[26337] in Athena Bugs
Re: sun4 9.3.18: Athena Printing
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Camilla R Fox)
Wed Feb 2 20:34:25 2005
Message-Id: <200502030133.j131XhoF008701@red-herring.mit.edu>
To: "Roger A. Roach" <rar@mit.edu>
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Mon, 31 Jan 2005 09:03:55 EST."
<200501311403.j0VE3tkP003804@rar.mit.edu>
Date: Wed, 02 Feb 2005 20:33:43 -0500
From: Camilla R Fox <cfox@mit.edu>
cc: bugs@mit.edu
Reply-To: bugs@mit.edu
Errors-To: bugs-bounces@mit.edu
Sorry about the delay in getting back to you on this one; it got buried
behind the usual pile of Monday email.
I don't think I have quite enough information to figure out what
happened, but I did look up the accounting logs on the print server, to
find the jobs that correspond to the jobs cited here. (I've quoted the
full logs but they're a little hairy, so I'll try to interpret.)
> rar.mit.edu(8:46am)% lpq -P W91C
> Printer: w91c@arbor-eater 'HP4500C W91-230'
> Queue: no printable jobs in queue
> Status: job 'rar@Roach-PBG4+905' removed at 15:52:08.749
> Filter_status: done at 15:52:08.729
It looks like this lpq was run before any jobs were sent to the print
server, first thing Monday morning. The 15:52 timestamp is for a job
printed on Saturday afternoon.
jobstart -HRoach-PBG4.local -nrar -Pw91c -kcfA905Roach-PBG4.local -b989164 -t2005-01-29-13:12:02.000
start -q15620 -p80361 -t2005-01-29-13:12:04.080 -Arar@Roach-PBG4+905 -Fl -HRoach -PBG4.local -JKim Komando Show Electronic Newsletter -- January 29, 2005 -Pw91c -QW91C -a/var/spool/printer/w91c/w91c-acct -d/var/spool/printer/w91c -edfA905Roach-PBG4.local -fKim Komando Show Electronic Newsletter -- January 29, 2005 -hRoach-PBG4.local -j905 -kcfA905Roach-PBG4.local -l66 -nrar -sstatus -w80 -x0 -y0 /var/spool/printer/w91c/w91c-acct
end -b0 -T9606 -q15620 -p80361 -t2005-01-29-15:52:08.728 -Arar@Roach-PBG4+905 -Fl -HRoach-PBG4.local -JKim Komando Show Electronic Newsletter -- January 29, 2005 -Pw91c -QW91C -a/var/spool/printer/w91c/w91c-acct -d/var/spool/printer/w91c -e dfA905Roach-PBG4.local -fKim Komando Show Electronic Newsletter -- January 29, 2005 -hRoach-PBG4.local -j905 -kcfA905Roach-PBG4.local -l66 -nrar -sstatus -w80 -x0 -y0 /var/spool/printer/w91c/w91c-acct
jobend -HRoach-PBG4.local -nrar -Pw91c -kcfA905Roach-PBG4.local -b989164 -t2005-01-29-15:52:08.000
The '-p80361' here is the hardware page count, and the fact that it
doesn't change between the "start" and "end" logs does indicate a
problem. Also indicating the problem, we have the job starting at 13:12
and ending at 15:52.
> rar.mit.edu(8:56am)% lpq -P W91C
> Printer: w91c@arbor-eater 'HP4500C W91-230'
> Queue: no printable jobs in queue
> Status: job 'rar@RARPB+32' removed at 08:57:21.658
> Filter_status: done at 08:57:21.639
jobstart -HRARPB.MIT.EDU -nrar -Pw91c -kcfA032RARPB.MIT.EDU -b214982 -t2005-01-31-08:57:17.000
start -q19925 -p80362 -t2005-01-31-08:57:19.166 -Arar@RARPB+32 -Fl -HRARPB.MIT.EDU -JYour weekly Gartner alerts for the week ending 30 January 2005 -Pw91c -QW91C -a/var/spool/printer/w91c/w91c-acct -d/var/spool/printer/w91c -edfA032RARPB.MIT.EDU -fYour weekly Gartner alerts for the week ending 30 January 2005 -hRARPB.MIT.EDU -j032 -kcfA032RARPB.MIT.EDU -l66 -nrar -sstatus -w80 -x0 -y0 /var/spool/printer/w91c/w91c-acct
end -b0 -T4 -q19925 -p80362 -t2005-01-31-08:57:21.638 -Arar@RARPB+32 -Fl -HRARPB.MIT.EDU -JYour weekly Gartner alerts for the week ending 30 January 2005 -Pw91c -QW91C -a/var/spool/printer/w91c/w91c-acct -d/var/spool/printer/w91c -edfA032RARPB.MIT.EDU -fYour weekly Gartner alerts for the week ending 30 January 2005 -hRARPB.MIT.EDU -j032 -kcfA032RARPB.MIT.EDU -l66 -nrar -sstatus -w80 -x0 -y0 /var/spool/printer/w91c/w91c-acct
jobend -HRARPB.MIT.EDU -nrar -Pw91c -kcfA032RARPB.MIT.EDU -b214982 -t2005-01-31-08:57:21.000
This job seems to start and end almost at the same time; no sitting
there for hours, but also no increment to the page count (though one
page between the previous log and now, which may be a header page).
In each case, the "end" log indicates that the printer eventually
returned a successful status. A type of job I'd expect to see cause
this kind of behavior is one whose postscript source is malformed,
perhaps lacking a showpage.
Things you can check:
* If this is a PDF document, printed from acroread, make sure that
"language level 2" is selected in the bottom right area of the print
dialogue box.
* If this was given to you as a PostScript or EPS file, and it views
acceptably with 'gs' or 'gv' you might have luck using a utility such
as 'ps2ps' to rewrite it (this will use the ghostscript engine to
interpret the file, then write out postscript from the result).
(It's also known that some PDF documents produce "bad" PostScript
when converted with the usual tools; printing to PostScript from
Acroread, then handling the document as a bad PostScript document
can be appropriate.)
* PostScript that's been generated on windows often comes out best if
you can use the Apple LaserWriter PostScript driver, rather than one
that's specific to a particular model of HP.
It would also be helpful to know what the panel of the printer indicated
while it was working on the job on Saturday afternoon; a job producing
no output quickly like Monday morning's, coupled with the printer being
stuck in power saving mode until poked, would be plausible, as would a
job that sucked down memory on the printer until the printer gave up.
Otherwise, we're often stuck blaming the application that created
the document (and the document itself). If you want me to examine a
particular example, do let me know.
Camilla Fox
IS&T Server Operations
