On 2/10/2010 9:15 AM, Robert Heller wrote: > 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. > > >> >> > I have to agree with Robert here. Instead of running a separate server on each box run a central cups server on one machine and have it take care of everything. I bet since all of the machines are their own servers they printer can't keep up and the individual machines are timing out...:)