Strange message wasting paper on networked printer

Convergence · 2011-09-22 00:39:26

Not the end of the world, I just followed the wiki on how to share a printer connected to my linux box with a MS XP box. It worked, but whenever I print from the Windows computer, it prints out an extra piece of paper with nothing on it but

**[  ProductName:  GPL Ghostscript ]%%

This is a minor annoyance because I can simply re-use the paper, but I'd still like it to stop. I suspect that the problem might be:

If the CUPS server is set up to use its own printer drivers, then you can just select a generic postscript printer for the Windows client(e.g. 'HP Color LaserJet 8500 PS

Which is exactly what I did. The printer is an old HP PSC 1610, so I went with the recommended HP PS, in spite of the fact that it is not a laserjet, because I didn't think that it would matter. Anyway, the list of available drivers is tremendous, so it would take quite a bit of trial and error if this were the problem.

Any suggestions?

edit: For clarity

This is a question about print sharing with linux as server, windows as client. My printer is correctly configured on the the linux box (using hplip).

Last edited by Convergence (2011-09-22 02:28:02)

the sad clown · 2011-09-22 01:03:43

HP's own website recommended this driver for your printer:

https://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=44646

Apparently, so does the Arch wiki:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/HC … s#PSC_1610

Convergence · 2011-09-22 02:23:38

Maybe I wasn't clear. HPLIP is a linux driver. I am already using it on my linux computer, because my printer is physically connected to it, and as far as I know, it is impossible to install it in windows. The only problem is when I print from my girlfriend's Windows computer. That is when it cranks out that extra sheet of paper with the useless information.

I guess my question wasn't very well formed, mostly because I don't know what the cause of the trouble is, or where to start looking. I guess I'm hoping that I find someone that either has a very deep understanding of of windows/linux print sharing via lpp, or has had the same issue and has managed to resolve it on their own.

What my previous question was referring to is actually selecting a generic printer from the windows drop down menu in the "install new printer" wizard. Now I think that it is more likely an issue with ghostscript configuration. But then, I'm kind of in the dark.

the sad clown · 2011-09-22 06:01:30

Sorry about the misunderstanding. You might be right about it being a config problem, but have you tried installing the windows hp driver to see if helps. Might not, but at least you'd know it wasn't because of the generic printer on windows.

Convergence · 2011-09-23 03:56:22

OK. I think that I've found a good place to start looking: http://fixunix.com/slackware/542926-sam … error.html

I'll check it out in a couple of days when I get a chance.

compgamer89 · 2011-10-01 14:14:55

I'm also encountering the exact same issue, also on Arch Linux, with an HP Photosmart C4480. My setup isn't using a HP Postscript printer driver, but rather a 'cupsaddsmb' style CUPS Postscript driver, served via samba. Since the results are the same, it does indeed seem like the problem is somewhere entirely server-side (between ghostscript's output and HPLIP). Let me know if you find anything interesting, and I will continue investigating as well.

UPDATE: I suspect I've found a likely problem; it seems the standard invocation for gs for output purposes now includes -sstdout=%stderr as a commandline option, as per https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+sour … bug/314439, which has since been implemented upstream (see /usr/bin/ps2pdf and ps2ps, for example). This flag apparently directs the troublemaking output lines (the %% lines) to stderr, so the driver will not see it. However, the hpijs.drv file in /usr/share/cups/drv/hp (part of HPLIP, I believe) does not have this option in its gs command line (see all the FoomaticRIPCommandLine attributes).

Not sure of what a proper fix for this is, but it seems like the true solution would be to notify the HPLIP developers? Have not yet tested whether modifying this commandline will fix the problem, will do that after I get some sleep.

UPDATE 2: Relevant bug in launchpad: https://bugs.launchpad.net/hplip/+bug/624024

UPDATE 3: Temporary workaround here, but will probably need to be reapplied on driver change/update: https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=633468#c18

Last edited by compgamer89 (2011-10-01 14:20:40)

Arch Linux

#1 2011-09-22 00:39:26

Strange message wasting paper on networked printer

#2 2011-09-22 01:03:43

Re: Strange message wasting paper on networked printer

#3 2011-09-22 02:23:38

Re: Strange message wasting paper on networked printer

#4 2011-09-22 06:01:30

Re: Strange message wasting paper on networked printer

#5 2011-09-23 03:56:22

Re: Strange message wasting paper on networked printer

#6 2011-10-01 14:14:55

Re: Strange message wasting paper on networked printer

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