Out-of-the-box Slackware 10.2, kernel upgraded to 2.6.13, using KDE as
supplied.

Okay, I know everyone says this, but *it used to be working* and now
it's not.

So, I have a Lexmark E310 laser printer, Postscript Lev. 2, 600x600. Not
fast, but usually reliable. I have had it connected locally via usb and
remotely to my wife's WinXP box. I've always set it up via KDE's
printing manager, either as local printer or as SMB shared printer.

Now the thing that's been going wrong lately is that regardless of
whether I connect it locally or remotely, whenever I print from an
application (Firefox, OpenOffice.org, kate, etc.) I get a large blank
gap at the top of the page. I've checked margins settings in the
application and in the printing manager. When my wife prints to it from
her computer, whether it's local to her computer or she's connecting to
it remotely (served up by Samba at my end), documents come out
correctly. I'm using the same old .PPD driver from linuxprinting.org
that I always have, and tried downloading a fresh copy just in case my
old one was corrupt. No joy.

I've tried printing as root. Same story. I want to try a test like ls >
lp0, but that doesn't do anything (it's for parallel printers, right?)

If I print remotely to my wife's Canon i560, margins are perfect.

Test pages from KDE's printing manager come out perfectly.

And here's a hint, or maybe it is: When I print from an app., I get a
top "margin" of... where's a ruler when you need one... about 3 3/4
inches. The printing then continues down *right to the bottom of the
page*, well beyond the printer's internal margin. So what I'm thinking
is that somehow, when *I'm* printing, the printer is not feeding the
paper correctly, but when my wife is, all's well.

Again, I have to wonder about the driver, but I don't know how to
diagnose this.

Any thoughts?

Nick.

Terrance N. Phillip wrote:
> Out-of-the-box Slackware 10.2, kernel upgraded to 2.6.13, using KDE as
> supplied.
>
> Okay, I know everyone says this, but *it used to be working* and now
> it's not.
>
> So, I have a Lexmark E310 laser printer, Postscript Lev. 2, 600x600. Not
> fast, but usually reliable. I have had it connected locally via usb and
> remotely to my wife's WinXP box. I've always set it up via KDE's
> printing manager, either as local printer or as SMB shared printer.
>
> Now the thing that's been going wrong lately is that regardless of
> whether I connect it locally or remotely, whenever I print from an
> application (Firefox, OpenOffice.org, kate, etc.) I get a large blank
> gap at the top of the page. I've checked margins settings in the
> application and in the printing manager. When my wife prints to it from
> her computer, whether it's local to her computer or she's connecting to
> it remotely (served up by Samba at my end), documents come out
> correctly. I'm using the same old .PPD driver from linuxprinting.org
> that I always have, and tried downloading a fresh copy just in case my
> old one was corrupt. No joy.
>
> I've tried printing as root. Same story. I want to try a test like ls >
> lp0, but that doesn't do anything (it's for parallel printers, right?)
>
> If I print remotely to my wife's Canon i560, margins are perfect.
>
> Test pages from KDE's printing manager come out perfectly.
>
> And here's a hint, or maybe it is: When I print from an app., I get a
> top "margin" of... where's a ruler when you need one... about 3 3/4
> inches. The printing then continues down *right to the bottom of the
> page*, well beyond the printer's internal margin. So what I'm thinking
> is that somehow, when *I'm* printing, the printer is not feeding the
> paper correctly, but when my wife is, all's well.
>
> Again, I have to wonder about the driver, but I don't know how to
> diagnose this.
>
> Any thoughts?
>
> Nick.

First try on the USB port. Try to set it up by directly using CUPS
(point a web browser to http://localhost:631) and ensure that CUPS is
started properly. If that does not solve the problem type lpinfo -v as
root to see on what port the printer is connected. Normally, CUPS
consider that the first USB printer is connected to /dev/usb/lp0. Try
thus to send a ps file (you say your printer is PostScript) to
/dev/usb/lp0. If that works lpr -o raw psfile should give you the same
result. If that works then your ppd file ius corrupted. f you are using
a PostScript printer you can probably take a generic PostScrip ppd file
already present on CUPS (like the HP laserjet series).

A thing that might pose problem is the presence of udev which might mess
the /dev directory if not properly configured. You can either configure
udev correctly or remove the udev package (udev-064-i486-2), the entire
/dev directory and reinstall (devs-2.3.1-noarch-22). You must do it from
a bootable CD since without the /dev directory the system is
sufficiently broken to prevent installpkg, etc from working.

Olive

Terrance N. Phillip wrote:
> Out-of-the-box Slackware 10.2, kernel upgraded to 2.6.13, using KDE as
> supplied.
>
> Okay, I know everyone says this, but *it used to be working* and now
> it's not.
>
> So, I have a Lexmark E310 laser printer, Postscript Lev. 2, 600x600. Not
> fast, but usually reliable. I have had it connected locally via usb and
> remotely to my wife's WinXP box. I've always set it up via KDE's
> printing manager, either as local printer or as SMB shared printer.
>
> Now the thing that's been going wrong lately is that regardless of
> whether I connect it locally or remotely, whenever I print from an
> application (Firefox, OpenOffice.org, kate, etc.) I get a large blank
> gap at the top of the page. I've checked margins settings in the
> application and in the printing manager. When my wife prints to it from
> her computer, whether it's local to her computer or she's connecting to
> it remotely (served up by Samba at my end), documents come out
> correctly. I'm using the same old .PPD driver from linuxprinting.org
> that I always have, and tried downloading a fresh copy just in case my
> old one was corrupt. No joy.
>
> I've tried printing as root. Same story. I want to try a test like ls >
> lp0, but that doesn't do anything (it's for parallel printers, right?)
>
> If I print remotely to my wife's Canon i560, margins are perfect.
>
> Test pages from KDE's printing manager come out perfectly.
>
> And here's a hint, or maybe it is: When I print from an app., I get a
> top "margin" of... where's a ruler when you need one... about 3 3/4
> inches. The printing then continues down *right to the bottom of the
> page*, well beyond the printer's internal margin. So what I'm thinking
> is that somehow, when *I'm* printing, the printer is not feeding the
> paper correctly, but when my wife is, all's well.
>
> Again, I have to wonder about the driver, but I don't know how to
> diagnose this.

Sure. Just use your wife's computer when you want to print something.

_Nobody_ understands linux printing. It is entirely hit and miss and is
probably the worst thing about linux. Just use a dual boot. Windows
wordprocessors are much, much better than the linux versions anyway.

cordially, as always,

rm

olive wrote:
> Terrance N. Phillip wrote:
> > Out-of-the-box Slackware 10.2, kernel upgraded to 2.6.13, using KDE as
> > supplied.
> >
> > Okay, I know everyone says this, but *it used to be working* and now
> > it's not.
> >
> > So, I have a Lexmark E310 laser printer, Postscript Lev. 2, 600x600. Not
> > fast, but usually reliable. I have had it connected locally via usb and
> > remotely to my wife's WinXP box. I've always set it up via KDE's
> > printing manager, either as local printer or as SMB shared printer.
> >
> > Now the thing that's been going wrong lately is that regardless of
> > whether I connect it locally or remotely, whenever I print from an
> > application (Firefox, OpenOffice.org, kate, etc.) I get a large blank
> > gap at the top of the page. I've checked margins settings in the
> > application and in the printing manager. When my wife prints to it from
> > her computer, whether it's local to her computer or she's connecting to
> > it remotely (served up by Samba at my end), documents come out
> > correctly. I'm using the same old .PPD driver from linuxprinting.org
> > that I always have, and tried downloading a fresh copy just in case my
> > old one was corrupt. No joy.
> >
> > I've tried printing as root. Same story. I want to try a test like ls >
> > lp0, but that doesn't do anything (it's for parallel printers, right?)
> >
> > If I print remotely to my wife's Canon i560, margins are perfect.
> >
> > Test pages from KDE's printing manager come out perfectly.
> >
> > And here's a hint, or maybe it is: When I print from an app., I get a
> > top "margin" of... where's a ruler when you need one... about 3 3/4
> > inches. The printing then continues down *right to the bottom of the
> > page*, well beyond the printer's internal margin. So what I'm thinking
> > is that somehow, when *I'm* printing, the printer is not feeding the
> > paper correctly, but when my wife is, all's well.
> >
> > Again, I have to wonder about the driver, but I don't know how to
> > diagnose this.
> >
> > Any thoughts?
> >
> > Nick.
>
> First try on the USB port. Try to set it up by directly using CUPS
> (point a web browser to http://localhost:631) and ensure that CUPS is
> started properly. If that does not solve the problem type lpinfo -v as
> root to see on what port the printer is connected. Normally, CUPS
> consider that the first USB printer is connected to /dev/usb/lp0. Try
> thus to send a ps file (you say your printer is PostScript) to
> /dev/usb/lp0.

If I do cp small.ps /dev/usb/lp0 I get a blank page.

> If that works lpr -o raw psfile should give you the same

This prints, but I get the 3 3/4 gap at the top of the page, just as if
I were printing from an application. I'm starting to wonder if my
printer is damaged... but then why should my wife be able to print
correctly? WHOOPS! I just made a change, and a page came out
correctly...

Lessee, I went to localhost:631 to manage the printer, hit Configure,
and changed GhostScript pre-filtering to "Convert to PS level 2". I'll
let you know if this really did the trick.

N

> result. If that works then your ppd file ius corrupted. f you are using
> a PostScript printer you can probably take a generic PostScrip ppd file
> already present on CUPS (like the HP laserjet series).
>
> A thing that might pose problem is the presence of udev which might mess
> the /dev directory if not properly configured. You can either configure
> udev correctly or remove the udev package (udev-064-i486-2), the entire
> /dev directory and reinstall (devs-2.3.1-noarch-22). You must do it from
> a bootable CD since without the /dev directory the system is
> sufficiently broken to prevent installpkg, etc from working.
>
> Olive

Realto Margarino wrote:

<snip>
> Sure. Just use your wife's computer when you want to print something.
>
> _Nobody_ understands linux printing. It is entirely hit and miss and is
> probably the worst thing about linux. Just use a dual boot. Windows
> wordprocessors are much, much better than the linux versions anyway.

Either you were so smart to buy a printer from a company that doesn't
provide information on how to access their device, or you are incompetent
to configure your own device. Any way, it's your own fault. Don't annoy
others with your own stupidity. That you can't print doesn't mean nobody
can. It works fine for me.

> cordially, as always,
>
> rm

R