I run Kubuntu Feisty on two computers at home - a workstation, and a laptop. In mid-August, I upgraded my server from Mandriva to Kubuntu Feisty as well. My server hosts printing services and shares an HP Laserjet 4 and an Epson Stylus Color 800 with the other two using CUPS. I have done this setup for years, and CUPS worked fine doing it.
Starting about the 25th of August, strange things began happening. I suddenly lost the ability to print in non-KDE applications such as Firefox and Open Office on both my workstation and laptop.
Investigation showed that some unusual things:
1) Going to K -> System Settings -> Printer icon -> Printer settings window showed no reference to the remote printers on the server. I checked the CUPS server in the print manager and saw it had been reset to localhost. I changed it back to the server name and the printers reappeared in the printer settings.
2) After step 1, I could print from things like Kedit, but neither Firefox nor Openoffice presented the printers as choices. Logging out and back in didn't help. Rebooting didn't help.
3) I opened an X-term, and did an lpq command only to find it did not know the default printer at the command line, despite the fact it was displayed in the Printer System Setting right next to it. Very odd. Looks like KDE is not exporting the default printer to the environment.
4) Further investigation revealed the following:
A) Trying to store revised printer settings changed via the KDE Printer Configuration dialog didn't change the file content, even in administrator mode.
B) I had new CUPS configuration files in /etc/cups. The ones I had set up in May and had used ever since had been moved to /etc/cups/cupsd.conf.O and /etc/cups/printers.conf.O. The content of the new configuration files was obviously wrong, and the files belong to a different user. I moved them to *.new and copied the *.O files into the configuration files and restarted cupsd. That got me my printers back in the environment. Here's the listing now:
-rw------- 1 lp lpadmin 338 2007-09-03 23:02 printers.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root lpadmin 20127 2007-09-03 23:01 cupsd.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 cupsys lp 20126 2007-09-02 15:30 cupsd.conf.new
-rw-r--r-- 1 cupsys lp 20127 2007-09-02 15:29 cupsd.conf.O
-rw-r--r-- 1 root lp 196 2007-09-02 15:28 lpoptions
drwxr-xr-x 2 lp lpadmin 4096 2007-09-02 15:20 ppd
-rw------- 1 lp lpadmin 84 2007-09-02 15:20 printers.conf.new
-rw------- 1 cupsys lp 338 2007-09-02 15:19 printers.conf.O
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 242 2007-04-17 23:48 raw.convs
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 213 2007-04-17 23:48 raw.types
drwx------ 2 lp lpadmin 4096 2007-04-17 23:48 ssl
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2007-04-04 04:32 interfaces
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4461 2007-04-04 04:32 mime.convs
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 6109 2007-04-04 04:32 mime.types
C) I am seeing errors in syslog every time I restart the CUPS daemon. They say:
Sep 5 20:24:48 tomws cupsd: Unable to open log file "/var/log/cups/page_log" - Permission denied
Sep 5 20:24:58 tomws cupsd: Unable to open log file "/var/log/cups/page_log" - Permission denied
D) At least once a day, I lose printer selection in my non-KDE apps. I have to restart the cups daemon again to get it back. to do that, as root I enter "/etc/init.d/cupsys restart" at the command line.
OK - I'm terribly confused. What ID is cupsd supposed to run under? What ID should own the configuration files? Did some package update screw this up? It worked perfectly for me for months after I installed Kubuntu Feisty on my laptop and workstation (interoperating with Mandriva on the server). Is there something about cupsd in Feisty on the server? These odd printing issues began about the same time I installed it on the server, but I'll be darned if I can figure out how that would relate to the symptoms on the workstation and laptop. Help?
Starting about the 25th of August, strange things began happening. I suddenly lost the ability to print in non-KDE applications such as Firefox and Open Office on both my workstation and laptop.
Investigation showed that some unusual things:
1) Going to K -> System Settings -> Printer icon -> Printer settings window showed no reference to the remote printers on the server. I checked the CUPS server in the print manager and saw it had been reset to localhost. I changed it back to the server name and the printers reappeared in the printer settings.
2) After step 1, I could print from things like Kedit, but neither Firefox nor Openoffice presented the printers as choices. Logging out and back in didn't help. Rebooting didn't help.
3) I opened an X-term, and did an lpq command only to find it did not know the default printer at the command line, despite the fact it was displayed in the Printer System Setting right next to it. Very odd. Looks like KDE is not exporting the default printer to the environment.
4) Further investigation revealed the following:
A) Trying to store revised printer settings changed via the KDE Printer Configuration dialog didn't change the file content, even in administrator mode.
B) I had new CUPS configuration files in /etc/cups. The ones I had set up in May and had used ever since had been moved to /etc/cups/cupsd.conf.O and /etc/cups/printers.conf.O. The content of the new configuration files was obviously wrong, and the files belong to a different user. I moved them to *.new and copied the *.O files into the configuration files and restarted cupsd. That got me my printers back in the environment. Here's the listing now:
-rw------- 1 lp lpadmin 338 2007-09-03 23:02 printers.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root lpadmin 20127 2007-09-03 23:01 cupsd.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 cupsys lp 20126 2007-09-02 15:30 cupsd.conf.new
-rw-r--r-- 1 cupsys lp 20127 2007-09-02 15:29 cupsd.conf.O
-rw-r--r-- 1 root lp 196 2007-09-02 15:28 lpoptions
drwxr-xr-x 2 lp lpadmin 4096 2007-09-02 15:20 ppd
-rw------- 1 lp lpadmin 84 2007-09-02 15:20 printers.conf.new
-rw------- 1 cupsys lp 338 2007-09-02 15:19 printers.conf.O
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 242 2007-04-17 23:48 raw.convs
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 213 2007-04-17 23:48 raw.types
drwx------ 2 lp lpadmin 4096 2007-04-17 23:48 ssl
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2007-04-04 04:32 interfaces
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4461 2007-04-04 04:32 mime.convs
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 6109 2007-04-04 04:32 mime.types
C) I am seeing errors in syslog every time I restart the CUPS daemon. They say:
Sep 5 20:24:48 tomws cupsd: Unable to open log file "/var/log/cups/page_log" - Permission denied
Sep 5 20:24:58 tomws cupsd: Unable to open log file "/var/log/cups/page_log" - Permission denied
D) At least once a day, I lose printer selection in my non-KDE apps. I have to restart the cups daemon again to get it back. to do that, as root I enter "/etc/init.d/cupsys restart" at the command line.
OK - I'm terribly confused. What ID is cupsd supposed to run under? What ID should own the configuration files? Did some package update screw this up? It worked perfectly for me for months after I installed Kubuntu Feisty on my laptop and workstation (interoperating with Mandriva on the server). Is there something about cupsd in Feisty on the server? These odd printing issues began about the same time I installed it on the server, but I'll be darned if I can figure out how that would relate to the symptoms on the workstation and laptop. Help?