Fedora 2 and Epson printers - not printing

[KEJP]

Can anyone help with this please? I've recently upgraded to FC2 from 1; everything seems to work now except for my printers.

I've a Stylus 750 on a USB port, and a Stylus 640 on the parallel port. Sending a print from anywhere - OpenOffice, Galeon, Gimp, etc. - to either printer seems to send the print job into the wild blue yonder. Nothing appears in the print queue, and there's no reaction from the printer.

I've tried updating CUPS with up2date and printing a test page from Printer Configuration. The output from the error log from the test page for the 750 is as follows: -

I [18/Jun/2004:18:52:08 +0100] Adding start banner page "none" to job 6.
I [18/Jun/2004:18:52:08 +0100] Adding end banner page "none" to job 6.
I [18/Jun/2004:18:52:08 +0100] Job 6 queued on 'sty750' by 'root'.
I [18/Jun/2004:18:52:08 +0100] Started filter /usr/lib/cups/filter/pstops (PID 16015) for job 6.
I [18/Jun/2004:18:52:08 +0100] Started filter /usr/lib/cups/filter/foomatic-rip (PID 16016) for job 6.
I [18/Jun/2004:18:52:08 +0100] Started backend /usr/lib/cups/backend/usb (PID 16017) for job 6.
W [18/Jun/2004:18:52:09 +0100] [Job 6] Media tray empty!
E [18/Jun/2004:18:52:14 +0100] PID 16016 stopped with status 1!
I [18/Jun/2004:18:52:14 +0100] Hint: Try setting the LogLevel to "debug" to find out more.


The 640 has produced the following error log: -

I [18/Jun/2004:19:07:26 +0100] Adding start banner page "none" to job 10.
I [18/Jun/2004:19:07:26 +0100] Adding end banner page "none" to job 10.
I [18/Jun/2004:19:07:26 +0100] Job 10 queued on 'Sty640' by 'root'.
I [18/Jun/2004:19:07:26 +0100] Started filter /usr/lib/cups/filter/pstops (PID 17787) for job 10.
I [18/Jun/2004:19:07:26 +0100] Started filter /usr/lib/cups/filter/foomatic-rip (PID 17788) for job 10.
I [18/Jun/2004:19:07:26 +0100] Started backend /usr/lib/cups/backend/parallel (PID 17789) for job 10.
E [18/Jun/2004:19:07:33 +0100] PID 17788 stopped with status 1!
I [18/Jun/2004:19:07:33 +0100] Hint: Try setting the LogLevel to "debug" to find out more.

In both cases the media tray has paper in, there's no error light on the printer, and the cables are connected properly. Both machines worked perfectly under FC1.

Thanks for reading this far - any help at this stage will be very much appreciated.

Kev P.

[MMYoung]

Have you tried putting lpr-cups in OpenOffice Printer Admin properties to see if this helps?

Open OpenOffice Printmanager and with Generic Printer (Default Printer) highlighted click on the "Properties" button. Make sure "Configure as" has Printer in the text box and just below that you will see a text box that just says lpr. Add -cups to the end of that, it should read "lpr-cups" (without the quotes), and click on OK. Now try printing a document from OpenOffice. If that works, you will need to do the same thing for Mozilla, FireFox, Thunderbird, etc.

HTH,
MMYoung

[Uranus]

Maybe http://www.linuxprinting.org can help you? I don't know much about printing and linux myself, since I still have to configure it, but hey - this seemed a really good site.
HTH
Sam

[KEJP]

Thanks for getting back to me so quickly MMYoung - tried doing as you suggested, but there's no Generic Printer listed, only sty640 and sty750. Clicking on the Properties button with either of these selected does absolutely nothing - very odd.:confused: I've tried restarting cups - no difference

It's starting to look like a reinstall with FC1, as I really need a printer for tomorrow. However, I've an old 440 in the attic so I'll try uninstalling the 640 and replacing it with the 440 . Thanks again for your help - I'll let you know if I get any further.

[MMYoung]

Originally posted by KEJP
Clicking on the Properties button with either of these selected does absolutely nothing - very odd.:confused: I've tried restarting cups - no difference
That is odd, of course I'm using Slackware so my setup would be somewhat different as FC2 comes with a customized version of OpenOffice and I've got the plain-vanilla 0penOffice. I actually "tinkered" with FC2 for a short while but I don't remember if I ever even printed from there or not, other than the "test page" to see if it was actually working or not.

Have you tried that? Opening up the Print Manager to see if you can print a test page from either/both? You can also make sure that CUPS is the default print spooler from there as well.

Just wondering,
MMYoung