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**kenj70** · Jun 08, 2018, 09:11 PM

Continuing on...

I installed gLabels on my rather pristine spare PC. It took some effort but I was able to add the Flatpak hub, repository and update to the current Flatpak version 0.11.8.1 (as of 6/8/18). Then, I rebooted the PC and found the Flatpak version of gLabels and installed it (version 3.4.0). Since I forgot how I found the CD/DVD Tray templates, I fiddled around with the New project selection interface until I figured it out. I think this process needs work from the developer because selecting "Brand: Canon" returns "No match." This is very misleading because the Canon CD/DVD templates ARE in there! What I had to do to dig them out was change to "Page size: Any" then they all appeared. Not really intuitive but it does work.

This is of course for the Canon models. Listed templates are:
iP7200 CD Tray: CD/DVD Tray
MG5400 CD Tray: CD/DVD Tray
MG6300 CD Tray: CD/DVD Tray
MG6500 CD Tray: CD/DVD Tray
MX920 CD Tray: CD/DVD Tray
Type J Tray: CD/DVD Tray

These are all similar if not identical. Just for a test I tried using the Type J Tray template but had identical results. Right now both of my desktop PCs are using gLabels version 3.4.0 (Flatpak) and the print job gets sent to the paper tray.

*** Now this part may be showing a problem with my KDE Neon 5.12.5 (built upon Ubuntu 16.04 LTS). As I mentioned the print job gets sent to the paper tray - even though I check the Printer Properties tab which says "CD - 5 inch." I can force the print job to go to the CD/DVD print option by opening KDE Neon Printer Properties, selecting Configure printer and in the Printer Options dialog set Media Size to CD - 5 inch, set Media Type to Printable Disc (Compatible or Other) and set Media Source to CD Tray. Click Apply and KEEP THE Configure Printer WINDOW OPEN. Then, in gLabels select Print. The Canon printer display window will say, "Processing..., Please wait momentarily." Momentarily, it will go back its default screen - as though the print job was successful.

In the Configure Printer dialog which should still be open in Printer Options you can click OK which closes the window. Open it up again and select Printer Options again and you will find the options have reverted back to Letter, Plain Paper and Cassette! The dialog supporting CDs does not stay. This happens on both of my desktop PCs. Feature - or bug?

I have found a work around. In a terminal install "system-config-printer." The code for installing is different (??)

Code:

sudo apt install system-config-printer-gnome

I then installed "system-config-printer" as a new entry into my applications menu. Invoking this utility brings up a Printers dialog that looks just like the one I used to use in Linux Mint. Your printer(s) will appear and you can highlight the MX922 (or whatever your is) and then select Properties from the Printer menu. A window will open up looking just like our Printer Properties dialog except when we make changes - - they will stay!

Well, I hope that is interesting - if not useful. Please share your experience here because this printing on disk media option still doesn't work. I am supposing that multitudes of Linux users have been stumped as I have been - not being able get this to work.

-=Ken=-

**kenj70** · Jun 09, 2018, 03:40 PM

Continuing on...

The next thing to try is examining the printer template files. There is a very useful document available that tells how a gLabels template file is constructed. "Manually creating new templates"

https://help.gnome.org/users/glabels...create.html.en

In the first portion it gives the default file locations for templates.

/usr/share/libglabels-3.0/templates -------- Predefined templates

/.config/libglabels/templates --------- User defined templates from Template Designer

/.glabels --------------------------------- Manually user designed templates

Trouble is - I can't find the predefined templates folder! The user defined templates do not appear in the designated folder! And, placing a manually designed template in its' designated folder gLabels can't seem to find it!

Until this gets resolved I cannot see how we are expected to experiment with gLabels templates.

Can we get some help here?

-=Ken=-

**GreyGeek** · Jun 09, 2018, 04:04 PM

It's not hard to understand why you are having trouble finding a cd printing app and/or hardware. CDs & DVDs are dying.
https://www.lifewire.com/death-of-th...l-drive-832403

Not only that, the CD's themselves are rotting on the shelves and their manufacturers claims of storage longevity were bogus except for the expensive versions.
http://cdm.link/2017/02/a-generation...ing-and-dying/

I have around 200-300 CDs in storage in my garage. They go back to when the CD-ROM first appeared in 1984. They became affordable about six years later, My first Sony Desktop PC with a Triniton monitor built-in CD-ROM was purchased on Dec 29, 1997. I began making copies of all my files on CDs from then on, until about 5 years ago. I had been using a Sony DVR to convert family history recorded on VHS & CH8 tapes to DVDs. I wanted to find something on a CD and started cycling through them, looking. Fully 1/3rd of the RO DVDs & CDs failed to read, except for those written to RW DVDs. Some I brought back using toothpaste and bananas. Some didn't even last 5 years.

Before CDs I used floppies, first the 5.24" and then the 3.5" mini's. I still have a cheap $15 USB floppy RW device. When I put a third HD into this laptop I used an HD Caddy to replace the CD-ROM, but several years ago I bought a $15 USB CD-ROM for my wife's notebook and it still works fine for my laptops as well. However, I haven't used it in since 2015, for anything.

I began moving my CD files to USB sticks, but then noticed that USB sticks are given to sudden, unannounced failures. I am thinking about buying a 3D printer and using it to write binary on clay tablets, then baking them. The Egyptians knew how to create long term storage!

**kenj70** · Jun 09, 2018, 04:20 PM

I hear ya. And I know this. But there are still a few family and friends who insist upon having things passed to them on DVDs. I think they will use them until the disks or drives will no longer work. My long term archival storage plans are to use redundant 32 GB SDHC cards for myself and pass family treasures on to them on flash drives. I just hate to make a DVD for someone and hand scrawl the label with a Sharpie. These printers are supposed to print on DVD media and they do with the Canon software. I can use my wife's Win7 PC until it dies - and I think she intends to do that! You know what? I think we don't like change!

Meanwhile, gLabels is supposed to work, dang nabit!

-=Ken=-

**kenj70** · Jun 10, 2018, 09:08 PM

Continuing on...

After some ruminating about the lack of folders and files discussed in Post #3 I came up with an idea. I have installed applications such as Kdenlive via AppImage, which is great since you can get the vary latest version... but Kdenlive AppImage has a few quirks among which is a reluctance to properly support all the Themes and absolutely will not download such extras as New Wipes, New Render Profiles and New Title Templates. I discovered those were not a deal breaker - I can live without them. But, why should I? So I went back to the Repo version and decided to be happy with it anyway. But this problem with AppImages got me to thinking. Flatpak is also a newer technology; are there some limitations I could be running into with Flatpak as well?

So, I uninstalled the Flatpak version of gLabels and then installed the Discover Software Center "regular" repo version. It was only version 3.2.1 but I found it still had all six of the Canon templates included. Note: I had to fiddle around with the Application Menu because it didn't remove the entry for the Flatpak version. Then, the 3.4.1 version would not register in the Menu! Dang! I hate it when that happens. (Chronicled here for your edification). There was one benefit to adding the gLabels entry to my Menu - I had to go spelunking for the executable file - so now I know where it is stored and can share the info.

/usr/bin/glabels-3 ----- will run the application (add %F to your Menu item).

/usr/share/libglabels-3.0/templates -- is where the Predefined templates included with gLabels are stored. This is a treasure trove of templates which can be studied.

/.config/libglabels/templates ----- Template Designer drops your new templates here.

/.glabels ----- is where user designed templates are added.

All the folders are in my filesystem now, as advertised. Flatpak doesn't expose those folders and it doesn't look like we can tinker with the templates. Unless you are using Avery labels stock I would avoid the Flatpak version.

I found that I could go ahead and edit the templates designed with the Template Designer - but that still didn't get the MX922 to print on my disk. I even tried adding:

<Meta category="Media"/> under <Template...>

and that didn't help either. Finally, I tried fine tuning the Tray dimentions because they didn't seem correct to me. de nada.

So, the battle goes on. Somebody must have gotten this to work. I have seen Epson and Canon templates donated to this project. Please share what you know.

-=Ken=-

**kenj70** · Jun 10, 2018, 09:27 PM

Continuing on...

Here is my latest template file, with added space between the lines for clarity:

Code:

<?xml version="1.0"?>

<Glabels-templates xmlns="http://glabels.org/xmlns/3.0/">

<Template brand="Canon" part="MX922templatedesigner1" size="Other" width="129mm" height="210mm" description="Test template 1">

<Meta category="Media"/>

<Label-cd id="0" radius="58mm" hole="11mm" waste="2mm">

<Markup-margin size="2mm"/>

<Layout nx="1" ny="1" x0="4.5mm" y0="30mm" dx="120mm" dy="120mm"/>

</Label-cd>

</Template>

</Glabels-templates>

Notes:

When setting Preferences in gLabels set the Units to Millimeters. It is much easier to get fine measurements that way.

A CD/DVD measures 120mm across. The hole for modern disks has a radius of approximately 11mm. Both of my trays definitely have a "J" stamped into them (genuine). The trays measure 129mm across and 210mm in the long dimension (flat surface, excluding the beveled area. Is that correct? I don't know).

<Label-cd ...> indicates this is for CD/DVD media.

The dx and dy values are the width of the CD/DVD. The radius value plus the waste value must equal half the width. The Template Designer enforces that, so don't mess with that restriction. 58 + 2 = 60, 60 x 2 = 120

The x0 value times 2, plus the dx value must add up to the tray width value. 4.5 + 4.5 + 120 = 129

I still have some suspicions that the MX922 may reject a print job if the Tray dimensions and possibly some others are not quite right. The printer probably checks to see if the job matches the media requirements. I may have to play with these some more.

-=Ken=-

Further thoughts: since my MX922 never calls for the CD/DVD Tray then it ought not matter if the dimensions of the tray are incorrect. Using the MX922 with Canon software on a Windows 7 PC the MX922 asks for the tray after telling me to push down the lower section and then it moves the tray back and forth several times, as though it is making sure the tray and media are correct - perhaps a self-calibration maneuver.

<shrug>

**kenj70** · Jun 13, 2018, 09:47 PM

Continuing on...

In my original post I said I had not found anyone on the 'net who could successfully print on disk media from gLabels. As it turns out I was wrong. I found a topic on the Ubuntu forum in which several people claim they can. Trouble is, the posts are TEN YEARS OLD!

https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=657865&page=5

I am going to continue here until this topic raises the issue sufficiently (thanks guys). I hope to add information from everywhere.

In the last couple of days I looked into troubleshooting the CUPS printing system; but I am not aware of any tweaks that would help. I tried changing the printer driver. I tried hooking up the printer to USB, which worked but would not make the disk tray options available! I installed an older version of Acoustica CD Label Maker on my wife's Windows 7 machine and that worked just the way it's supposed to. I tried installing CD Label Maker on PlayOnLinux - but it couldn't find the blinking printer! Foiled at every turn.

I am contemplating "buying" yes, buying - commercial software to make this work. It galls me to do so. And, if a company can figure out how to make the print on disks feature work - then there has to be something in the default print setup that got screwed up along the line - probably because there wasn't enough feedback to the programmers (seeing how CDs and DVDs are obsolete now - yada, yada).

This worked at one time - - - and a commercial outfit has figured it out... humpf!

The commercial software is called TurboPrint from an outfit named ZEDOnet in Germany. They also market a very similar product named PrintFab for Windows and Mac. It appears they got started in business supplying printing support for the old Amiga computers. And for those who are wanting accurate printing using device profiles for photography and such this software is rather sophisticated.

http://www.zedonet.com/en_home_development.phtml

Waiting a few days to pull the trigger on this. Contributions to this topic are always welcome.

-=Ken=-

**GreyGeek** · Jun 14, 2018, 08:17 AM

One can run an AppImage by clicking on it OR one can use ark to expand the AppImage into its own folder. The latter method allows adding additional features, plugins, etc. In addition there is an AppImageUpdate that allows automatic updates of AppImages.

EDIT:
Before I'd buy the TurboPrint license key I'd check similar ppd's in CUPS to make sure they don't allow printing for your printer. IF you can't find any that work then I'd delete cups and buy the TurboPrint license key for $30 EU. Download and store the driver and key on two USB sticks for safe keeping before attempting to install it.

Sometimes you do what you gotta do. 15-20 years ago buying 3rd party drivers was common for sound, printing, ethernet, display, etc... On older devices (that have passed out of the "Window of compatibility", i.e., no longer included in the ISO file because of size limit considerations) an externally supported driver may still be necessary, and I wouldn't give a second thought to using one if I needed to. After all, I pay for Steam games & simulations, flight simulators, special math software, etc...

In fact, if Neon started charging $25 per version upgrade (14.04 --> 16.04 --> 18.04, etc...) I wouldn't even think twice about paying for it. I paid that for 20 consecutive upgrades of SuSE from 5.3 to when Novell bought them, via WindRiver's payment center. Ditto for Mandriva, until I switched to Kubuntu in 2009, which Shuttlesworth was giving away free in order to increase his market share.

**kenj70** · Jun 14, 2018, 10:51 AM

Hi GG,

I did not know you can expand an AppImage into it's own folder. I did not know about AppImageUpdate either. Good to know. I might as well be running the very latest Kdenlive.

I read about the PPDs in various documents but it looked to me like there is only one PPD per device. Perhaps once again I have gotten it wrong. Reminds me of a song. Still "learning" after all these years.

I see that you are not necessarily a Richard Stallman fan. The extra features and refinement in the TurboPrint utility may be worthwhile. I was just concerned about how it works, what it does to my existing printer facility and can I uninstall it without causing yet another headache. I didn't get the idea that TurboPrint removes CUPS or that I should remove it.

-=Ken=-

**kenj70** · Jun 14, 2018, 02:10 PM

Using Ark to extract file gives an error message:
Loading the archive /home/me/Downloads/Kdenlive-18.04.1b-x86_64.AppImage failed with the following error:
No suitable plugin found. Ark does not seem to support this file type.

**GreyGeek** · Jun 14, 2018, 02:30 PM

As far as I know TurboPrint does not remove cups but they may interfere with each other since both are printer drivers. That's why I recommend removing cups if you are going to install TurboPrint.

While a ppd is meant for the printer it was coded for, it is not unusual for a ppd of one printer to work OK for another printer of the same series. It can't hurt to give them a try.

Like many proprietary products TurboPrint will usually have an uninstall facility, if nothing more than "make uninstall". I usually install such apps from within the Download subdirectory and if they create a subdirectory I leave it there for as long as I am using the app. The source, if not the uninstall, is usually somewhere in that subdirectory. However, TurboPrint may give you specific instructions about how you should install it and if any competing apps need to be removed first.

As far as Richard Stallman goes, the FOSS movement owes that man a lot, but his time has passed, and so has his influence. Now he just argues about using "GNU-Linux" when everyone else merely says "Linux". That branding is the only thing left of his Hurd kernel and utilities.

The utils-linux package contains:

Code:

agetty          fsck.minix      mkfs.bfs        setpriv 

blkdiscard      fsfreeze        mkfs.cramfs     setsid 

blkid           fstab           mkfs.minix      setterm 

blockdev        fstrim          mkswap          sfdisk 

cal             getopt          more            su 

cfdisk          hexdump         mount           sulogin 

chcpu           hwclock         mountpoint      swaplabel 

chfn            ionice          namei           swapoff 

chrt            ipcmk           newgrp          swapon 

chsh            ipcrm           nologin         switch_root 

colcrt          ipcs            nsenter         tailf 

col             isosize         partx           taskset 

colrm           kill            pg              tunelp 

column          last            pivot_root      ul 

ctrlaltdel      ldattach        prlimit         umount 

ddpart          line            raw             unshare 

delpart         logger          readprofile     utmpdump 

dmesg           login           rename          uuidd 

eject           look            renice          uuidgen 

fallocate       losetup         reset           vipw 

fdformat        lsblk           resizepart      wall 

fdisk           lscpu           rev             wdctl 

findfs          lslocks         RTC Alarm       whereis 

findmnt         lslogins        runuser         wipefs 

flock           mcookie         script          write 

fsck            mesg            scriptreplay    zramctl 

fsck.cramfs     mkfs            setarch

How many of those did Stallman write? I have no clue, and I'm not going to take the time to look at the source code for each one to see who gets the credit. While many GUI's are just front ends to utils, many do their own thing without using a util in the background. When I was writing apps at work using QT4, 10-14 years ago, I always used the objects, methods and properties supplied by QT's API. Not once did I make a QT app that was a wrapper for a Linux utility.

I would wager that 95% of the people who now use Linux do not even know who Stallman is, and could probably not care less.

**SpecialEd** · Jun 14, 2018, 02:49 PM

Originally posted by GreyGeek View Post

>>>>>>
I would wager that 95% of the people who now use Linux do not even know who Stallman is, and could probably not care less.

I think we all owe a debt of gratitude to Richard Stallman and the FSF but... I didn't sign on for worship.

**GreyGeek** · Jun 14, 2018, 03:48 PM

Originally posted by kenj70 View Post

Using Ark to extract file gives an error message:
Loading the archive /home/me/Downloads/Kdenlive-18.04.1b-x86_64.AppImage failed with the following error:
No suitable plugin found. Ark does not seem to support this file type.

Ah, things have changed since I "opened" my AppImages. See:
https://github.com/AppImage/AppImage...ting-AppImages

**kenj70** · Jun 14, 2018, 06:54 PM

Yes, but...

In Konsole I ran kdenlive-18.04.1b-x86_64.AppImage --appimage-help and the system returned:

kdenlive-18.04.1b-x86_64.AppImage: command not found

<shrug> Nothing works for me...

Oh, except for the fact that I ran Kdenlive and all the problems I listed in post #6 have been fixed! Super.

-=Ken=-

BTW, I opened and crawled over my Canon PPD file and the print on disk media is fully supported. I was looking for anything unusual such as timing because the print job for disks quits within about two seconds of being acknowledged by the printer.

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The gLabels Print on CD/DVD Media Topic

[SOLVED] The gLabels Print on CD/DVD Media Topic

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