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OS/2 & eCS USB HID driver incomplete

Started by demetrioussharpe, 2010.11.23, 04:48:42

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Paul Smedley

Quote from: DougB on 2010.11.25, 08:56:33
CUPS is addressing the printer problem, but is far from satisfactory, so far.

I'd like to challenge the above statement.  Sure CUPS on OS/2 could use with some tools to make it easier to configure, but the bulk of the problems lie with the non-standards compliant POS postscript driver that we have, that generates bad code, and won't import many ppd files without manual intervention.

The core backend of CUPS on OS/2 is pretty solid (IMHO). 

MANY people are using CUPS on OS/2 to print to printers that are not supported by native OS/2 printer drivers, and even with printers that do have native OS/2 printer drivers as CUPS produces better output.

If you have any specific problems that make it "far from satisfactory" feel free to report them via http://mantis.smedley.info or the ecups newsgroup.

DougB

QuoteIf you have any specific problems that make it "far from satisfactory" feel free to report them

To be quite honest, I have been ignoring the eCups problems, since about the middle of June, and I have been using the older OMNI driver with my Canon i960 printer. I will need to find some time to document what I am seeing, and then I will submit it to your Mantis bug tracker (probably won't be immediately).

FWIW, the problem seems to be mostly in the lack of a PPD file for the device, and I have never found any satisfactory alternate that will work, or anything that describes the contents of a PPD file so I can do some intelligent tinkering. The OMNI driver supports the printer using the Canon i850 driver, so I tried the i850 PPD file (and a few others), but it doesn't work properly.

Paul Smedley

Quote from: DougB on 2010.11.27, 22:37:34
QuoteIf you have any specific problems that make it "far from satisfactory" feel free to report them

To be quite honest, I have been ignoring the eCups problems, since about the middle of June, and I have been using the older OMNI driver with my Canon i960 printer. I will need to find some time to document what I am seeing, and then I will submit it to your Mantis bug tracker (probably won't be immediately).

FWIW, the problem seems to be mostly in the lack of a PPD file for the device, and I have never found any satisfactory alternate that will work, or anything that describes the contents of a PPD file so I can do some intelligent tinkering. The OMNI driver supports the printer using the Canon i850 driver, so I tried the i850 PPD file (and a few others), but it doesn't work properly.

So let me get this straight, your specific printer is not supported by Gutenprint (which would be the same on linux), so you tried another model (which didn't work), and that makes CUPS on OS/2 "far from satisfactory"

DougB

I
QuoteSo let me get this straight, your specific printer is not supported by Gutenprint (which would be the same on linux), so you tried another model (which didn't work), and that makes CUPS on OS/2 "far from satisfactory"

It is far from satisfactory that eCS does not have support for ALL printers. Cups is a good step forward, but that doesn't make printing support in eCS satisfactory.

I also tried Cups with my brother's printer, a Canon Pixma MP360, if I remember correctly (that was early June). It didn't work either, and there were a couple of PPD files for that one. I won't be able to try that one again, until sometime late next spring. Again, I think the problem is in the PPD file, but I don't know where to find the information about what is in those things.

Actually, in both cases "doesn't work" is probably misleading (and it is certainly an incomplete description). They will both print, but not 100% correctly. The i960 seems to have no control over where the colors are printed (yellow specifically), and the MP360 prints horizontal okay, but vertical is twice the size that it should be.

Pete

Hi Doug

Wouldn't it be wonderful if manufacturers provided drivers for their hardware for all operating systems. The fact of life is that only Windows is supported with a limited amount of *nix support sometimes. It seems like Mac bought CUPS in order to provide printing support for OS X.

I've been having a "Google" to see what linux users use to get their i960 printers working. I did find an i960.ppd file but on inspection it turns out to be a bjc_8200 ppd file  http://launchpadlibrarian.net/30922153/i960.ppd

A few linux forums also suggest the BJC-8200 is the closest match so suggest you try that with eCUPS sometime.

Information about PPD files can be found by following the links starting with http://localhost:631/ and clicking the PPD API link.

Have Fun  :-)

Pete





demetrioussharpe

Quote from: Pete on 2010.11.28, 21:00:55
Information about PPD files can be found by following the links starting with http://localhost:631/ and clicking the PPD API link.

localhost???
The difference between what COULD be achieved & what IS achieved
is directly relational to what you COULD be doing & what you ARE doing!

RobertM

Quote from: demetrioussharpe on 2010.11.28, 21:03:05
Quote from: Pete on 2010.11.28, 21:00:55
Information about PPD files can be found by following the links starting with http://localhost:631/ and clicking the PPD API link.

localhost???

Correct. That will bring you to the CUPS server running on your machine - assuming you have such running.


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Kirk's 5 Year Mission Continues at:
Star Trek New Voyages
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DougB

QuoteWouldn't it be wonderful if manufacturers provided drivers for their hardware for all operating systems.

Yes, it would...

QuoteInformation about PPD files can be found by following the links starting with http://localhost:631/ and clicking the PPD API link.

Hmmm. Having a quick look at what I have installed, I don't see anything that is useful. Perhaps there is a newer version of Cups available (as I said, I haven't paid any attention to that since sometime in June), or I need to do more reading (likely).

Pete

Hi Doug

I'm using cups1.4.5 which has a different interface look to the cups1.3.x builds and the Developer links are on the right of the page.

I do seem to recall Developer links somewhere in the cups1.3.x interface but seem to also recall the link to http://www.cups.org/ is on the main page. That url also lists Developer links; you probably want to look at the Developing Raster Printer Drivers link.

Regards

Pete

DougB

I found the link, and I found the update. Something has gone seriously wrong with what I had setup, so I will need to uninstall the whole thing, and start over. This may take a few days

Thanks...

Pete

Hi Doug


There are various pitfalls to upgrading the ecups printing system which can cause some problems. The below are based on my personal experiences.


Upgrading cups

When I upgraded(?) from cups1.3.11 to cups1.4.4 I could not print anything with the existing settings. The cups browser interface showed the job getting stuck at printing page 1, 3%. I was using lpd as the connection.

I then decided to try and find out what the socket connection was and if it would work. After a lot of faffing around trying different things it did. Here is the "faffing around" bit:

Kill the cupsd.exe
Delete these files *.ipp?, *.pwg?, ppds.dat from \cups\var\cache\cups\
Restart cupsd.exe
Use the browser interface to Modify Printer to use the socket connection; also reselect the printer driver.

My printer hangs off the print server built into my router. No idea if it will work with a printer plugged into a local LPT port but could be worth a try.


Upgrading ghostscript

I installed gs9.0, modified \cups\lib\cups\filter\pstoraster to point to gs9.0 and did a 2 page test print from OpenOffice. The 2nd page printed has lines printed in the margins, header and footer areas.

I reset pstoraster to point to gs8.71 as that works fine.

So, current recommendation is to *not* use gs9.0


Upgrading gutenprint

As gutenprint contains a lot of the PPD files used by cups installing an upgrade can be a pain: When printing the test page from the cups browser interface an error is generated and print fails due to the new gutenprint PPD file not matching the cups PPD file in use for the printer - the PPD file in use is stored in \cups\etc\cups\ppd

I resolved this by using the browser interface to Modify Printer. The only change made is to re-select the required printer driver from the dropdown list - do *not* accept the highlighted option of current printer driver. This updates the PPD file in \cups\etc\cups\ppd


Hope the above is of help to anyone trying to upgrade to the latest cups related packages.

Pete


DougB

Hi Pete.

So far,  got the old CUPS cleaned out (including Gutenprint and GjostScript). Then, I installed with eCUPS003.wpi. That seems to have got me back where I was when I tried it earlier. I then tried the suggested PPD for the i960. It prints, as it did before, but the print is in the upper left quarter of the page, at 1/4 size. That was as far as I got.

I will save what you wrote, for when I find more time to play with it. Thanks...

DougB

I finally found some time to play with this.

The i960 PPD always results in only one quarter page printing - no good.

So, I select the i850 from gutenprint (I use the i850 driver from the OMNI driver, with good results). At least that prints full page. The problem is that the colors, that should be in the color wheel, are about 3 times wider than they should be.

I then updated to CUPS 1.4.4. Now, I can't do much of anything, because it wants a user ID and password. What does it want? I tried the IDs and passwords, that I use with SAMBA, but it won't accept that. I don't know of any other passwords that might be on my system.

klipp

Hi Doug, I've had the same problems as you seem to be having with CUPS 1.4.4 on three different machines, these same problems (as well as server failures, and locking up localhost) are also there using CUPS 1.4.5. However Cups 1.3.11 has been "Rock Solid" from the first day I started using it. BUT other people seem to be using these newer versions without problems!
  Not much help here, but a little more info for you to digest.

klipp
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David McKenna

Doug,

  Try changing print resolution and see if it helps. I have been trying Alex T's psPrint package and have a similar issue where setting to 600x600 resolution prints 1/4 size. Only 300x300 prints proper size. It's a totally different printer (HP DeskJet 990C) though so may not apply to your situation.

  Otherwise CUPs 1.4.5, Ghostscript 8.71 and Gutenprint 5.2.6 works fine here using the Socket:// backend. I found that unzipping CUPS 1.4.x over 1.3.11 causes problems. I had to delete the 1.3.11 CUPS tree, then install 1.4.5 (which means installing Gutenprint again too). Like Pete, I found GhostScript 9.00 has problems, so I stick to 8.71 for now.

  The i960 ppd linked is really just a Gutenprint Canon BJC-8200 ppd. Have you tried installing the BJC-8200 directly from the CUPS web interface?

Dave McKenna