Arch Linux

psunix

Member

Registered: 2015-01-21

Posts: 6

cannot add printer in cups - unable to get list of printer drivers

Hi

since I updated the packages on my arch linux I'm unable to add a new printer in cups, neither with the cups webinterface nor with the xfce printer tool.

unable to get list of printer drivers

in the cups error log the following is printed:

E [21/Jan/2015:10:05:21 +0100] [cups-deviced] Bad line from "nxsmb": Warning: Not using nxredir library. The DEVICE_URI is not in the right format.
E [21/Jan/2015:10:05:29 +0100] [cups-driverd] Bad driver information file "/usr/share/cups/model/uld-samsung/cms/SCX-470xsc.cts"!
E [21/Jan/2015:10:05:29 +0100] [cups-driverd] Bad driver information file "/usr/share/cups/model/uld-samsung/cms/M267xsc.cts"!
E [21/Jan/2015:10:05:29 +0100] [cups-driverd] Bad driver information file "/usr/share/cups/model/uld-samsung/cms/SCX-3400sc.cts"!
E [21/Jan/2015:10:05:29 +0100] [cups-driverd] Bad driver information file "/usr/share/cups/model/uld-samsung/cms/SF-760sc.cts"!
E [21/Jan/2015:10:05:29 +0100] [cups-driverd] Bad driver information file "/usr/share/cups/model/uld-samsung/cms/ML-2160sc.cts"!
E [21/Jan/2015:10:05:29 +0100] [cups-driverd] Bad driver information file "/usr/share/cups/model/uld-samsung/cms/M262xsc.cts"!
E [21/Jan/2015:10:05:29 +0100] [cups-driverd] Bad driver information file "/usr/share/cups/model/uld-samsung/cms/SCX-4650sc.cts"!
E [21/Jan/2015:10:05:29 +0100] [cups-driverd] Bad driver information file "/usr/share/cups/model/uld-samsung/cms/CLP-300sc.cts"!
E [21/Jan/2015:10:05:29 +0100] [cups-driverd] Bad driver information file "/usr/share/cups/model/uld-samsung/cms/CLP-620sc.cts"!
E [21/Jan/2015:10:05:29 +0100] [cups-driverd] Bad driver information file "/usr/share/cups/model/uld-samsung/cms/ML-2950sc.cts"!
E [21/Jan/2015:10:05:29 +0100] [cups-driverd] Bad driver information file "/usr/share/cups/model/uld-samsung/cms/CLP-610sc.cts"!
E [21/Jan/2015:10:05:29 +0100] [cups-driverd] Bad driver information file "/usr/share/cups/model/uld-samsung/cms/M2070sc.cts"!
E [21/Jan/2015:10:05:29 +0100] [cups-driverd] Bad driver information file "/usr/share/cups/model/uld-samsung/cms/SCX-472xsc.cts"!
E [21/Jan/2015:10:05:29 +0100] [cups-driverd] Bad driver information file "/usr/share/cups/model/uld-samsung/cms/CLX-3160sc.cts"!
E [21/Jan/2015:10:05:29 +0100] [cups-driverd] Bad driver information file "/usr/share/cups/model/uld-samsung/cms/CLX-3170sc.cts"!
E [21/Jan/2015:10:05:29 +0100] [cups-driverd] Bad driver information file "/usr/share/cups/model/uld-samsung/cms/CLP-660sc.cts"!
E [21/Jan/2015:10:05:29 +0100] [cups-driverd] Bad driver information file "/usr/share/cups/model/uld-samsung/cms/ML-2540sc.cts"!
E [21/Jan/2015:10:05:29 +0100] [cups-driverd] Bad driver information file "/usr/share/cups/model/uld-samsung/cms/CLP-310sc.cts"!
E [21/Jan/2015:10:05:29 +0100] [cups-driverd] Bad driver information file "/usr/share/cups/model/uld-samsung/cms/CLX-3180sc.cts"!
E [21/Jan/2015:10:05:29 +0100] [cups-driverd] Bad driver information file "/usr/share/cups/model/uld-samsung/cms/M2020sc.cts"!
E [21/Jan/2015:10:05:29 +0100] [cups-driverd] Bad driver information file "/usr/share/cups/model/uld-samsung/cms/CLP-600sc.cts"!
E [21/Jan/2015:10:05:29 +0100] [cups-driverd] Bad driver information file "/usr/share/cups/model/uld-samsung/cms/CLX-6220sc.cts"!
E [21/Jan/2015:10:05:29 +0100] [cups-driverd] Bad driver information file "/usr/share/cups/model/uld-samsung/cms/M332xsc.cts"!
E [21/Jan/2015:10:05:29 +0100] [cups-driverd] Bad driver information file "/usr/share/cups/model/uld-samsung/cms/C410sc.cts"!
E [21/Jan/2015:10:05:29 +0100] [cups-driverd] Bad driver information file "/usr/share/cups/model/uld-samsung/cms/CLX-216xsc.cts"!
E [21/Jan/2015:10:05:29 +0100] [cups-driverd] Bad driver information file "/usr/share/cups/model/uld-samsung/cms/M337xsc.cts"!
E [21/Jan/2015:10:05:29 +0100] [cups-driverd] Bad driver information file "/usr/share/cups/model/uld-samsung/cms/CLP-320sc.cts"!
E [21/Jan/2015:10:05:29 +0100] [cups-driverd] Bad driver information file "/usr/share/cups/model/uld-samsung/cms/CLP-360sc.cts"!
E [21/Jan/2015:10:05:30 +0100] [cups-driverd] Skipping "/usr/share/ppd/uld-samsung": loop detected!

after searching the web I figured out that removing the package "foomatic-db" fixed the problem. But since I need the hplip package, which has this package as a dependency, this is not an option.

I also removed cups and it's configurations and reinstalled it, but this also didn't fix the problem.

cups 2.0.1-1, cups-filters 1.0.61-4, foomatic-db 3:2014 1229-1, foomatic-db-engine 3:2014 1229-1, foomatic-db-nonfree 3:2014 1229-1

looks like a bug which caused the same issue was reported and fixed in 2012 https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/28105

thanks for any help

Last edited by psunix (2015-01-21 12:58:48)

psunix

Member

Registered: 2015-01-21

Posts: 6

Re: cannot add printer in cups - unable to get list of printer drivers

ok, I found a solution.

according to arch linux's cups documentation the error Unable to get list of printer drivers is a known issue.

the default /etc/cups/client.conf which is provided by the package libcups has the following content:

# see 'man client.conf'
ServerName /run/cups/cups.sock #  alternative: ServerName hostname-or-ip-address[:port] of a remote server

so I changed it to

# see 'man client.conf'
#ServerName /run/cups/cups.sock #  alternative: ServerName hostname-or-ip-address[:port] of a remote server
ServerName localhost:631

maybe someone could explain why this error only happens when connecting over a socket and while not having installed the foomatic-db packages.

Last edited by psunix (2015-01-21 13:23:44)

psunix

Member

Registered: 2015-01-21

Posts: 6

Re: cannot add printer in cups - unable to get list of printer drivers

strange, now I installed the gutenprint package and the problem is back again.

I looks like if there are too many drivers available in cups, it can't load the drivers list.

vkransen

Member

Registered: 2014-01-12

Posts: 1

Re: cannot add printer in cups - unable to get list of printer drivers

I have exactly the same problem.
Changing /etc/cups/client.conf doesn't fix anything for me.
Hopefully someone knows how to fix this.

Last edited by vkransen (2015-01-30 06:25:30)

inktvis75

Member

Registered: 2011-06-13

Posts: 36

Re: cannot add printer in cups - unable to get list of printer drivers

same problem here, but the lpadmin util works ..
sudo lpadmin -p cups-pdf -v cups-pdf:/ -E -P /usr/share/cups/model/CUPS-PDF.ppd

psunix

Member

Registered: 2015-01-21

Posts: 6

Re: cannot add printer in cups - unable to get list of printer drivers

added bug report https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/43708

reverb

Member

Registered: 2016-01-27

Posts: 1

Re: cannot add printer in cups - unable to get list of printer drivers

Most likely the problem is the one documented here:
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=193591

basically the trouble is that the foomatic-db-engine package causes lpinfo to hang and timeout, thus never returning to cups with the list of available drivers. uninstalling the foomatic-db-engine package should alleviate the problem. Hopefully a non-foomatic driver is available for your printer.

Best of Luck!

WorMzy

Forum Moderator

From: Scotland

Registered: 2010-06-16

Posts: 11,896

Website

Re: cannot add printer in cups - unable to get list of printer drivers

reverb, thank you for contributing, but this thread is over a year old, and the original poster has not been on the forums since shortly after their last post in this thread' they are unlikely to be still seeking an answer.

Please do check the dates of threads before you "bump" them.

Closing.

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