Re: [tlug] Printer Not Responding

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <stephen@example.com>]

>>>>> "Dave" == Dave M G <Dave> writes:

    Dave> I used Stephen's suggestion for a command:

That was Scott's, IIRC

    Dave> dave@example.com:~$ sudo G_SLICE=always-malloc /usr/bin/printconf
    Dave> Password:
    Dave> sudo: G_SLICE=always-malloc: command not found
    Dave> ... but as you can see, the result was not very helpful.

Try

$ G_SLICE=always-malloc sudo /usr/bin/printconf

I'm not sure this will work (some super-user utilities will cancel the
G_SLICE=always-malloc environment before executing printconf) but it's
the best try.  Otherwise you need to log in as root (perhaps "sudo
su") and execute that command directly.

    Dave> I know Stephen feels I should be using open source drivers,
    Dave> but I can't find open source drivers for my model.

For future reference.  You're absolutely right, you have the printer,
it worked fine before, you may as well try to get it going.

    Dave> In any case, regardless of my suspicions, what is the next
    Dave> step for me to attack this problem?

Well, the next question from me is "how do these drivers fit into the
system?"  The "traditional" Linux printer utilities took your file,
ran some programs on it to turn it into Postscript if it wasn't
already, then ran something like

gs -sDEVICE=your-printer-model converted-file.PS

on it.  This only works for open source, though, because traditionally
such drivers were compiled into Ghostscript, and you can only do that
if they have a compatible (ie, open source) license.

Can anybody (not necessarily Dave) tell me how CUPS provides drivers,
and how the proprietary driver gets loaded into the system?  (Of
course I can go find out for myself, but that will not happen until
June 29 or so, after final exams are graded. ;-)

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