Re: Printing problem/Apple bug? - 10.4.10, x11 and HP/Xerox

Hi Marilyn,

I think I've come across something like your problem before. My
department also runs a mixed Xerox/HP printing environment, and we
had some conflicts with the Xerox software that bleeded over to the
HP. In our case, a print request would lock the client in the print
dialog box and the blue Print command refused to respond. Sometimes
the application would crash, but I don't recall it ever taking down
the entire system.

It was a few years ago and I'm going from memory here, but I fixed
everything by erasing everything, I believe, in this directory:

        Library/Printers/Xerox/filter/

Make a backup and give that a try.

David

On Sep 6, 2007, at 2:37 PM, Ken Wahl wrote:

> Marilyn,
>
> I was struggling with a Xerox printer driver that worked until
> yesterday (I haven't had to install a printer driver for a while,
> so I don't know when the incompatibility occurred). I had modified
> it to suppress the banner page and print duplex by default, and
> simply copied it to any machine that needed it. But this PPD no
> longer works, I assume due to an OS X system update. (All machines
> that already had this installed before the update still work. My
> guess is that the process of selecting the printer driver is what
> will now break a formerly-compatible PPD.)
>
> Yesterday I discovered that the driver that is now installed with
> the system has slightly different lines. My old file had one line
> pointing to a Xerox "filter" program called XeroxWCPFilter:
>
> *cupsFilter: "application/vnd.cups-postscript 0 XeroxWCPFilter"
>
> The new file has a full path pointing to the program
>
> *cupsFilter: "application/vnd.cups-postscript 0 /Library/
> Printers/Xerox/filter/XeroxWCPFilter"
>
> And there are five new plugin pointers, all with full file paths:
>
> *APDialogExtension: "/Library/Printers/Xerox/PDEs/
> XeroxAccounting.plugin"
> *APDialogExtension: "/Library/Printers/Xerox/PDEs/
> XeroxBooklet.plugin"
> *APDialogExtension: "/Library/Printers/Xerox/PDEs/
> XeroxWatermark.plugin"
> *APDialogExtension: "/Library/Printers/Xerox/PDEs/
> XeroxWCJobType.plugin"
>
> I'm wondering whether there are embedded filter programs (or
> plugins, or something else) in the PPDs you're using that don't
> have the full paths, but should.
>
> This is just a stab in the dark, especially since your problems
> might only be related to your X11 installations.
>
> Ken Wahl, Office of Student Research
>
>
> On Sep 6, 2007, at 1:26 PM, Marilyn Saarni wrote:
>
>> So here's my head-scratcher (fast turning to despair)...
>>
>> I've just set up 7 new systems over the past couple of weeks, and
>> nearly everyone is really happy with their Macintels (all MacBook
>> Pros, 4 brand new w/4GB RAM--including me, woo-hoo!--and 3
>> one-year-old hand-me-downs).
>>
>> Two of these systems have X11 on them.
>>
>> And it just happens to be that I have another user with a 1-year old
>> macintel and X11 who recently had a corrupted system update trash
>> everything, so he had to reinstall with a clean OS.
>>
>> None of these people with macintel, OS 10.4.10 AND X11 can print to
>> HP and/or Xerox laser printers!!!!
>>
>> BUT one (we've only tried with one) CAN print to an EPSON. Across a
>> router (same subnet). So, though we have a recently upgraded
>> building network, I think we can rule out that issue.
>>
>> Nobody else has this problem, so it has to have something to do with
>> X11 -- and I think the 10.4.10 update!
>>
>> All printers are IP printers (LPD selected). Whenever the user
>> prints from menu or uses command-p, the application crashes (ALL
>> applications). Except for that one Epson 1280...
>>
>> I have repeated clean installs making sure that installer set used
>> was specific to system. Kept the X11 in the reinstall (since they
>> have to have it). Of course repaired permissions (first thing I
>> did). Updated from a manually downloaded combined macintel 10.4.10
>> system update to rule out packet corruption issues. Dragged a Xerox
>> 4500dt PPD from my own system (which works correctly but I don't have
>> X11), and installed it on one of the systems that can print to an
>> Epson: still doesn't work (so it's not a corrupted PPD issue).
>>
>> The only time we actually generated an error report, it included a
>> kernel panic, which is why I made absolutely sure that the installer
>> set was exactly the right kind.
>>
>> What I have realized is that none of these users, or I, had defined a
>> printer BEFORE applying the system update. But that is the only
>> non-tested variable I've come up with.
>>
>> Is this an Apple bug? It's clear to me from online research that
>> this has something to do with HP and Xerox PPDs, but neither website
>> shows newer printer definitions than what is downloaded with the
>> Apple installer -- at least for the printers I've been checking.
>>
>> Whimpering, Marilyn
>>
>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
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>
> =========================
> Ken Wahl, Ph.D.
> Associate Director
> Office of Student Research
> University of California, Berkeley
> http://osr.berkeley.edu
> (510) 643-7198
>
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
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Messages you send to this mailing list are public and world-viewable,
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This means these messages can be viewed by (among others) your bosses,
prospective employers, and people who have known you in the past.
Received on Thu Sep 06 2007 - 16:47:13 PDT