Re: basics of CUPS troubleshooting

[Mark Copper <mcopper@straitcity.com>]

On Tue, May 29, 2018 at 2:29 PM, Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk> wrote:

On Mon 28 May 2018 at 18:20:13 -0500, Mark Copper wrote:

> Having upgraded to Stretch, a file that I need to print no longer prints
> properly. (It did before.)
>
> I am sure the difficulty is so idiosyncratic no one here will have
> experienced it. So I'm not asking how to fix it specifically.  Rather I'm
> looking for advice how to isolate the difficulty, generally speaking.

What is offered in the printing section of the wiki could help.

Thanks for this. I was unaware.

The problem I'm seeing seems to be in the CUPS filter gstoraster. That is, all is well at the preceding step:

# /usr/sbin/cupsfilter -p /etc/cups/ppd/Zebra.ppd -m application/vnd.cups-pdf -o orientation-requested=3 tag_generator.pdf > out.pdf

Well, almost. It was necessary to include the "orientation-requested=3" option to keep the document from rotating.

But at the next step, the document is laid on its side no matter the orientation requested:

# /usr/sbin/cupsfilter -p /etc/cups/ppd/Zebra.ppd -m application/vnd.cups-raster  out.pdf > out.ras

Or, in more detail,

# pdfinfo out.pdf
Producer:       PDF::API2 2.023 [linux]
Tagged:         no
UserProperties: no
Suspects:       no
Form:           none
_javascript_:     no
Pages:          1
Encrypted:      no
Page size:      90 x 144 pts
Page rot:       0
File size:      14151 bytes
Optimized:      no
PDF version:    1.4

output of "/usr/sbin/cupsfilter -p /etc/cups/ppd/Zebra.ppd -m application/vnd.cups-raster  out.pdf > out.ras" to standard error says this:

DEBUG: argv[0]="cupsfilter"
DEBUG: argv[1]="1"
DEBUG: argv[2]="root"
DEBUG: argv[3]="out.pdf"
DEBUG: argv[4]="1"
DEBUG: argv[5]=""
DEBUG: argv[6]="out.pdf"
DEBUG: envp[0]="<CFProcessPath>"
DEBUG: envp[1]="CONTENT_TYPE=application/pdf"
DEBUG: envp[2]="CUPS_DATADIR=/usr/share/cups"
DEBUG: envp[3]="CUPS_FONTPATH=/usr/share/cups/fonts"
DEBUG: envp[4]="CUPS_SERVERBIN=/usr/lib/cups"
DEBUG: envp[5]="CUPS_SERVERROOT=/etc/cups"
DEBUG: envp[6]="LANG=en_US.UTF8"
DEBUG: envp[7]="PATH=/usr/lib/cups/filter:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/bin:/usr/bin"
DEBUG: envp[8]="PPD=/etc/cups/ppd/Zebra.ppd"
DEBUG: envp[9]="PRINTER_INFO=cupsfilter"
DEBUG: envp[10]="PRINTER_LOCATION=Unknown"
DEBUG: envp[11]="PRINTER=cupsfilter"
DEBUG: envp[12]="RIP_MAX_CACHE=128m"
DEBUG: envp[13]="USER=root"
DEBUG: envp[14]="CHARSET=utf-8"
DEBUG: envp[15]="FINAL_CONTENT_TYPE=application/vnd.cups-raster"
INFO: pdftopdf (PID 8482) started.
INFO: gstoraster (PID 8483) started.
DEBUG: OUTFORMAT="(null)", so output format will be CUPS/PWG Raster
DEBUG: pdftopdf: Last filter determined by the PPD: rastertolabel; FINAL_CONTENT_TYPE: application/vnd.cups-raster => pdftopdf will not log pages in page_log.
DEBUG: Color Manager: Calibration Mode/Off
DEBUG: Calling FindDeviceById(cups-cupsfilter)
DEBUG: Failed to send: org.freedesktop.ColorManager.NotFound:device id 'cups-cupsfilter' does not exist
DEBUG: Failed to get find device cups-cupsfilter
DEBUG: Calling FindDeviceById(cups-cupsfilter)
DEBUG: Failed to send: org.freedesktop.ColorManager.NotFound:device id 'cups-cupsfilter' does not exist
DEBUG: Failed to get device cups-cupsfilter
INFO: Color Manager: no profiles specified in PPD
DEBUG: Color Manager: ICC Profile: None
DEBUG: Ghostscript using Any-Part-of-Pixel method to fill paths.
DEBUG: Ghostscript command line: gs -dQUIET -dPARANOIDSAFER -dNOPAUSE -dBATCH -dNOINTERPOLATE -dNOMEDIAATTRS -sstdout=%stderr -sOutputFile=%stdout -sDEVICE=cups -dAdvanceDistance=1000 -r300x300 -dDEVICEWIDTHPOINTS=90 -dDEVICEHEIGHTPOINTS=162 -dcupsBitsPerColor=1 -dcupsColorOrder=0 -dcupsColorSpace=3 -dcupsCompression=-1 -dcupsRowStep=200 -scupsPageSizeName=w90h162 -I/usr/share/cups/fonts -c '<</.HWMargins[0.000000 0.000000 0.000000 0.000000] /Margins[0 0]>>setpagedevice' -f -_
DEBUG: envp[0]="<CFProcessPath>"
DEBUG: envp[1]="CONTENT_TYPE=application/pdf"
DEBUG: envp[2]="CUPS_DATADIR=/usr/share/cups"
DEBUG: envp[3]="CUPS_FONTPATH=/usr/share/cups/fonts"
DEBUG: envp[4]="CUPS_SERVERBIN=/usr/lib/cups"
DEBUG: envp[5]="CUPS_SERVERROOT=/etc/cups"
DEBUG: envp[6]="LANG=en_US.UTF8"
DEBUG: envp[7]="PATH=/usr/lib/cups/filter:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/bin:/usr/bin"
DEBUG: envp[8]="PPD=/etc/cups/ppd/Zebra.ppd"
DEBUG: envp[9]="PRINTER_INFO=cupsfilter"
DEBUG: envp[10]="PRINTER_LOCATION=Unknown"
DEBUG: envp[11]="PRINTER=cupsfilter"
DEBUG: envp[12]="RIP_MAX_CACHE=128m"
DEBUG: envp[13]="USER=root"
DEBUG: envp[14]="CHARSET=utf-8"
DEBUG: envp[15]="FINAL_CONTENT_TYPE=application/vnd.cups-raster"
INFO: pdftopdf (PID 8482) exited with no errors.
INFO: Start rendering...
INFO: Processing page 1...
INFO: Processing page 2...
INFO: Rendering completed
INFO: gstoraster (PID 8483) exited with no errors.

Note that Ghostscript is called with page size 90 by 162. But when one views the output with rasterview,

CUPS Raster Page Attributes:

MediaClass = ""
MediaColor = ""
MediaType = ""
OutputType = ""
AdvanceDistance = 1000
AdvanceMedia = 0
Collate = 0
CutMedia = 0
Duplex = 0
HWResolution = [ 300 300 ]
ImagingBoundingBox = [ 0 0 144 90 ]
InsertSheet = 0
Jog = 0
LeadingEdge = 0
Margins = [ 0 0 ]
ManualFeed = 0
MediaPosition = 0
MediaWeight = 0
MirrorPrint = 0
NegativePrint = 0
NumCopies = 1
Orientation = 0
OutputFaceUp = 0
PageSize = [ 144 90 ]
Separations = 0
TraySwitch = 0
Tumble = 0
cupsWidth = 600
cupsHeight = 375
cupsMediaType = 0
cupsBitsPerColor = 1
cupsBitsPerPixel = 1
cupsBytesPerLine = 75
cupsColorOrder = CUPS_ORDER_CHUNKED
cupsColorSpace = CUPS_CSPACE_K
cupsCompression = -1
cupsRowCount = 0
cupsRowFeed = 0
cupsRowStep = 200
cupsNumColors = 1
cupsBorderlessScalingFactor = 1.000000
cupsPageSize = [ 144.000000 90.000000 ]
cupsImagingBBox = [ 0.000000 0.000000 144.000000 90.000000 ]
cupsInteger1 = 0
cupsInteger2 = 0
cupsInteger3 = 0
cupsInteger4 = 0
cupsInteger5 = 0
cupsInteger6 = 0
cupsInteger7 = 0
cupsInteger8 = 0
cupsInteger9 = 0
cupsInteger10 = 0
cupsInteger11 = 0
cupsInteger12 = 0
cupsInteger13 = 0
cupsInteger14 = 0
cupsInteger15 = 0
cupsInteger16 = 0
cupsReal1 = 0.000000
cupsReal2 = 0.000000
cupsReal3 = 0.000000
cupsReal4 = 0.000000
cupsReal5 = 0.000000
cupsReal6 = 0.000000
cupsReal7 = 0.000000
cupsReal8 = 0.000000
cupsReal9 = 0.000000
cupsReal10 = 0.000000
cupsReal11 = 0.000000
cupsReal12 = 0.000000
cupsReal13 = 0.000000
cupsReal14 = 0.000000
cupsReal15 = 0.000000
cupsReal16 = 0.000000
cupsString1 = ""
cupsString2 = ""
cupsString3 = ""
cupsString4 = ""
cupsString5 = ""
cupsString6 = ""
cupsString7 = ""
cupsString8 = ""
cupsString9 = ""
cupsString10 = ""
cupsString11 = ""
cupsString12 = ""
cupsString13 = ""
cupsString14 = ""
cupsString15 = ""
cupsString16 = ""
cupsMarkerType = ""
cupsRenderingIntent = ""
cupsPageSizeName = "w90h162"

Note that width and height were transposed.

ARGH!