Upgrade borked HP LaserJet 6MP

[davey]

After a recent upgrade, printed pages no longer recognize margin settings or initial linespaces. No matter what I do, text starts at the very top of the page. Sometimes exporting as pdf and then printing works, sometimes not. Same story with Libre Office and Abiword. I tried setting it up as a new printer in the control panel. It was detected OK, no problems reported, but same problem when I tried it again. No printing holiday cards this year I guess.

Everything was fine until this latest upgrade. Any ideas for fixing it?

[davey]

So...nobody has any idea what would make the printer ignore the top margin as well as initial linespaces, and instead start printing at the very top of the page? Funny thing is, this happened on both the household machines after the latest upgrade. On mine I messed with PCC, redoing the printer config, and it started to work OK. On my partner's machine I tried the same thing and no luck. Both run the latest upgraded PCLOS. On the bad machine I tried reinstalling everything I could think of related to printing, but no effect.

If it made any sense I guess I could reinstall the whole thing on the one machine, but that's a lot of effort for something that has no reason to work. And I'd be afraid to upgrade it, anyway. I guess if I can't find a solution I'll have to try installing some other OS, which would be a shame. But printing is a basic requirement.

[wedgetail]

How about telling what desktop environment you are running, keep in mind PCLOS is a bit generic.

I don't have an hp 6MP myself but know of it (have other HP printers)

Have you used the printers own display panel (if it has one) to print a test print and carefully examined this. Normally there are some good information here.    

[davey]

I'm running KDE. The printer-generated test page comes out OK. Like I said, the big mystery is that one computer prints the same document OK, while the other one, running the same updated PCLOS, doesn't. Maybe I missed some setting in CUPS or the HPlip apps, but I reinstalled everything I could think of relating to printing with no improvement. I also tried running with an older kernel, but that didn't make any difference either.

I guess I could try printing from an old live CD to rule out some hardware problem in the printer. But any other suggestions would be more than welcome.

[wedgetail]

Do I detect a bit of panic     trying an older kernel.  I assume you did not have a kernel upgrade.

Are you familiar with using CUPS for printer management work?

I will be short as I am in "panic mode" my own KDE-mini is not being co-operative, making it a bit hard to get to my printer file records right now.

[wedgetail]

My problem evaporated, so I can look at this a bit closer. I hope you are happy to work in command line via terminal?  If so please open a konsole in super user mode and do following two items and post the result:

Code:

service -f cups

I do not expect any problem with restarting the CUPS server, just to make sure.

Code:

lptstat - t

You can copy and paste these two lines to your konsole.

[AS]

I'm running KDE. The printer-generated test page comes out OK.

Glad to know the printer hasn't any hardware fault! 

Like I said, the big mystery is that one computer prints the same document OK, while the other one, running the same updated PCLOS, doesn't. Maybe I missed some setting in CUPS or the HPlip apps, but I reinstalled everything I could think of relating to printing with no improvement.

That is the most important hint you have: most probably different settings.
Can you try to create a new user, and then try to print from the new user account ?

The result will help you to understand if the issue is specific to a user account or if it is system wide.

I also tried running with an older kernel, but that didn't make any difference either.

I guess I could try printing from an old live CD to rule out some hardware problem in the printer. But any other suggestions would be more than welcome.

Another hint: config files are in /etc/cups (you can access these files from root account), you should compare each file one at a time, searching for difference between the two installations.   

HTH, AS

[davey]

Thanks for the ideas. I can't get at the afflicted computer for a couple days, but will try some of the suggestions.

What I still don't get in the meantime is, nobody messed with any configurations. The problem started with a system update. Until then the machine in question was fine printing to the same printer for years. Plus, both the working machine and the problem one got the same update at about the same time, and both run the same desktop, etc.

[Jeddaboy]

I use a  hp photosmart B110 completely wireless on the network. Before the big upgrades started last year, it worked brilliantly, perfect test pages etc. But ever since then it has given me trouble. A color picture comes out like "monochrome". I delete the printer reboot, reinstall and its still the same. I had it configed for fast draft and no matter what i tried it would not let go of thse settings after changing it to "Normal Everyday Printing. Its never been the same since. Mind you im on Full monty now, will do the printer setup, maybe now its been fixed.
Good Luck mate.

[wedgetail]

Jeddaboy
I hope the Laserjet 6MP printer stays printing monochrome 

The hp inkjet printers like your Photosmart B110 rings a bell, not sure I have tried to fix one of those. They do have my special interest.

You posted here, which was in a period where I was infrequently visiting Forum I think, else I would have expected I had made a comment in your topic.  Anyway I will revive it 

http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php/topic,93734.0.html

[davey]

Finally got back to the other computer, no luck at all. I decided to reinstall PCLOS mini 2011.09 KDE. Everything seems OK, but still it won't print anything. I installed the HP Device Manager and Cups. HPDM recognizes the printer, as do various apps. Control Center, however, does not respond when I click hardware>Configure Printing, and then the CC refuses to close short of using Xkill.

Wedgetail, I tried the lptstat - t but the term gives me a "command not found". The other code you suggested seems to work.

I suppose there could be some kind of hardware problem in the affected computer, but like I said, everything was fine until a recent update. I'm about ready to just install Kubuntu or something and see what happens. It's kind of shocking to have this kind of insoluble problem with PCLOS after all these years.

[AS]

Finally got back to the other computer, no luck at all. I decided to reinstall PCLOS mini 2011.09 KDE. Everything seems OK, but still it won't print anything. I installed the HP Device Manager and Cups. HPDM recognizes the printer, as do various apps. Control Center, however, does not respond when I click hardware>Configure Printing, and then the CC refuses to close short of using Xkill.

Did you installed task-printing too ? (and  task-printing-hp too ?)

[wedgetail]

davey

Please, don't type or verbalise what you see, copy/paste into your post.

There is no way that lptstat will not work if CUPS is running, unless you do just what I did. My brain knows what it should be so I don't see there is a mistake. (I was so taken back that I actually stopped and looked at what you had typed, I had already assumed what the statement was flying over the text)

Anyway copy from my command line below and try again.

Code:

[gert@localhost ~]$ lpstat -t

This line is important, it will tell as and myself a lot if it is working. If CUPS lets us down you/we have a problem  

You will see that I have your Laserjet  6MP installed in "some form" but this is not the only way it can be done.

Code:

[gert@localhost ~]$ lpstat -t
scheduler is running
system default destination: HP_Laserjet_2300dn
device for davey_hp_laserjet_6mp: lpd://192.168.1.6
device for Howard_NX200: lpd://192.168.0.6
device for Howard_Old: lpd://192.168.0.6
device for Howard_SX200: lpd://192.168.0.6
device for Howard_TX200: lpd://192.168.0.6
device for hp_LaserJet_2300_series: socket://192.168.1.4
device for HP_Laserjet_2300dn: lpd://192.168.1.4
device for HP_Laserjet_2300dn-g: lpd://192.168.1.4
device for Jeddaboy-photosmart-B110: lpd://192.168.1.6
device for Willem_Canon_MP160: lpd://192.168.0.6
device for Willem_Epson_T13: lpd://192.168.0.6
device for Willem_Epson_T13_Foomatic: lpd://192.168.0.6
davey_hp_laserjet_6mp accepting requests since Sun 01 Jan 2012 01:02:15 PM EST
Howard_NX200 accepting requests since Sun 25 Sep 2011 07:43:34 PM EST
Howard_Old accepting requests since Sun 25 Sep 2011 07:40:03 PM EST
Howard_SX200 accepting requests since Thu 29 Sep 2011 09:03:58 PM EST
Howard_TX200 accepting requests since Sun 25 Sep 2011 07:47:55 PM EST
hp_LaserJet_2300_series accepting requests since Wed 18 Jan 2012 10:41:27 AM EST
HP_Laserjet_2300dn accepting requests since Thu 19 Jan 2012 12:01:11 AM EST
HP_Laserjet_2300dn-g accepting requests since Tue 17 Jan 2012 10:08:11 PM EST
Jeddaboy-photosmart-B110 accepting requests since Mon 02 Jan 2012 11:19:14 PM EST
Willem_Canon_MP160 accepting requests since Sun 25 Sep 2011 08:24:57 PM EST
Willem_Epson_T13 accepting requests since Sun 25 Sep 2011 08:11:18 PM EST
Willem_Epson_T13_Foomatic accepting requests since Fri 30 Sep 2011 10:11:21 PM EST
printer davey_hp_laserjet_6mp is idle.  enabled since Sun 01 Jan 2012 01:02:15 PM EST
printer Howard_NX200 is idle.  enabled since Sun 25 Sep 2011 07:43:34 PM EST
printer Howard_Old is idle.  enabled since Sun 25 Sep 2011 07:40:03 PM EST
printer Howard_SX200 is idle.  enabled since Thu 29 Sep 2011 09:03:58 PM EST
printer Howard_TX200 is idle.  enabled since Sun 25 Sep 2011 07:47:55 PM EST
printer hp_LaserJet_2300_series is idle.  enabled since Wed 18 Jan 2012 10:41:27 AM EST
printer HP_Laserjet_2300dn is idle.  enabled since Thu 19 Jan 2012 12:01:11 AM EST
printer HP_Laserjet_2300dn-g is idle.  enabled since Tue 17 Jan 2012 10:08:11 PM EST
printer Jeddaboy-photosmart-B110 is idle.  enabled since Mon 02 Jan 2012 11:19:14 PM EST
printer Willem_Canon_MP160 is idle.  enabled since Sun 25 Sep 2011 08:24:57 PM EST
printer Willem_Epson_T13 is idle.  enabled since Sun 25 Sep 2011 08:11:18 PM EST
printer Willem_Epson_T13_Foomatic is idle.  enabled since Fri 30 Sep 2011 10:11:21 PM EST
[gert@localhost ~]$ lpstat -t

Edit:added
I need the answer to the lpstat -t so that I can provide the copy and paste instructions that in a few steps will display your complete setup (if you have it right) if not then as will sort it out 

[davey]

Per as's suggestion, I checked the two task apps and installed them. Now the printer starts to blink like it's going to print, but then the trouble light goes on and it goes dead. The printer prints its internal test page fine, so I don't think the problem is there.

wedgetail, the command now works. Here's the output:

[carol@localhost ~]$ lpstat -t
scheduler is running
no system default destination
device for HP_LaserJet_6MP: hp:/par/HP_LaserJet_6MP?device=/dev/parport0
HP_LaserJet_6MP accepting requests since Fri 20 Jan 2012 04:25:18 PM CST
printer HP_LaserJet_6MP is idle.  enabled since Fri 20 Jan 2012 04:25:18 PM CST
HP_LaserJet_6MP-1       carol            59392   Fri 20 Jan 2012 04:31:18 PM CST
HP_LaserJet_6MP-2       carol           422912   Fri 20 Jan 2012 04:54:49 PM CST
[carol@localhost ~]$

Any clues there?

[wedgetail]

davey

Yes

Now do this:

[gert@localhost ~]$ lpoptions -p HP_LaserJet_6MP
[gert@localhost ~]$