Re: Get Rid of Messed Print Jobs

[Sjoerd Hiemstra <shiems146@kpnplanet.nl>]

David Baron wrote:
> This is a problem we have all had, I think. Something goes wrong in a
> print job, paper jam or whatever. Instead of the printout, one will
> now get raw data numbers and stuff. So one turns off the printer and
> removes the job from the queue. Problem is that as soon as the
> printer is turned on, the garbage continues. Short of rebooting,
> there seems no way to stop the beast. Restarting cupsd does not help.
> 
> Any ideas on how to get it cleaned out without a hard reboot?

To terminate all processes still using the printer device, even after
deleting the job from the queue, use this command:

fuser -k /dev/lp0        for a printer on the first parallel port, or
fuser -k /dev/usb/lp0    for the first usb printer.

I just never needed this in Debian yet, so I can only confirm that it
works well in other distros.