Seriously Miffed @ KDE!!! PLEASE HELP!!!

[Edwin]

I'm not familiar enough with the OS to snag an error log. Tell me how, and I'll try to post one this weekend, if you and the others would be kind enough to help.

The error log is /var/log/cups/error_log. Assuming you are running from the CD: Reboot, start cups then open this file in an editor, say Kate. The log will be empty. Turning on line-numbering can be helpfull. Now go through the motions of setting up your Epson. Go as far as the system will let you. Have a look at the log again. Kate will inform you the file has changed, do you want to reload. Click yes and see what is in the log.
If you are not booting from CD, or the log is not empty for some reason, just remember the last line-number and post the messages after that.

I have 2 printers, and Epson Stylus C40UX color inkjet, which someone (I think Stephen, IIRC) pointed out is supposed to work perfectly; the other is a Brother laser all-in-one (MFC-6800).

Stephen is right. I just set one up on my system. Worked with both drivers. I can even use it to print (colors and all) on my Epson Stylus C580. As for the Brother, I don't see that model in the wizard's list, but you could try another MFC model.
And you shouldn't need root privileges to set up printers; I do it as user all the time. To start cups you do however.

As for the driver, I thought CUPS was supposed to do that, so I haven't the vaguest.

Yes, but you must select a driver. In the wizard, right after you select your make and model there is a page where you can select a driver. Select the 'cups+gimp' one for your Epson.

And oh, as you get your first error when printing a testpage, skip that step the first time. If that doesn't work, restart cups and try again, this time with testpage.

Success,

- - Edwin

[j.drake]

And you shouldn't need root privileges to set up printers; I do it as user all the time. To start cups you do however.

Right, but the problem was that all of the choices in the printer setup wizard were grayed out, with an error essentially stating, IIRC, that it could not locate the CUPS server. When I reported that error, it was suggested to me that I needed to log in to the root in order to restart CUPS, which I did. Once I restarted CUPS, the wizard said something that indicated that I needed administrative privileges (sorry I can't be more specific right now, but I'm working off of a nearly week-old memory). Once I clicked the adminisrator button, then the choices were no longer grayed out, and I was allowed to go through the printer setup. All looked good until I tried to print a test page.

Yes, but you must select a driver. In the wizard, right after you select your make and model there is a page where you can select a driver. Select the 'cups+gimp' one for your Epson.

Well, if that's the case, then I'll wager that's my problem. I was setting it to CUPS.

I'll give it another shot this weekend. and let you know.

Thanks again to all.

[A. Jorge Garcia]

Oh well, even with 20030725, I still cannot print colored text from KATE to my HP DeskJet 930C (foomatic + hpijs) [recommended] by CUPS.

BTW, the whales were not at fault as I tested my download with md5sum. I thought that as I downloading over night, that maybe they got in the house behind my back again....

Regards,

[paradocs]

Hi All

I will add some printer specific data that might help
with sorting this all out.

KATE color printing freezes up with a CD (DVD KNOPPIX4) booted
system, Parallel port for my printers:
HP DeskJet 722c (Foomatic _ pnm2ppa)
Epson 1280 with both drivers (CUPS+Gimp-Print v4.2.5)
and (Foomatic + gimp-print-ijs)

I only use 115 volts -- maybe we need 240?

Best Wishes
paradocs

[A. Jorge Garcia]

I'm getting close to throwing in the towel on this. I mean, you ever here of a "brewing a tempest in a teapot?" Well, if all that's broke is color text printing from KATE to a color printer, but I can print from GVIM (and everything else) ok, then that will have to do I guess...

OK, so I've got a little survey for you to organize this a little:

(1) Can anyone print color text from KATE to your printer?

(2) Do you have any other printer issues?

(3) Do you use CUPS to configure your printer?

(4) Are you printing directly from an app or with lp?

BTW, I can't find that debugging tool, Edwin, you keep mentioning that gives 1000s of lines of error_log!

Are we approaching the point of diminishing returns here, or can we really track down this bug? What do you think?

[Edwin]

BTW, I can't find that debugging tool, Edwin, you keep mentioning that gives 1000s of lines of error_log!

Are we approaching the point of diminishing returns here, or can we really track down this bug? What do you think?

I think we are very close to the end here. Apart from having a look at the actual source-code, something I am not going to do. But it will be interesting to see when Kate freezes: before or after passing her file to cups. Then I will summarize the findings from this and other threads and submit a bug-report at the KDE site.

For the debugging tool, start cups if necessary and go to the printmanagement in the Control Center. At the top is a toolbar with buttons as 'Add', 'Printer', 'Print Server'. Click 'Print Server' and choose "Configure Server' from the menu. If that toolbar is not there, right-click somewhere in between the listed printers and choose 'Configure Server'.

In the dialog is a page 'Log'. There you can set the log-level to 'Debug'.

If nothing shows up in the log it is Kate, else it is cups crashing on Kate's output.

Good luck

- - Edwin

PS: Tomorrow I'll try to locate that step-down transformer I must have somewhere. See what happens when on 115 Volt. ;-)

[A. Jorge Garcia]

I think I'm going to have to change the title of this thread from "Seriously miffed..." to "Much ado about nothing" pretty soon....

I'm going to try out this CUPS Server debugging tool later and see what happens. If we get no new info, I think this bug is out of our hands.

I suppose we're going to have to leave it up to KDE updates. Are we agreed then that its a KDE error? It certainly isn't CUPS as I can print color text to my color printer from other apps like GVIM. Also, its not just KATE, but KWRITE too.

We still have to help out j.drake somehow even if we drop this thread....

Oh, and stepping up to 240V just fried my PC. I'm suing!

Qa'pla,

[A. Jorge Garcia]

If you experience the same problems with KATE, maybe you should add your two cents by voting for bug#217 in bugzilla.

BTW, look what I just got as a reply from bugzilla:

sometimes you just need to wait some time for the print-filter to work (10min or more!)

I've never heard of such a thing, have you? If so, this isn't very reliable is it!

Regards,

[A. Jorge Garcia]

OK, I just did the detailed debug in the CUPS server and got tons of lines in the error_log when printing my color text file (test.cc) to my color printer from KATE. KATE still crashes, I still get no hardcopy, I still have to kill the KATE process and I get a ton of lines starting with "d" or "D" in the error_log that don't help me at all....

I give up!

ARRGGGHHHH!!!!!

Regards,

[j.drake]

Yes, but you must select a driver. In the wizard, right after you select your make and model there is a page where you can select a driver. Select the 'cups+gimp' one for your Epson.

I went back and didn't see that option. Where do I select this? In the drop box in the lower right of the wizard window, I saw CUPS and Generic Linux and a couple of others, but I didn't see a choice for CUPS + GIMP. Am I looking in the right place?

Thanks.