At Tue, 9 Feb 2010 22:37:28 -0600 CentOS mailing list <centos at centos.org> wrote: > > In our computer lab, there are 6 Centos 5.4 workstations. There is an > HP printer with jet direct card. It often works. > > But sometimes users come and get me saying the printer is broken, but > it is actually working fine for *most* of the workstations. > > On the troubled system, I run system-config-printer and I check the > printer in question (under properties) and I see the printer has been > disabled. I mean, the box by the word Enabled is empty. > > After I manually (use lprm) remove the print jobs, and set the printer > to Enabled, then the print queue will start working again. > > I've checked the files in /var/log/cups and there's nothing evident. > error_log has nothing. > > We have had the problem during the year (that others have reported in > this list). When trying to print some pdf files from Evince, the > symptom of the problem is that the pdf files don't print. They seem to > "clog" the printer. When that happens, I have seen the Enabled box > come unchecked in the printer configurator. However, the most recent > problems are not associated with the use of Evince. Unless you have a proper print filter for them (on the Linux system!), PDF files cannot be printed. > I would really appreciate some tips about how to bugshoot this problem. > > pj > > ps. The Cups server is running on the system in question, lpq shows > lots of print jobs waiting. Wondering if the printer *by itself* can manage handling connections for a number of workstations and arbitrating jobs. Maybe you need a Linux print server to manage the print queue and feed jobs to the printer one at a time. It seems like some of the workstations are getting a refused connection and thinking the printer is 'dead' (and thus disabling it), when it is merely too busy to respond. A proper linux print server would queue up the job and be ready for additional connections. > > -- Robert Heller -- 978-544-6933 Deepwoods Software -- Download the Model Railroad System http://www.deepsoft.com/ -- Binaries for Linux and MS-Windows heller at deepsoft.com -- http://www.deepsoft.com/ModelRailroadSystem/