Abiword doesn't see my printer

[gerry]

So.. with help from Muggins, I've set up my Canon i965 printer, and it prints out the CUPS test page. I've set it to be default printer.

When I try to print a doc from Abiword, I get a dialogue box which shows two printers to choose from: "Create a pdf document", and "Generic Postscript". BOTH printers have a large red X alongside- presumably that means not available. The "Settings" box shows default, and Location shows lpr.

How do I get Abiword to see my printer? Which end needs setting up- Abiword, or CUPS?

EDIT: Seamonkey prints OK.
Another edit: Puppy 2.17.1

Gerry

[SirDuncan]

I'm not a printer expert, but I'll try to offer some constructive advice. Have you tried telling it to print to the generic postscript printer? If not, try it and see what happens.

[gerry]

Hi.. I thought of that, but neither of them will select, presumably because of the big red X alongside each. (To the left of each of the choices is an ikon of a sheet of paper with one corner turned up, and a big red X on it).

[SirDuncan]

I usually use Open Office, but I loaded abiword and tried to print. It showed me the same thing as you, red x's and everything. I told it to print anyway. It printed just fine except for a paper jam, but I'm sure that is unrelated. I'm afraid that I don't know what to tell you. Hopefully someone more knowledgeable than I will see your post.

[gerry]

Hi... just checked again- I misremembered one thing- I CAN select either Create PDF Doc or Generic Postscript- but the postscript one does not print.

I also checked what SeaMonkey sees- it sees two printers: CUPS/i965 (which is the actual printer, set as default in CUPS) and also sees Postscript/default.

So it looks as though Abiword is not seeing CUPS, perhaps?

Gerry

[lluamco]

Please check in a console whether you can print using

lpr

If you can not, then make a symlink:

ln -s /usr/bin/lpr-cups /usr/bin/lpr

and try to print again. If now it works, then it is possible that abiword will work also.

Hope it helps

[rcrsn51]

When you select "Generic Postscript", Abiword should print to the default printer as declared in CUPS. Go to your CUPS admin screen and verify that your printer has been set as the default.

Seamonkey printing is more sophisticated because it is aware of your actual printer.

Here are two tests:

1. Go to a console and type the command: lpstat -d -p
Does it detect your printer?

2. Start a document in Abiword and print to Generic Postscript. But under Location, select File and save the file as /root/output.ps. Then go to a console and type the command:
lpr output.ps.
Does it print? Do you get error messages?

[gerry]

Thanks- I combined those two replies:

lpstat -d -p showed my printer as system default destination.

I started a doc in Abiword, printed it to file /root/output.ps

In console, typed lpr output.ps, and got no print, and no error messages.

Then I tried to make the symlink as suggested, but got an error message: /usr/bin/lpr file exists

Presumably I need to delete that file (or rename it) before I create the symlink. Getting a bit late for brainwork- I'll try that tomorrow.

[rcrsn51]

OK. Go back to the CUPS admin screen. Is your printer on-line? Are there any jobs stacked up in the print queue? The symlink is probably fine. Just go to /usr/bin and find the file lpr. Verify that it is linked to lpr-cups.

[gerry]

/usr/bin/lpr is linked to lpr-cups.

CUPS admin shows printer idle and accepting jobs.

Tried printing a doc. CUPS admin shows no jobs in queue.

Tried changing "location" in Abiword dialogue box from lpr to lpr-cups. No effect.

Gerry

[esmourguit]

Bonjour,
Look at http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=22021
Maybe it will be OK for you.
Cordialement

[rcrsn51]

Gerry: This is good advice from esmourguit. In your case, try the test:
lpr -P printername output.ps
where "printername" is the exact name of your printer as listed in CUPS

[gerry]

Hi..

I tried the advice from esmourguit, without success.

Then I tried rcrsn51's suggestion- no print, and also no error messages.

SeaMonkey identifies the printer as CUPS/i965, and prints OK.

CUPS admin identifies the printer as i965, and the test page prints.

Identifying the printer in Abiword and console as i965 gets no error messages. Identifying it as CUPS/i965 gets error messages.

Both the console and Abiword don't print, but neither do they generate any error messages. There must be a big job queue building up somewhere, on one side of a big chasm, with CUPS on the other side.

The printer driver is a special one, that muggins found for me. It is installed in the CUPS driver list. I'm wondering if I can copy it to the PDQ driver list, so that I can try setting up the printer in PDQ.

Gerry

[gerry]

I've just digested what I wrote above.

CUPS test page we can assume does not use lpr, and prints OK.
SeaMonkey does not apparently use lpr, and prints OK.
Abiword and console both use lpr, and don't print.

So it's the connection from lpr to CUPS that's broken?

Gerry

[rcrsn51]

Go to the console and type "top". Check the list of running processes. Is "cupsd" there?

[gerry]

Yes, cupsd is running.

I've been running a few tests.

Nothing prints directly from Abiword, but if I create a document and save as .text, then console command "lpr filename.text" prints correctly.
"lpr filename.abw" and "lpr filename.doc" print almost a pagefull of data about the document, the software, the....... and the actual text is somewhere in amongst it.

And saving the file as .ps produces no output at all.

So..... I reckon it could be a result of the adapted driver being not entirely successful- though Seamonkey and the cups test page print perfectly. I'm thinking of installing Open Office, to see if the finger points to Abiword.

So everyone: please take a break until I've done a bit more and reported!

Thanks everyone- Gerry

[rcrsn51]

I just ran a test of 2.17.1. I sent some print jobs from Abiword to Generic Postscript, which all failed. I then went to the CUPS admin screen and checked Jobs. All my jobs were queued up to cups-pdf!

[Edit] So I deleted the CUPS-PDF printer, printed from Abiword again and it worked!

[gerry]

PLEASE- no more replies on this topic. I realise I didn't make it plain enough in my original post that my printer is a Canon i965, for which there is no official Linux driver. Muggins found a likely one, and I installed it, and thought I'd cracked it when the CUPS test page printed out. SeaMonkey also prints out OK. But I've since found, guided by you all, that it will not deal with document files. It prints .text files, and deals with characters, tabs, and returns, but only produces one size of characters. It won't deal with .abw or .doc or .ps.

So thanks for all your efforts- I know a lot more about printing than I did! But please give up on this one. The bottom line is: Canon i950 driver won't work a Canon i965 fully, but it's better than nothing.

Gerry

[muggins]

Gerry,

i wouldn't give up just yet. i do have a driver for my printer, and it's in the included list for the printer wizard, and i know that it has printed .doc files in the past, but it doesn't at present!

why has it stopped working? basically me installing/uninstalling stuff. how to get it working again? i'll have to to a bit of research & get back to you. but it is a common complaint on the forum that people manage to get their printer working, only to find they can't print from abiword.

[PeterB]

Like rcrsn51 I had exactly the same problem with Puppy 2.17.1. - all print jobs were queued to CUPS/PDF printer. When I deleted that printer Abiword printed to the generic post-script printer correctly....

It sure is a learning experience....

thanks rcrsn51

peter b