OOo Printer Setup Frustration

["Thomas H. George" <xyz@spininternet.com>]

I have two boxes both using a kernel completed from kernel-source-2.4.26 
and both using CUPS and openoffice.org.

Both have the latest dist-upgrade from testing.

On both I have edited /etc/openoffice/openoffice.conf and have enabled 
export SAL_DISABLE_CUPS=1.

One box finds its attached printer, allows me to set the paper size and 
prints correctly.

The other box does not find its attached printer and insists on using a 
generic printer which only spits out dozens of blank pages.  If, 
instead, I comment out export SAL_DISABLE_CUPS=1  openoffice finds the 
attached printer but it is not possible to set the paper size and 
nothing prints.

CUPS printing works perfectly on both boxes for all other applications.

I am at a loss to find the difference between the two systems.

Tom George