Topic: Paused Printer

[GlitchFreak]

Hey there

I share a Samsung printer via my SME server to 2 people. When I install the printer on the pc's everything works okay for a while, but the printer shows as if it's paused and I cannot unpause it. It eventually just stops printing. It's on the LPT port of the server.

Any ideas where I could start looking for the problem?

Thanks!

[raem]

GlitchFreak

Perhaps the print job is paused on the server.
Install this contrib to manage it.
http://wiki.contribs.org/Print_queue_monitor_user_access

Get the latest drivers for the printer and install them on your workstations.

[n0lqu]

I've got a similar problem, a Canon iR1023 copier set up on SME Server 7.2.  I can add a printer to my Windows XP computer by browsing to the server and selecting it, but the print queue is perpetually set to "Paused".  If I try to uncheckmark Pause Printing, the "Paused" goes away briefly and then immediately goes back to paused again.  If I try assigning an LPT port (net use lpt3: \\smeserver\prtname) it assigns properly but I can't print either from DOS or from Windows.  Never do I actually get any kind of error message.

I installed the LPRng add on mentioned above, and when I go to https://smeserver.example.com/LPRng I can sign on and look look at the print queues (I think I'm supposed to be able to do with from within the Server Manager screens but I couldn't find it there).  Printing a test page from there resulted in a page successfully going to the printer, but I'm not finding anything from the XP machine showing up in the queue.  So it looks like my computer simply cannot send print jobs for some reason, although it can see the share.

What could be the problem and what kind of troubleshooting can I do?  Is there some kind of permissions I have to set to allow people to print to a printer, or should everyone be able to print to it by default?  Are there log files I can look at to see how far the print file got and/or where it got blocked?  Why would Windows simply put the queue on hold without giving me one of it's famous undecipherable errors (this one may be simply rhetorical)?

Thanks for any help!

[raem]

n0lqu

Connect your printer directly to the workstation and try printing. If it works OK then that proves the Windows driver you have installed is OK.

What settings do you have in the printer setup in sme server manager ?
What port is the printer connected to on your sme server ?

[raem]

n0lqu

I installed the LPRng add on mentioned above, ....(I think I'm supposed to be able to do with from within the Server Manager screens but I couldn't find it there).

Look harder ie under Administration group

Printing a test page from there resulted in a page successfully going to the printer

That's suggestive that your printer is connected correctly and is functioning etc, so it seems like the Windows XP printer driver version may be the issue. As  I suggested earlier, download & update the printer driver to the latest version.

Is there some kind of permissions I have to set to allow people to print to a printer, or should everyone be able to print to it by default? 

Only logged in authenticated users have access to the printers, so are your users logging in to Win XP with a user name & password ?

[n0lqu]

Thanks for your response!

Look harder ie under Administration group

I'm looking really really hard, and I might possibly be blind because I still don't see it.  I see:

Administration

• Backup or restore
• Create reinstallation disk
• View log files
• Mail log file analysis
• System monitoring
• Reboot or shutdown

None of those look like they have anything to do with printers.  System Monitoring lets me get to a couple performance-type graphs (cpu/mem, load).  Did I maybe install the LPRng incorrectly?  I can get to an LPRng screen using the alternate URL I mentioned.

That's suggestive that your printer is connected correctly and is functioning etc, so it seems like the Windows XP printer driver version may be the issue. As  I suggested earlier, download & update the printer driver to the latest version.

They are currently printing to that printer successfully by going straight to it (tcp/ip 9100 printing), so I believe the driver to be fine (and up to date), but for a particular DOS program we need to be able to redirect LPT1 or LPT3 to go to that printer, i.e. via our SME server.  Using the same driver that's working already but changing the port to go to the UNC path or a redirected LPT3 leads to the problem I'm having.  Alternatively if there's an easy way to get LPT3 redirected to a port 9100 printer without going through a print server like SME, I'm all ears (eyes).

Only logged in authenticated users have access to the printers, so are your users logging in to Win XP with a user name & password ?

Correct, our users are signing in to the domain using their network userid and password.  I was testing using an administrator network account.

So I'm back to trying to figure out why it's not working.  I did try a different printer (an HP 4100) and got it to work.  I know SME used to have a bug whereby having the letters "off" anywhere in the server name or printer share name led to erroneous offline conditions (SME was looking for the work "off" in something and thought it meant the printer was offline).  I don't know if that bug or a similar one still exists that might explain this, but the word "off" doesn't appear in our server or share name.

Any other ideas?  I sure appreciate your trying to help!  And I hope this information can be useful to anyone else who runs into a similar problem and is trying to troubleshoot it.

[raem]

n0lqu

Did I maybe install the LPRng incorrectly?

What rpm version (exactly) did you install, and what commands did you use to install it ?

What do you get if you do
rpm -qa smeserver-lprng-monitor

The latest one I'm aware of is here:
http://www.saco-support.de/index.php?_m=downloads&_a=view&parentcategoryid=3&pcid=0&nav=0


How have you configured the printer in sme server and where & to what is it physically connected ?

Have you searched the bugtracker for similar problems ?

[bloodshoteye]

Morning

I have the same issue - asked for my thread to be killed, especially as this one is active.

Printer is installed on the same lan & sme 7.2 is up-to-date except for the very latest base updates.
The printer is a HP1022n and installed into sme via the server panel.
Also installed the smeserver-lprng-monitor.
The monitor says :"Cannot open connection"

This from lpr:

#lpr -Padminptr
  Queue: 1 printable job
  Server: pid 27675 active
  Unspooler: pid 27676 active
  Status: sleeping 60 secs before retry, starting sleep at 11:49:44.113
  Rank   Owner/ID               Pr/Class Job Files                 Size Time
 stalled(1159sec) root@tincan+672    A   672 smbprn.00000006.RShY 95636 11:30:29
 Printer 'raw@10.0.1.252' - cannot open connection - Connection refused

Update:

Have you searched the bugtracker for similar problems ?

Just found this bug/request:
http://bugs.contribs.org/show_bug.cgi?id=3507
It seems to fit my situation - above printer uses port 9100, but is not a print-server.
The port address is not editable. I don't know how to make changes to sme, if at all possible in this case.
Bummer actually, the client has 8 of them.

[n0lqu]

What rpm version (exactly) did you install, and what commands did you use to install it ?

What do you get if you do
rpm -qa smeserver-lprng-monitor

I used smeserver-lprng-monitor-0.0.7-1.noarch.rpm and the above command returns smeserver-lprng-monitor-0.0.7-1, so it looks like I'm using the right version.

How have you configured the printer in sme server and where & to what is it physically connected ?

It's set up as a network printer, sending to an IP address..., ah, wait a minute, in the description I have the word "Office", maybe it's seeing that "off" as being an offline mode.

EUREKA! That did it!  Deleted the printer and added it again without the letters "off" in the description, and now it's working.  Just to make sure, I deleted it and set it up again with "Office" in the description, back to perpetual pause, then again without Office and working again.  Three stupid letters in a field that should have no effect.

Have you searched the bugtracker for similar problems ?

I have not, I'm not very familiar with it but I'll take a look!

So my main problem is now solved, although the mystery of why I'm finding nothing in the server-manager screens for LPRng remains.

[raem]

n0lqu

Deleted the printer and added it again without the letters "off" in the description, and now it's working.

Would you please create a bug, detailing your problem and how you fixed it.
Dev team may look at it for fixing, or it may need to be documented for future reference.

The bugzilla is really quite easy to use, just try doing it and it should make sense.

So my main problem is now solved, although the mystery of why I'm finding nothing in the server-manager screens for LPRng remains.

It may be that the panel title is listed at the very end of the server manager, look at the bottom for Unknown panels.

If so you can fix it with
/etc/e-smith/events/actions/navigation-conf

(ignore all warnings that appear on screen)

[pfloor]

n0lqu

Would you please create a bug, detailing your problem and how you fixed it.
Dev team may look at it for fixing, or it may need to be documented for future reference.

It appears he already did yesterday:

http://bugs.contribs.org/show_bug.cgi?id=3667

[n0lqu]

Sorry, I'm getting ready to leave on vacation.  Thanks for finding my bug report and putting the link here.

[tviles]

Someone explain the difference between self and local when setting up a network printer on SME 7.3 keep it simple please, real new to this.

[janet]

tviles

Your question really relates to the Hostnames & Addresses panel.
self is on the server, local is on your LAN

[tviles]

Yes and thank you. I was able to install two network printers yesterday and understand it better now. Thanks.