Problems with JetDirect network printers

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kovalja
Posts: 3
Joined: Mon Feb 02, 2015 10:10 pm

Problems with JetDirect network printers

Post by kovalja »

Hi,

I'm using Turboprint for ages (since 2007). Just recently I upgraded my main OS from Mandriva 2010.0 Official 64b to CentOS 7.0 64b. All the time I used on Mandriva (2208, 2010) Turboprint 2.17-2 x86_64 with my two printers HP LJ1100 and Canon Pixma iP6700D. Both printers are connected all the time through network devices Edimax PS-1206P (HP) and PS-1206U (Pixma) so I used in the configuration of Turboprint a Jetdirect IP address and port. Everything worked fine all the time.

After upgrade of OS to CentOS 7.0 I installed the old Turboprint and tried to print on both printers. However only garbage was coming out of the HP (1 page each time, manual controlling was required) and nothing was coming out of the Pixma. So I thought that I need latest Turboprint. Therefore I upgraded to the latest version 2.35-2 x86_64 of Turboprint. However the behaviour remains - only garbage is printed on each page and I need to manually enable each page print directly on the printer (HP for the moment). If I print 1 page, it comes out 4-6 pages with garbage.

Therefore I made a test. I connected HP directly to my PC and setup new printer in the Turboprint (with LPT/USB converter). When I printed something after the setup (test page, my PDF), printing worked great. No issue was encountered.

My question is - why my printers with the same Jetdirect devices don't work under latest Turboprint and CentOS 7.0 while they were working under older OS and older Turboprint? Do you have any idea what is wrong? How can I debug the issue with printing through network and Turboprint? Are you able to help me resolve this issue?

Thanks for your help/advice in advance.

Regards,
Jan
zedonet
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Posts: 2154
Joined: Fri Oct 06, 2006 8:02 am

Re: Problems with JetDirect network printers

Post by zedonet »

Hello kovalja,

your problem sounds like a network transfer problem between between your Linux computer and the printer servers. As the data transfer is performed via the CUPS socket backend, TurboPrint is probably not responsible for the malfunction. I suggest to try the "LPR" network protocol as an alternative. This does not only change the protocol but also the CUPS backend for data transfer (just in case there should be a problem with the socket backend).
kovalja
Posts: 3
Joined: Mon Feb 02, 2015 10:10 pm

Re: Problems with JetDirect network printers

Post by kovalja »

Hi,

thanks for your response and advice. I tried to play around with all types of connections from Turboprint to my print server. I tried IPP, LPD, CUPS URI and Jetdirect. All four behave the same. When I submitted test page print, it started the job and then printed 1 page on 8 sheets....(nothing printed, just paper is going through the printer) then I removed the job with lprm command. This says to me that the problem is not with the access to the printer or protocol used. There has to be something with the layer of the communication when the data is transferred to printer.

The print server worked fine all the time so I think it can't be blamed. When the printer is connected directly to the PC, Turboprint works fine as well. So there is no issue with the printer.

I'm afraid that it's a combination of issues between CentOS 7 (CUPS 1.6) and Turboprint backend when printer is connected as network printer.

I tested on another machine with CentOS 6.5 x86_64 in the same network to add my printer as network printer (JetDirect) with socket://printserver2:9100 URI and I was able to print test page from CUPS (I do not have Turboprint there) on this printer. The CUPS is 1.4 so I presume it's really combination of CUPS 1.6 and network printing.

Do you have other idea what to test? Are you able to test somewhere Turboprint on the machine with CUPS 1.6?

Thanks,
Jan
kovalja
Posts: 3
Joined: Mon Feb 02, 2015 10:10 pm

Re: Problems with JetDirect network printers

Post by kovalja »

Hi zedonet,

did you have a chance to test the Turboprint and cups 1.6? I tried to debug this and did number of tests but could not find the root cause of my problems. I will really appreciate your help.

Thanks,
Jan
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