Printer keeps "disappearing"

[bitzbox]

Re: Printer keeps "disappearing"

I've discovered that on the occasions that my printer is "there", CUPS is running but when it isn't "there", CUPS is not running.

I think that tells you why you need CUPS.

Yes, I suppose it does

The real question is whether HPLIP is actually working properly, or not. HPLIP is the CUPS driver for HP printers. Without HPLIP, your printer's capabilities are limited. I wonder whether your situation would improve if you reinstalled HPLIP (and all its dependencies).

Yesterday, I decided to do a complete fresh install of Kubuntu on a new partition and, so far, CUPS has started at every boot. I'm hoping that the problem no longer exists but we shall see

Regards .....

[bitzbox]

Re: Printer keeps "disappearing"

The problem seems to have cleared up with the fresh install so I'll mark the topic as solved.

Regards .....

[bitzbox]

Re: Printer keeps "disappearing"

Next time it doesn't come up - look in /var/log/cups/error.log and see if there's anything there. In fact - might be something there now...

No sooner had I said the problem was solved, it's happened again! After Kubuntu had booted this morning, I looked to see if cups was running and it wasn't so therefore I have no printer. Here's my /var/log/cups/error_log:

2010-08-09 11:02:40			E [04/Aug/2010:14:57:19 +0100] Unable to remove temporary file "/var/spool/cups/tmp/.hplip" - Is a directory
2010-08-09 11:02:40			E [04/Aug/2010:15:20:46 +0100] Unable to remove temporary file "/var/spool/cups/tmp/.hplip" - Is a directory
2010-08-09 11:02:40			E [04/Aug/2010:15:20:46 +0100] [cups-driverd] Bad driver information file "/usr/share/cups/drv/sample.drv"!
2010-08-09 11:02:40			E [04/Aug/2010:15:21:06 +0100] [cups-driverd] Bad driver information file "/usr/share/cups/drv/sample.drv"!
2010-08-09 11:02:40			E [04/Aug/2010:19:08:39 +0100] Unable to remove temporary file "/var/spool/cups/tmp/.hplip" - Is a directory
2010-08-09 11:02:40			E [04/Aug/2010:19:13:59 +0100] Unable to remove temporary file "/var/spool/cups/tmp/.hplip" - Is a directory
2010-08-09 11:02:40			E [04/Aug/2010:19:42:38 +0100] [cups-driverd] Bad driver information file "/usr/share/cups/drv/sample.drv"!
2010-08-09 11:02:40			E [04/Aug/2010:19:43:47 +0100] [cups-driverd] Bad driver information file "/usr/share/cups/drv/sample.drv"!
2010-08-09 11:02:40			E [05/Aug/2010:11:07:10 +0100] Unable to remove temporary file "/var/spool/cups/tmp/.hplip" - Is a directory
2010-08-09 11:02:40			E [05/Aug/2010:18:30:28 +0100] Unable to remove temporary file "/var/spool/cups/tmp/.hplip" - Is a directory
2010-08-09 11:02:40			E [06/Aug/2010:07:34:08 +0100] Unable to remove temporary file "/var/spool/cups/tmp/.hplip" - Is a directory
2010-08-09 11:02:40			E [06/Aug/2010:07:41:12 +0100] Unable to remove temporary file "/var/spool/cups/tmp/.hplip" - Is a directory
2010-08-09 11:02:40			E [06/Aug/2010:13:17:53 +0100] Unable to remove temporary file "/var/spool/cups/tmp/.hplip" - Is a directory
2010-08-09 11:02:40			E [07/Aug/2010:07:53:14 +0100] Unable to remove temporary file "/var/spool/cups/tmp/.hplip" - Is a directory
2010-08-09 11:02:40			E [08/Aug/2010:08:16:06 +0100] Unable to remove temporary file "/var/spool/cups/tmp/.hplip" - Is a directory

It doesn't really mean anything to me, perhaps you can make sense of it.

Regards .....

[GilGib]

Re: Printer keeps "disappearing"

I'm having the same problem and have no idea what is causing it. Cups will start after a reboot

[bitzbox]

Re: Printer keeps "disappearing"

The easiest way is to just do a sudo service cups start from Konsole.
Now that there's more than me having this problem, I might file a bug report.

Regards .....

[oshunluvr]

Re: Printer keeps "disappearing"

I'd begin by stopping cups, removing the offending file, restarting cups, attempting to print something, and then recheck your logs.

Next step would be to verify driver being used. I believe you should be using /usr/share/cups/drv/hpijs.drv not sample.drv. Check to see if this file exists.

[GilGib]

Re: Printer keeps "disappearing"

Just an update. Since going to KDE 4.5 my printer has been working ok