New newbie problem: CUPS printing "job-stopped"

[Michael and Nicole Freeman]

Hi again!

Another newbie problem here: I had bought a Canon PIXMA MP160
multi-function printer/scanner a couple weeks ago. I got the printer
more or less working (sadly only capable of 600x600 resolution with the
MP150 driver in CUPS/Gutenprint), and couldn't get the scanner working.
Then my 6-year-old son decided to shove a piece of cardboard through the
paper slot and it stopped working completely. I took the thing back, and
the only thing the store would let me do without dropping more cash was
to exchange it for the exact same model. I brought that home and tried
it out.

It seemed to work, and then through trial and error I got the scanner
part to work. But now, every time I try to print, nothing happens. CUPS
reports "printing: job-stopped" and says the printer is "Ready". I've
looked in various places online to find info. Apparently, this is a
pretty common problem. But none of the suggestions I've tried work.

I'm using Debian Etch PowerPC GNU/Linux, and I've tried updating
CUPSYS, Gutenprint, and Foomatic to the newest versions I can find in
the Debian repositories (in Testing, not Unstable) as suggested in one
forum post. I'm stumped and frustrated because I have to be able to
print! Any ideas (besides throwing out either the printer or the OS -
both of which I've considered lately)? Thanks!

Mike Freeman
mike [at] freeman-studio [dot] com

[I R A Darth Aggie]

On Sat, 01 Sep 2007 21:07:43 -0700,

+ I'm using Debian Etch PowerPC GNU/Linux, and I've tried updating
+ CUPSYS, Gutenprint, and Foomatic to the newest versions I can find in
+ the Debian repositories (in Testing, not Unstable) as suggested in one
+ forum post. I'm stumped and frustrated because I have to be able to
+ print! Any ideas (besides throwing out either the printer or the OS -
+ both of which I've considered lately)? Thanks!

Don't do either. What you're encountering is the default CUPS
behaviour when it thinks it can't talk to the printer: it shuts down
the queue.

One way to solve it is to renable the queue:

# cupsenable <queuename>

But once you've done that, oh, 3 times, it gets annoying. A more
permanent fix is to change the default behaviour. As root, goto
/etc/cups/

and modify "printers.conf". Search on the string ErrorPolicy and
change that line to read:

ErrorPolicy retry-job

instead of the default, which is:

ErrorPolicy stop-printer

Now, if there is acutally a connection problem, well, the job won't
print. But you can come back and ask questions about that later.

[Roger Leigh]

Post by I R A Darth Aggie
On Sat, 01 Sep 2007 21:07:43 -0700,

+ I'm using Debian Etch PowerPC GNU/Linux, and I've tried updating
+ CUPSYS, Gutenprint, and Foomatic to the newest versions I can find in
+ the Debian repositories (in Testing, not Unstable) as suggested in one
+ forum post. I'm stumped and frustrated because I have to be able to
+ print! Any ideas (besides throwing out either the printer or the OS -
+ both of which I've considered lately)? Thanks!

It may be that the current stable version of Gutenprint doesn't
support your printer properly. A lot of work has been done on the
canon pixma driver in the meantime, and I will be packaging the latest
development release for experimental in the near future. It might be
worth giving that a try when it is ready.

Post by I R A Darth Aggie
Don't do either. What you're encountering is the default CUPS
behaviour when it thinks it can't talk to the printer: it shuts down
the queue.
# cupsenable <queuename>
But once you've done that, oh, 3 times, it gets annoying. A more
permanent fix is to change the default behaviour. As root, goto
/etc/cups/
and modify "printers.conf". Search on the string ErrorPolicy and
ErrorPolicy retry-job
ErrorPolicy stop-printer
Now, if there is acutally a connection problem, well, the job won't
print. But you can come back and ask questions about that later.

Note you can also set this in the web interface on a per-printer
basis without having to touch cupsd.conf.

PS. If you get stuck, there is a debian-printing mailing list for
these sort of problems.


Regards,
Roger
(Debian gutenprint maintainer)

[I R A Darth Aggie]

On Tue, 04 Sep 2007 13:17:17 +0100,

+ > ErrorPolicy stop-printer
+ Note you can also set this in the web interface on a per-printer
+ basis without having to touch cupsd.conf.

Yes, yes, that's all well and good. But I can never remember where to
find the silly thing in the web interface. By the time I can remember
where, I could have solved the issue with some quick editing.

But what can I say? I'm just a command-line luddite.

;-)