Just installed antiX (wow, beautiful desktop!). Attempting printer setup. Downloaded bj200.ppd driver and installed using menu Admin/Tools - Printing - Printer Setup. Installation appeared to be successful. Tried printing test page, and tried printing from Abiword. No printer output. Job queue always shows jobs are"stopped". Printer status indicates"/usr/lib/cups/filter/foomatic-rip failed".

Another post implied that foomatic apps may need to be installed, but it appears to me they already are because I found a couple instances of foomatic-rip, in /usr/bin/ and in /usr/lib/cups/filter/.

I am a linux newbie, so maybe there is something simple that I am missing? Any hint appreciated. Thanks!

Open Synaptic and search for foomatic-db-gutenprint and install it. This should contain the driver for the canon. After it's installed try to reinstall the printer and test. There is also a cups-gutenprint, not sure what the difference is?

eriefisher

eriefisher, thanks so much for your help. Per your suggestion, I did open Synaptic and install foomatic-db-gutenprint. Got that and several more dependencies. I deleted my original printer setup and re-created. Still no print. Seems I need to study this more. My impression was that the gutenprint package contained many ppd files, but I am still only finding original ppd file that I downloaded. Googling around also showed potential issues with version mismatch when updating to latest foomatic; not sure if I have a problem with that. Feels like I am close to having it work. Suspect there is something simple that I am failing to do or doing wrong.

bob
Check out this thread:
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I had a similar situation with an HP printer in Mepis 7 beta which continues in the final.
I never did get it to work but the thread contains a lot of info / suggestions that just might
be of some help to you. lol __{{emoticon}}__

Ajax,

Thanks for your support. I enjoyed reading your thread (misery loves company). It inspired me to re-download the ppd file and re-install the printer under localhost:631. Still the same error, foomatic-rip failed. I checked the /var/log/cups/error_log and it appeared there were errors because /usr/local/share/ppd and /opt/share/ppd directories could not be found. I created these directories, and placed a copy of the ppd file in the 1st. Still no luck, foomatic-rip failed.

In desperation, I pulled synaptic back up and installed everything that appeared relevant:
cupsys-driver-gutenprint
foomatic-db-engine
libgutenprintui2-1

Deleted printer and re-installed from scratch. This time there were quite a few additional printer options. It offered Gutenprint Parallel Port #1, and allowed me to install CUPS+Gutenprint V5.0.1 instead of foomatic. That was enough to raise my hopes, but still no joy. No more foomatic error. About 18% of the job is printed -- just enough to suck the paper down, but no printing actually occurs. The print job remains active, but no additional progress is made.

The last time the printer worked, I was using PDQ under Puppy 2.16. I could not make printer work with CUPS under Puppy 3.01, and now I cannot make it work with CUPS under antiX Lysistrata. Something about CUPS.

Into synaptic again, thinking maybe I could install PDQ, but could not find it. I'm out of ideas. It seems like a fairly generic local printer on the parallel port should be easier than this.

This might help.


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eriefisher

bob,
Sorry you found no help there. Thanks for reporting back, though. As you said, misery loves company. Maybe you'll find the solution in eriefisher's link. Good luck to you!

I found some good hints for printing with CUPS at the following link:

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Based upon the information there, I went into my BIOS and changed my parallel setup from std bidir to ECP. Then I started the CUPS printer daemon with the /usr/sbin/cupsd command -- something I didn't realize was necessary. With great anticipation, then printed a test page. Same result, paper sucked down, printer status indicates job is 18% complete, and then it hangs ad infinitum. Oh well. Also, it appears a side effect of issuing cupsd command is that I can no longer cancel print jobs or delete printers. I suspect the cupsd.conf file could explain that, but haven't tried to sort that out.

The cups error log has a couple interesting errors, basically saying: Unable to bind socket for address 127.0.0.1:631 - Address already in use. Not sure if there is something I can do about that or if I should care. Maybe it is just being verbose and that is ok. I realize that is the localhost address where CUPS is running.

I did find one more very interesting post:

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It suggests that a stray irq may be a problem when trying to use CUPS with a parallel printer. The symptoms seem similar to mine, but all the references I find are BSD related so I suspect this is not the problem.

Are other people successfully using parallel printers with CUPS under Lysistrata? Or is everyone using USB interface now?

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May be of help, bob.

ie apt-get remove --purge cupsys
apt-get install cupsys (and whatever gets removed above)

Then configure from the cups site.

Good luck.

Thanks for the suggestions anticapitalista (and off topic -- thanks for creating antiX, it is a wonderful distro, perfect for my old laptop).

The sidux link appeared highly relevant, pointing to a location where Canon drivers could be downloaded. Unfortunately, Canon is only providing a few drivers, for their newer printers (e.g. Pixma). Nothing for my old printer. I did register a driver request for my old printer, since they gave me the option to do so.

It is hard to really know, but I suspect I may have a fundamental problem with CUPS. Despite lack of an official driver direct from Canon, I have found three other drivers that should work with my printer, all to no avail.

I did an apt-get update, then per your suggestion, did an apt-get remove --purge and install of cupsys. Configured the printer again from the cups site. Upon completion, had exactly the same problem I started with.

Oh well. This has at least been very educational. Before all this, I had never used synaptic or apt-get, and had never heard of CUPS. So thanks to all of you for the help you have provided.

modprobe lp
echo lp >> /etc/modules
apt-get remove --purge cupsys
apt-get install cupsys or apt-get install cupsys cupsys-driver-gutenprint hplip
in webbrowser : localhost:631

is another hope.

Thanks anticapitalista -- I just finished going through the modprobe,remove,install process. Still the same errors. Either printer hangs, or a foomatic-rip failed, depending upon my choice of drivers.

I have tried a few other things too, based upon google findings -- ran foomatic-cleanupdrivers as root, confirmed that ghostprint-esp was installed (as opposed to ghostprint-gpl), etc. Still no luck.

I suspect I might get somewhere if I could get past the"foomatic-rip failed" problem. But I have no idea how to circumvent that. The cups error_log now indicates"Job stopped due to filter errors."

I pretty much gave up on getting my printer to work a couple weeks ago. But tonight just for fun I went to mepislovers.org and started poking around in the Printers-Scanners forum. This led me to a"Printer Help" category, and I eventually stumbled upon the document II.Foomatic-User.pdf. The more descriptive title inside the document is"Foomatic from the User's Point of View: Installing a Printer". Lots of information contained therein. The following instruction seemed particularly interesting:

Now make the CUPS daemon aware of your new PPD file by giving it a little kick so that it rebuilds its internal PPD database:
killall -HUP cupsd

I issued that command. Then used the localhost:631 interface to add my printer, using the default driver CUPS+Gutenprint v5.0.1. Pushed the button to print a test page, and almost fell out of my chair in shock when my printer started printing.

I know I'm still not even close to understanding CUPS, but my printer is printing beautifully so I am happy for the moment.

Great to hear that Bob, and well done for persevering.

Good stuff. Now that's determination.

eriefisher