[Pkg-cups-devel] Bug#542101: can't configure parallel printer

[Roderich Schupp]

Package: cups
Version: 1.3.11-1+b1
Severity: important

I have an old Samsung laser printer connected to the parallel port.
When I try to add it to cups I only get "unknown printer", e.g.

root at gaia:~# /usr/lib/cups/backend/parallel 
direct parallel:/dev/lp0 "Unknown" "LPT #1"

However, the kernel has the necessary information:

root at gaia:~# cat /proc/sys/dev/parport/parport0/autoprobe
CLASS:PRINTER;
MODEL:ML-5000A;
MANUFACTURER:Samsung;
COMMAND SET:PCL5E;

Running the parallel backend under strace shows:

root at gaia:~# strace /usr/lib/cups/backend/parallel 
....
access("/dev/parallel/", F_OK)          = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
access("/dev/printers/", F_OK)          = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/dev/lp0", O_RDWR|O_EXCL|O_LARGEFILE) = 3
ioctl(3, SNDCTL_DSP_SYNC, 0xbfb4cc2c)   = -1 EINVAL (Invalid argument)
open("/dev/parport0", O_RDWR|O_NOCTTY|O_LARGEFILE) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
fstat64(1, {st_mode=S_IFCHR|0620, st_rdev=makedev(136, 1), ...}) = 0
mmap2(NULL, 4096, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_ANONYMOUS, -1, 0) = 0xb7f44000
write(1, "direct parallel:/dev/lp0 \"Unknow"..., 44direct parallel:/dev/lp0 "Unknown" "LPT #1"
) = 44
close(3)                    

This ioctl() on /dev/lp0 is totally bogus. AFAICT Linux 2.6.30  doesn't have any ioctl
at all to get the IEEE 1284 "device id" information. The only available method is to
read the above /proc/sys information.



-- System Information:
Debian Release: squeeze/sid
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (500, 'unstable'), (500, 'testing')
Architecture: i386 (i686)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.30.4 (SMP w/2 CPU cores; PREEMPT)
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash

Versions of packages cups depends on:
ii  adduser                3.110             add and remove users and groups
ii  bc                     1.06.94-3.1       The GNU bc arbitrary precision cal
ii  cups-client            1.3.11-1+b1       Common UNIX Printing System(tm) - 
ii  cups-common            1.3.11-1          Common UNIX Printing System(tm) - 
ii  debconf [debconf-2.0]  1.5.27            Debian configuration management sy
ii  ghostscript            8.70~dfsg-2       The GPL Ghostscript PostScript/PDF
ii  libavahi-compat-libdns 0.6.25-1          Avahi Apple Bonjour compatibility 
ii  libc6                  2.9-25            GNU C Library: Shared libraries
ii  libcups2               1.3.11-1+b1       Common UNIX Printing System(tm) - 
ii  libcupsimage2          1.3.11-1+b1       Common UNIX Printing System(tm) - 
ii  libdbus-1-3            1.2.16-2          simple interprocess messaging syst
ii  libgcc1                1:4.4.1-2         GCC support library
ii  libgnutls26            2.8.3-1           the GNU TLS library - runtime libr
ii  libgssapi-krb5-2       1.7dfsg~beta3-1   MIT Kerberos runtime libraries - k
ii  libijs-0.35            0.35-7            IJS raster image transport protoco
ii  libkrb5-3              1.7dfsg~beta3-1   MIT Kerberos runtime libraries
ii  libldap-2.4-2          2.4.17-1          OpenLDAP libraries
ii  libpam0g               1.0.1-10          Pluggable Authentication Modules l
ii  libpaper1              1.1.23+nmu1       library for handling paper charact
ii  libpoppler4            0.10.6-1          PDF rendering library
ii  libslp1                1.2.1-7.6         OpenSLP libraries
ii  libstdc++6             4.4.1-2           The GNU Standard C++ Library v3
ii  lsb-base               3.2-23            Linux Standard Base 3.2 init scrip
ii  perl-modules           5.10.0-25         Core Perl modules
ii  poppler-utils [xpdf-ut 0.10.6-1          PDF utilitites (based on libpopple
ii  procps                 1:3.2.8-1         /proc file system utilities
ii  ssl-cert               1.0.23            simple debconf wrapper for OpenSSL
ii  ttf-freefont           20090104-4        Freefont Serif, Sans and Mono True
ii  zlib1g                 1:1.2.3.3.dfsg-15 compression library - runtime

Versions of packages cups recommends:
pn  avahi-utils               <none>         (no description available)
pn  cups-driver-gutenprint    <none>         (no description available)
ii  foomatic-filters          4.0-20090509-1 OpenPrinting printer support - fil
pn  ghostscript-cups          <none>         (no description available)
ii  smbclient                 2:3.4.0-2+b1   command-line SMB/CIFS clients for 

Versions of packages cups suggests:
ii  cups-bsd                  1.3.11-1+b1    Common UNIX Printing System(tm) - 
ii  cups-pdf                  2.5.0-4        PDF printer for CUPS
ii  foomatic-db               20090616-1     OpenPrinting printer support - dat
ii  foomatic-db-engine        4.0-20090509-2 OpenPrinting printer support - pro
ii  hplip                     3.9.4b-1       HP Linux Printing and Imaging Syst
pn  xpdf-korean | xpdf-japane <none>         (no description available)

-- debconf information:
  cupsys/raw-print: true
  cupsys/backend: ipp, lpd, parallel, scsi, serial, socket, usb, snmp, dnssd