makes "since ages" free software drivers for most of their printers and all-in-one devices (HPIJS, HPCUPS, and HPAIO in HPLIP) that are provided out-of-the-box in the Linux distributions and additionally HP provides an open communication with the HPLIP developers on http://hplipopensource.com/hplip-web/index.html Kind Regards Johannes Meixner -- SUSE LINUX Products GmbH -- Maxfeldstrasse 5 -- 90409 Nuernberg -- Germany HRB 16746 (AG Nuernberg) GF: Jeff Hawn, Jennifer Guild, Felix Imendoerffer -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-factory+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse-factory+owner@opensuse.org
On Thu, Aug 30, 2012 at 4:35 PM, Felix Miata <mrmazda@earthlink.net> wrote:
4-the Canon MF4370dn was an excellent fit for the limited available space
5-the Canon MF4370dn box listed Linux as a supported OS (This was a lie WRT North American purchasers/users until early 2010)
I've helped a couple of friends get their Canon printers working with openSUSE - most recently on 12.1, and different models than what you're fighting with. The number one tip I can give you is... do NOT use the Canon US website to try and find or download the drivers. I've _never_ found any printer driver from the Canon US site that worked properly. The workaround... download the drivers from the European servers (eg, the Canon UK site). Have no answer why this is the case, but I've found that where Linux drivers were completely missing on the US site, they were easy to find on the UK site.. and where drivers filed in bizarre ways when taken from the US site, they worked fine when taken from the UK site. This is not to say that this will be a miracle-fix, but it's the first thing I try when messing around with Canon printers.
Suffice to say I'm unlikely ever to buy anything made by Canon again
I have the same opinion of Canon printers. I will never buy one. I have had excellent success with HP printers - literally plug and play. They literally just work - at least for all the consumer grade HP printers... I've never tried with enterprise level HP printers. C. -- openSUSE 12.1 x86_64, KDE 4.9.0 -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-factory+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse-factory+owner@opensuse.org
Hello, On Sep 5 15:28 C wrote (excerpt):
I have had excellent success with HP printers - literally plug and play. They literally just work - at least for all the consumer grade HP printers...
Not all HP printers (or all-in-one devices) work, see http://hplipopensource.com/hplip-web/supported_devices/unsupported.html All real PostScript printers from any manufacturer work, see http://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Printer_buying_guide Kind Regards Johannes Meixner -- SUSE LINUX Products GmbH -- Maxfeldstrasse 5 -- 90409 Nuernberg -- Germany HRB 16746 (AG Nuernberg) GF: Jeff Hawn, Jennifer Guild, Felix Imendoerffer -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-factory+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse-factory+owner@opensuse.org
On Wed, Sep 5, 2012 at 4:05 PM, Johannes Meixner <jsmeix@suse.de> wrote:
On Sep 5 15:28 C wrote (excerpt):
I have had excellent success with HP printers - literally plug and play. They literally just work - at least for all the consumer grade HP printers...
Not all HP printers (or all-in-one devices) work, see http://hplipopensource.com/hplip-web/supported_devices/unsupported.html
If you actually looked at the list of printers you linked, it's almost exclusively Large Format printers and Graphic Plotters... neither of which come anywhere near consumer class devices. These are very expensive devices that are used by professional designers/draftspeople for specialized niche/professional printing requirements. there are not something you will see in someone's home office for printing out Grandma's recipe for pumpkin pie. I stand by what I said... for all _consumer_ grade HP printers, you should be able to expect them to "just work" when you plug them into a computer running a current version of openSUSE. You don't need to do any preparation, they should be supported by default (from a default openSUSE install).
All real PostScript printers from any manufacturer work, see http://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Printer_buying_guide
What kind of budget are you working with? Real PS printers are expensive... especially compared to your HPIJS and HPCUPS compatible printers (virtually every single consumer class HP printer on the market). I certainly cannot afford a true PS printer. C. -- openSUSE 12.1 x86_64, KDE 4.9.0 -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-factory+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse-factory+owner@opensuse.org
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA256 On 2012-09-05 20:29, C wrote:
What kind of budget are you working with? Real PS printers are expensive... especially compared to your HPIJS and HPCUPS compatible printers (virtually every single consumer class HP printer on the market). I certainly cannot afford a true PS printer.
Not that expensive. Mine (hp something) was even cheaper than what I had to pay for my previous canon inkjet a decade earlier. - -- Cheers / Saludos, Carlos E. R. (from 11.4 x86_64 "Celadon" (Minas Tirith)) -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.16 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org/ iF4EAREIAAYFAlBHnREACgkQja8UbcUWM1yhBwD/dnpaNczsviRYv8FXdfdh3bGt ne0KnTs17hQRmkU4LaAA/ivvuu9Oqw+6ynkxs8Kl9k7HjHZFyCulEWCQA/x9yKpG =ssRi -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-factory+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse-factory+owner@opensuse.org
On 2012/09/05 15:28 (GMT+0200) C composed: Thank you!
Felix Miata wrote:
4-the Canon MF4370dn was an excellent fit for the limited available space
5-the Canon MF4370dn box listed Linux as a supported OS (This was a lie WRT North American purchasers/users until early 2010)
I've helped a couple of friends get their Canon printers working with openSUSE - most recently on 12.1, and different models than what you're fighting with.
The number one tip I can give you is... do NOT use the Canon US website to try and find or download the drivers. I've _never_ found any printer driver from the Canon US site that worked properly. The workaround... download the drivers from the European servers (eg, the Canon UK site). Have no answer why this is the case, but I've found that where Linux drivers were completely missing on the US site, they were easy to find on the UK site.. and where drivers filed in bizarre ways when taken from the US site, they worked fine when taken from the UK site. This is not to say that this will be a miracle-fix, but it's the first thing I try when messing around with Canon printers.
I guess you missed my follow-up post after getting the US driver to work using a different 12.2 installation. :-p http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-factory/2012-08/msg00705.html My first ever success making my Canon work with Linux was by getting a driver from Canon's UK site.
I have had excellent success with HP printers - literally plug and play. They literally just work - at least for all the consumer grade HP printers... I've never tried with enterprise level HP printers.
My only and now dead HP printer was free. I don't buy anything HP makes. HP was originally a maker of quality products, but it morphed into a marketer of mostly relative junk. Multiple times I was called upon to help with or perform HP driver installation in Windows. It was incredible to me how difficult HP could make it to get a driver installed and working, while on a Mac, HP was always pure plug & play. HP's LaserJet lines were introduced without and never added the Epson language support that was indispensable to my way of working in the '80's and remains an obstacle to efficient workflow. I forgot about this issue when printer shopping and buying the Canon. Next time I'll remember that Epson support is available from Brother, might be available from Lexmark, and, naturally, remains available from Epson. -- "The wise are known for their understanding, and pleasant words are persuasive." Proverbs 16:21 (New Living Translation) Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 ** a11y rocks! Felix Miata *** http://fm.no-ip.com/ -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-factory+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse-factory+owner@opensuse.org
On 2012/09/05 15:28 (GMT+0200) C composed: Thank you!
Felix Miata wrote:
4-the Canon MF4370dn was an excellent fit for the limited available space
5-the Canon MF4370dn box listed Linux as a supported OS (This was a lie WRT North American purchasers/users until early 2010)
I've helped a couple of friends get their Canon printers working with openSUSE - most recently on 12.1, and different models than what you're fighting with.
The number one tip I can give you is... do NOT use the Canon US website to try and find or download the drivers. I've _never_ found any printer driver from the Canon US site that worked properly. The workaround... download the drivers from the European servers (eg, the Canon UK site). Have no answer why this is the case, but I've found that where Linux drivers were completely missing on the US site, they were easy to find on the UK site.. and where drivers filed in bizarre ways when taken from the US site, they worked fine when taken from the UK site. This is not to say that this will be a miracle-fix, but it's the first thing I try when messing around with Canon printers.
I guess you missed my follow-up post after getting the US driver to work using a different 12.2 installation. :-p http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-factory/2012-08/msg00705.html My first ever success making my Canon work with Linux was by getting a driver from Canon's UK site.
I have had excellent success with HP printers - literally plug and play. They literally just work - at least for all the consumer grade HP printers... I've never tried with enterprise level HP printers.
My only and now dead HP printer was free. I don't buy anything HP makes. HP was originally a maker of quality products, but it morphed into a marketer of mostly relative junk. Multiple times I was called upon to help with or perform HP driver installation in Windows. It was incredible to me how difficult HP could make it to get a driver installed and working, while on a Mac, HP was always pure plug & play. HP's LaserJet lines were introduced without and never added the Epson language support that was indispensable to my way of working in the '80's and remains an obstacle to efficient workflow. I forgot about this issue when printer shopping and buying the Canon. Next time I'll remember that Epson support is available from Brother, might be available from Lexmark, and, naturally, remains available from Epson. -- "The wise are known for their understanding, and pleasant words are persuasive." Proverbs 16:21 (New Living Translation) Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 ** a11y rocks! Felix Miata *** http://fm.no-ip.com/ -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-factory+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse-factory+owner@opensuse.org
On Wed, Sep 5, 2012 at 4:11 PM, Felix Miata <mrmazda@earthlink.net> wrote:
My first ever success making my Canon work with Linux was by getting a driver from Canon's UK site.
Good to know I wasn't the only one that stumbled on that oddity from Canon.
of mostly relative junk. Multiple times I was called upon to help with or perform HP driver installation in Windows. It was incredible to me how difficult HP could make it to get a driver installed and working, while on a Mac, HP was always pure plug & play.
HP has been purely plug and play in Linux for all consumer class HP printers... on Windows it's a mess of over-bloated drivers and junk apps that get installed... it's amazing how much silliness you have to go through on the Windows side. Just saying... don't let your bad experiences with HP on Windows taint your opinion for Linux support. Although I'm sure there is one out there, I've yet to find a _new_ HP printer that didn't just work - especially in the mid price range (around the 100 dollar/Euro area).
when printer shopping and buying the Canon. Next time I'll remember that Epson support is available from Brother, might be available from Lexmark, and, naturally, remains available from Epson.
And.. you may be stepping into another pile of problems similar to the Canon one. Brother support on Linux is spotty at best. I've managed to get some Brother printers working and other not at all (Linux couldn't even see some.. forget the model numbers though)... and Lexmark has been hit/miss for me as well. Haven't used an Epson printer since the days of the old 9 and 24 pin dot matrix printers. C. -- openSUSE 12.1 x86_64, KDE 4.9.0 -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-factory+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse-factory+owner@opensuse.org
participants (4)
-
C -
Carlos E. R. -
Felix Miata -
Johannes Meixner