Arch Linux

archer666

Member

Registered: 2016-10-31

Posts: 3

[SOLVED] never ending "Filter failed" with Brother MFC-9840CDW

Hi.

I have been operating a Brother MFC-9840CDW from my Gentoo literally for years without problems.
Ironically, after setting it up after an old Arch wiki https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php?ti … edirect=no which has vanished since then.

Anyway, fresh Arch install 2016-10-01, cups, foomatic

Anything I've tried

• copying my old Gentoo /etc/cups contents

• fresh install autodetection (it finds a Brother MFC-9840CDW)

• manual choice like http://<ip>/ipp (which worked in the previous distro)

• using foomatic filters, using cups-filters, ...

everything results in a "Filter failed" situation. I'm out of clues.
The logs after trying to print the test page:

D [31/Oct/2016:12:21:30 +0100] [Job 15] Driver does not understand PDF input, converting to PostScript
D [31/Oct/2016:12:21:30 +0100] [Job 15] Storing temporary files in /var/spool/cups/tmp
D [31/Oct/2016:12:21:30 +0100] [Job 15] PID 1212 (/usr/lib/cups/filter/pdftopdf) exited with no errors.
D [31/Oct/2016:12:21:30 +0100] [Job 15] Starting process \"pdf-to-ps\" (generation 1)
D [31/Oct/2016:12:21:30 +0100] [Job 15] Printer make and model: Brother Brother MFC-9840CDW
D [31/Oct/2016:12:21:30 +0100] [Job 15] Switching to Poppler\'s pdftops instead of Ghostscript for Brother, Minolta, Konica Minolta, Dell, and Apple LaserWriter 12/640 to work around bugs in the printer\'s PS interpreters
D [31/Oct/2016:12:21:30 +0100] [Job 15] Running command line for pstops: pstops 15 root \'Test Page\' 1 \' job-uuid=urn:uuid:1111bb2d-064f-3b9d-6d01-9acce209d727 job-originating-host-name=localhost date-time-at-creation= date-time-at-processing= time-at-creation=1477912890 time-at-processing=1477912890\'
D [31/Oct/2016:12:21:30 +0100] [Job 15] Using image rendering resolution 1200 dpi
D [31/Oct/2016:12:21:30 +0100] [Job 15] Running command line for pdftops: pdftops -level3 -origpagesizes -nocenter -r 1200 /var/spool/cups/tmp/foomatic-5OLxtT -
D [31/Oct/2016:12:21:30 +0100] [Job 15] Started filter pdftops (PID 1216)
D [31/Oct/2016:12:21:30 +0100] [Job 15] Started filter pstops (PID 1217)
D [31/Oct/2016:12:21:30 +0100] [Job 15] Usage: pdftops job user title copies options [file]
D [31/Oct/2016:12:21:30 +0100] [Job 15] PID 1216 (pdftops) stopped with status 1!
D [31/Oct/2016:12:21:30 +0100] [Job 15] The print file is empty.
D [31/Oct/2016:12:21:30 +0100] [Job 15] PID 1217 (pstops) stopped with status 1!
D [31/Oct/2016:12:21:30 +0100] [Job 15] Cannot process \"<STDIN>\": Unknown filetype.
D [31/Oct/2016:12:21:30 +0100] [Job 15] pdf-to-ps exited with status 1
D [31/Oct/2016:12:21:30 +0100] [Job 15] Process is dying with \"Could not print file <STDIN>
D [31/Oct/2016:12:21:30 +0100] [Job 15] \", exit stat 2
D [31/Oct/2016:12:21:30 +0100] [Job 15] Cleaning up...
D [31/Oct/2016:12:21:30 +0100] [Job 15] PID 1213 (/usr/lib/cups/filter/foomatic-rip) stopped with status 2.
D [31/Oct/2016:12:21:30 +0100] [Job 15] Hint: Try setting the LogLevel to "debug" to find out more.
D [31/Oct/2016:12:21:30 +0100] [Job 15] PID 1214 (/usr/lib/cups/backend/http) exited with no errors.
D [31/Oct/2016:12:21:30 +0100] [Job 15] End of messages
D [31/Oct/2016:12:21:30 +0100] [Job 15] printer-state=3(idle)
D [31/Oct/2016:12:21:30 +0100] [Job 15] printer-state-message="Filter failed"
D [31/Oct/2016:12:21:30 +0100] [Job 15] printer-state-reasons=none

A little bit much conversion going on for my taste, but I'll address that later.
The file "/var/spool/cups/tmp/foomatic-5OLxtT" is present.
If I look at it with a PDF viewer (evince), it looks ok. That's how the test page should come out of the printer.

The messages about STDIN "unknown filetype" and "could not print file STDIN" look quite suspicious. :-)

Any hints where to go from here?

Last edited by archer666 (2016-10-31 15:11:04)

olive

Member

From: Belgium

Registered: 2008-06-22

Posts: 1,490

Re: [SOLVED] never ending "Filter failed" with Brother MFC-9840CDW

The real problem, from your log is this:

D [31/Oct/2016:12:21:30 +0100] [Job 15] PID 1216 (pdftops) stopped with status 1!

For some reason the pdftops cups filter fail. Do not mistake the cups filter (/usr/lib/cups/filter/pdftops) with the general pstopdf command. But unfortunately, I do not figure out exactly what went wrong. Which driver are you using, what is the ppd used? I think this printer is supported by gutenprint, could you install that and try?

Last edited by olive (2016-10-31 13:46:36)

GeorgP

Member

Registered: 2016-10-31

Posts: 1

Re: [SOLVED] never ending "Filter failed" with Brother MFC-9840CDW

I think it might be this: https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/51598

archer666

Member

Registered: 2016-10-31

Posts: 3

Re: [SOLVED] never ending "Filter failed" with Brother MFC-9840CDW

I think it might be this: https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/51598

Spot on! This seems to have done the trick.

Learned how to downgrade packages on Arch here https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/do … g_packages
Went to https://archive.archlinux.org/packages/c/cups-filters/, and fetched 1.11.4

cd /var/cache/pacman/pkg
wget https://archive.archlinux.org/packages/c/cups-filters/cups-filters-1.11.4-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.xz
# pacman -U cups-filters-1.11.4-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.xz 
loading packages...
warning: downgrading package cups-filters (1.11.5-1 => 1.11.4-1)

I had to restart cups and did the "add printer" loop twice, because the autodetected MFC-9840CDW config didn't cut it,
but eventually... SUCCESS!

Thanks, solved

Bersam

Member

From: Nowhere

Registered: 2010-10-03

Posts: 32

Website

Re: [SOLVED] never ending "Filter failed" with Brother MFC-9840CDW

I almost did debug everything about my printer! and suddenly found this article! cups-filters 1.11.5-1 is broken, need to notify users.

FenDanT

Member

From: Chamoson- Wallis - Switzerland

Registered: 2007-11-13

Posts: 58

Re: [SOLVED] never ending "Filter failed" with Brother MFC-9840CDW

Hey all

Thanks a lot, that did the trick for me too...

Spending a few days to find out what was the problem...

stratosl

Member

Registered: 2016-11-01

Posts: 1

Re: [SOLVED] never ending "Filter failed" with Brother MFC-9840CDW

This solved two problems for me: (a) The "wrong filter" message I received while printing to a Konica Minolta C224e and (b) the "printer out of paper" error message I received from a HP MP560. Thanks

Last edited by stratosl (2016-11-02 09:12:35)

bvb

Member

Registered: 2012-07-14

Posts: 3

Re: [SOLVED] never ending "Filter failed" with Brother MFC-9840CDW

I had the same issue; thanks for this. I upgraded to cups-filters 1.11.6-1 today and it's working again for me.

illis

Member

Registered: 2013-09-23

Posts: 14

Re: [SOLVED] never ending "Filter failed" with Brother MFC-9840CDW

Got a Brother MFC-7360N connected over the network here. Giving a similar "Filter failed" issue. All the printer seems to output is a page with some "<</.HWMargins[17. 12. 17. 12.]>>setpagedevice" text across the top of it.

cups-filters-1.11.6-1 didn't help. Rolling back to 1.11.4 seems to get the printer working again.