Changes between Version 4 and Version 5 of CupsFaq

Timestamp:

Sep 14, 2010, 12:53:56 PM (15 years ago)

Author:

Alex Taylor

Comment:

Added first general troubleshooting info; some other tweaks

CupsFaq

@@ -30 +30 @@
 <p><a href="#3_0">3.  Troubleshooting</a>
 <ul style="list-style-type: none;">
-<li><a name="1_0"></a>
+<li><a href="#3_1">3.1.  How do I diagnose printing problems?</a>
 </ul></p>
 
@@ -359 +359 @@
 to use the Generic PostScript Printer driver.<p>
 
-<li>Printing to printers which use Foomatic may result in the job aborting about
-99% of the way through (resulting in the last few words/characters being cut
-off).
+<li>Printing to printers which use Foomatic plus a built-in GhostScript driver
+doesn't work properly just yet: the print job may abort about 99% of the way 
+through (resulting in the last few words/characters being cut off).
 
 <p>This problem is currently under investigation.  In the meantime, it does not
@@ -368 +368 @@
 "output to file" on the output port page of the OS/2 printer object's
 properties), and then print the file manually using <em>cupslpr</em> or
-<a href="http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/gsview/">gsview</a>.
+<a href="http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/gsview/">gsview</a>.  (This has only
+been tested with single-page documents.)
 
 <p>(Similarly, in programs like OpenOffice, which have the option of exporting
@@ -547 +548 @@
 automatically whenever you created a new printer in CUPS.  Unfortunately, there is
 no way to do this just at the moment, so you have to create them both separately
-yourself.
+yourself.</p>
+
+<br>
+<p>It may also strike you as confusing that you can't simply add support for your
+printer by importing the PPD into the ECUPS or PSCRIPT driver (as you can with 
+non-CUPS printers).  After all, the driver now lists your printer as supported,
+just as it does for native printers... so what's the problem?
+
+<p>The thing is, what the driver lists as supported isn't the true printer &mdash; 
+it's the PostScript-emulated version of that printer presented by CUPS.  It depends
+on going through CUPS in order to translate it into the printer's actualy format.
+If you were to select a CUPS-based printer driver and then try printing directly to 
+the printer (instead of going through the eCups port driver), the printer wouldn't 
+understand the job and would either reject it or start spewing out garbage.
+(Unless, of course, it really is a PostScript printer.)
 
 
@@ -609 +624 @@
       <li><tt>cups/share/cups/model/gutenprint/*</tt>
       </ul>
+  <li>Reinstall the foomatic and/or foo2qpdl packages if you had them installed.
+      (Again, simply unzipping them to the same root directory as CUPS should
+      be sufficient.)  You should also copy the file
+      <tt>cups/etc/foomatic/filter.conf</tt> over from your previous (renamed) 
+      CUPS installation.
 
   <li>Restore any configuration options you have defined (and want to keep) from
@@ -667 +687 @@
 <h2>3.  Troubleshooting</h2>
 
-<p>TODO
+<p><br><a name="3_1"></a>
+<h3>3.1.  How do I diagnose printing problems?</h3>
+
+<p>First of all, go into the CUPS web GUI by pointing your browser at
+<tt>http://localhost:631</tt>.
+
+<p>The best place to go first is probably the Printers page.  Each defined 
+printer will show its current status; if a printer error was received by CUPS,
+that printer will show the error message under the status column.
+
+<p>For more detailed information, go to the Administration page.  There's a 
+button on that page called "View Error Log", which will show you all errors 
+and warnings that were recently logged by CUPS.  
+
+<p>For even more detailed diagnostics, you can enable the checkbox labelled 
+"Save debugging information for troubleshooting".  (Changing this setting 
+requires the CUPS daemon to be restarted.)  Of course, this setting is only 
+useful if it was enabled <em>before</em> the error occurred... so if you 
+decide to activate it, you'll presumably want to resubmit whatever job caused 
+the error you're trying to diagnose.
+
+<p>Reading the error log (with or without debug information enabled) can be
+a bit intimidating to the uninitiated.  It's not all that hard to work out
+with a bit of practise, however.
+
 }}}