Question

linux printing issue

Asked by: techsysnet

Hello,

Need help in Red hat linux -
we have just transferred our back office application from IBM AIX to Red Hat linux ent ver 5.3
( kernel version 2.6.18-128.1.16.el5xen)  installed on HP proliant ml 350 64-bit architechture.

now we are having problem with picking notes ( orders) printing on dot matrix printer model OKI ML 3321 -

problem is -

whenever printer going offline because of out of paper or other reason - print queue is not going offline and we are missing few of first picking notes (orders taken by staff) entries which need to be printed once we feed the paper again -  
before in AIX - printers normally went offline on paper out and triggered a message to user who started the print queue - but now the message is also not triggered and print queue status on lpstat -t command is online -

we tried epson fx emulation and other drivers which are suitable for our printer and requirement. but no luck -

the back office software developer also confused why this is not happening - before AIX having its own proprietery printing system and
i am giving brief idea by pasting few details from our software developer/provider/tech support

Hi , We have upgraded the `cups` module (common unix printing system) on the linux server to be on the latest available version from RedHat - this is 1.3.7-11. I have also restarted the cups service. The linux server is running RedHat Enterprise EL5.3. Please monitor the print issues and if we need to, we may be able to switch the linux server to run a different printing module on Monday (lpd). The duplicate pick notes may be due to the orders being amended and then send back through the background print queue - the two orders referenced by Naveed both show as going through the background print queue twice. Do you know what the pick note version was on the duplcaicates for these orders? Thanks

we need to make the print queue offline on certain errors and messages or paper out - that way we can resolve the delay in printing by knowing paper out and we cant miss the orders - which are showing printed in system but never printed -

thanks


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Asked On
2009-10-30 at 09:05:55ID24858535
Tags

red hat linux ent 5.3 printing system

Topics

Linux Printing

,

Linux Administration

,

Red Hat Linux

Participating Experts
2
Points
500
Comments
8

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Answers

 

by: nociPosted on 2009-11-02 at 06:30:49ID: 25719590

Did you also setup cups to HALT on errors?
It's one of the settings to eb chosen when installing/reconfiguring a printer.
(Values can be: ignore/job, pause/job, netx/job, halt/queue.).

The printer status can be monitored through rss etc.

 

by: amit_panjwaniPosted on 2009-11-02 at 06:50:22ID: 25719817

Had same/similar issues.

try editing /etc/cups/cupsd.conf

Typically error policy can set either of following

ErrorPolicy abort-job
ErrorPolicy retry-job
ErrorPolicy stop-printer

take the one you want.


http://cups.org/str.php?L1504

More information may be found on following link

http://cups.org/search.php?Q=ErrorPolicy

moreover you also might want to add debug mode for error logging in order to get more information.
be it known :) debug would generate loads of information which might fill your logs beyond wildest imagination - but its exceptionally informative.

 

by: amit_panjwaniPosted on 2009-11-02 at 07:36:42ID: 25720303

Of course - you will have to restart cups service (which as pretty much normal - in order to make dameon read updated configuration file)

Missed that in earlier comment.

 

by: techsysnetPosted on 2009-11-05 at 01:56:42ID: 25747960

Hello Amit

yesterday - new problem with dot matrix cups printing - on paper out - it seems it made D-link centronix print-server off-line and you can see lots of jobs stuck while looking in lpstat -t - and trigerred message to users of offline printer - we enable print quesus of both pritners after feeding the papers but it wont clear the jobs - then we switch off and on d-link print-servers and then it cleared most of the jobs but few orders we missed and few jobs we need to cancel which were stuck in the queue - time of the job stuck were paper out time -  ideally it should make print-queue offline not print-server

dont know - it is giving very unstable performance and reaction at present - sometimes only message triggers on paper out - not everytime



 

by: nociPosted on 2009-11-05 at 03:59:07ID: 25748558

Then it looks like there is a problem with the D-Link Centronix  print server. Appeareantly it accepts print jobs first and then fails to print them when the printer comes online...., ==> losing jobs that have been marked DONE by cups because the printserver accepted responsibility for them. (Or ar they allready in the printer buffer... and is the printer turned off/on???).

Is it possible to restrict the number of jobs accepted on the Print -server?

 

by: amit_panjwaniPosted on 2009-11-05 at 04:21:40ID: 25748672

there could be a number of factors affecting printers...

Could you possibly post what are following variables set for :

PreserveJobHistory
AutoPurgeJobs


Also if you could post values for variables below:

MaxJobsPerPrinter
MaxJobs


Also a few debug error logs would help. You could XXX out printer names

 

by: amit_panjwaniPosted on 2009-11-05 at 04:23:58ID: 25748684

also if possible if you post a approximation of # print jobs per printer.

hint :
You could use wc -l  and grep <<printername>> for printer logs.

 

by: amit_panjwaniPosted on 2009-11-05 at 04:41:56ID: 25748786

In our case we would capture and save debug logs for sometime.

you could take logs for approx 24 hours . (subject to log rotation ) .

We would then analyze those logs for various uses :

like which node was generating maximum print jobs
which jobs were being aimed at specific printers
determining peak period stats and so forth. and related useful information.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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