Ubuntu
cups package

lpr prints text too large, can only fit 47 characters per line

Bug #485665 reported by akirashinigami on 2009-11-20

This bug report is a duplicate of: Bug #447961: Printer autoconfigured, but LPR prints with to wide font/cpi setting. Edit Remove

This bug affects 4 people

Affects		Status	Importance	Assigned to	Milestone
	cups (Ubuntu)	Confirmed	Undecided	Unassigned

Bug Description

Binary package hint: cups

Release: Ubuntu 9.10

cups version 1.4.1-5ubuntu2.1

I expected lpr to print 80 characters per line, but it only prints 47 (plus a small sliver of the next character) per line. Also, lines still wrap after the 80th character, but only the first 47 characters are printed on the first line.

To test the problem, I tried printing /etc/passwd. My passwd file contains the line (without the quotes)
"speech-dispatcher:x:108:29:Speech Dispatcher,,,:/var/run/speech-dispatcher:/bin/sh".

On paper, the line is printed as (without the quotes)
"speech-dispatcher:x:108:29:Speech Dispatcher,,,"
"sh"

I have attached the diagnostic output from the printer troubleshooting dialog.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
Date: Fri Nov 20 00:59:03 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 9.10 "Karmic Koala" - Release i386 (20091028.5)
Lpstat: device for Brother-HL-5280DW: parallel:/dev/lp0
MachineType: Dell Computer Corporation Dimension 4550
Package: cups 1.4.1-5ubuntu2.1
Papersize: letter
PpdFiles: Brother-HL-5280DW: Brother HL5280DW for CUPS
ProcCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-14-generic root=UUID=e0714685-7834-4039-bd78-075967101856 ro quiet splash
ProcEnviron:
LANG=en_US.UTF-8
SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-14.48-generic
SourcePackage: cups
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-14-generic i686
dmi.bios.date: 09/23/2003
dmi.bios.vendor: Dell Computer Corporation
dmi.bios.version: A08
dmi.board.name: 0M0321
dmi.board.vendor: Dell Computer Corp.
dmi.chassis.type: 6
dmi.chassis.vendor: Dell Computer Corporation
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnDellComputerCorporation:bvrA08:bd09/23/2003:svnDellComputerCorporation:pnDimension4550:pvr:rvnDellComputerCorp.:rn0M0321:rvr:cvnDellComputerCorporation:ct6:cvr:
dmi.product.name: Dimension 4550
dmi.sys.vendor: Dell Computer Corporation

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Revision history for this message

akirashinigami (akirashinigami) wrote on 2009-11-20:

Printer troubleshooting diagnostic output Edit (78.4 KiB, text/plain)
BootDmesg.txt Edit (36.8 KiB, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
CupsErrorLog.txt Edit (100.5 KiB, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
CurrentDmesg.txt Edit (2.6 KiB, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
Dependencies.txt Edit (2.5 KiB, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
Locale.txt Edit (317 bytes, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
Lspci.txt Edit (7.8 KiB, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
Lsusb.txt Edit (448 bytes, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
PrintingPackages.txt Edit (703 bytes, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
ProcCpuinfo.txt Edit (479 bytes, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
ProcInterrupts.txt Edit (1.2 KiB, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
ProcModules.txt Edit (2.0 KiB, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
UdevDb.txt Edit (92.5 KiB, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
UdevLog.txt Edit (196.1 KiB, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
XsessionErrors.txt Edit (1.8 KiB, text/plain; charset="utf-8")

Revision history for this message

Achim Bohnet (allee) wrote on 2009-11-25:

I can confirm the bug, with the same ppd on dapper, hardy, jaunty, karmic:

CUPS_SERVER=cups-karmic lpr .profile

print 48 chars per / line, 49-79 are cut off, 80- chare wrapped to the next line.

CUPS_SERVER=cups-jaunty lpr .profile

print 79 char/line, 80+ chars wrapped to next line. That how cups worked
in dapper, feisty, hardy, jaunty. But not in karmic.

My karmic installation is a plain server install without any tasks selected.
After installation I've added

Revision history for this message

Achim Bohnet (allee) wrote on 2009-11-25:

... cups.

aptitude search ~tprint-server shows that all listed pkgs are installed expect:

p openprinting-ppds - OpenPrinting printer support - PostScript PPD files
p openprinting-ppds-extra - OpenPrinting printer support - PostScript PPD files

I see the bug on the Postscript Printers: HP CLJ 4650, HP CLJ 4700 and Kyocera FS-9120

Revision history for this message

chrisisbd (chris-isbd) wrote on 2009-12-04:

I got in touch with the CUPS developers and I have a quick and nasty
workaround which is to comment out the "text/plain" line in
/usr/share/cups/mime/texttopdf.convs.

What the CUPS developer said to me was (with some context from the
exchange) :-

    >>> D [04/Dec/2009:17:42:00 +0000] PID 2650 (/usr/lib/cups/filter/tex>
    >>
    >> This is the problem. Please report this to the Ubuntu folks - they
    need to fix their text f ilter.
    >>
    > Is there a workaround I can apply to fix the immediate problem? (I'm
    > happy to edit config files, change scripts and even compile stuff if
    > necessary)

Look for a *.convs file in /usr/share/cups/mime or /etc/cups that has
"texttopdf" in it. Comment out any lines that refer to this filter and>

> ... and what do I report to the Ubuntu people exactly, I can hardly
> just copy the above line to them! :-)

They need to support the standard CUPS text options documented here:

http://www.cups.org/documentation.php/options.php

So the problem is a filter misconfiguration.

Revision history for this message

Florian Diesch (diesch) wrote on 2009-12-04:

Thanks for reporting this bug and any supporting documentation. Since this bug has enough information provided for a developer to begin work, I'm going to mark it as confirmed and let them handle it from here. Thanks for taking the time to make Ubuntu better!

Changed in cups (Ubuntu):
status:	New → Confirmed

Revision history for this message

Stew Ellis (ellis-kettering) wrote on 2010-02-03:

This same bug was reported 2 weeks earlier as bug # 474962. There they reported it as printing 6 CPI (47/80=.875). This report is much more thorough. It still does not get at the fundamental problem which is why is a rasterizer being called at all for printers such as my Lexmark or the Brother above, which are both capapble of printing text using PCL without any rasterization. I tried to access the cups links above that are supposed to explain the proper use of filtering, but I keep getting blank pages in my browser (firefox 3.5.7). Going directly to cups.org server and drilling down keeps leading me to .php pages that are invisible in the browser and in the page source view from the browser as well.

I have posted on the other bug report pointing people to this one since the discussion here is more complete.

For the time being I guess I will just rename texttopdf.convs to texttopdf.convs-fubar. I still think it would be better to short-circuit the process before it gets there.