Ubuntu 12.04 and Epson XP 102 printer

[catgate]

I built up a desktop machine for a friend during the time 8.04 was current. It was duly upgraded to 10.04 and it has been trouble free right up until a week ago when the PSU "gave in", and took out the rest of the works (as I found out as I tried to persuade it to work again).
The only cure was to build a new machine. Having now built it, and loaded it with 12.04, and its updates (including the "classic" option), I am left with the following most peculiar problem......

It recognises the printer and will happily shunt a document down to the printer but it will not print it. The printer will accept the "print test page" command but will only print a page with a column of mainly capital "M"s down the left hand edge of the page.
Peculiarly the printer will print a perfect test page quite happily on my standby desktop machine which is on 12.04.

Can anyone, please, throw some light on this strange business?

[ferrari]

It's likely that different drivers have been chosen for each machine. I would start by comparing the corresponding ppd files in both machines for this printer. Look in the /etc/cups/ppd/ directory. (You may need to copy the working one over to the problematic one if applicable.) The printer config can be found in /etc/cups/printers.conf. You might want to compare this file too.

[catgate]

Thank you for that, ferrari.

I shall go and investigate.

[catgate]

So I have went and investamagated.

On the new machine the /etc/cups/ppd/ directory contained file XP-102-103-Series.ppd

Clicking on /etc/cups/printers.conf. resulted in the message :-

"Could not display /etc/cups/printers.conf.
The file is of an unknown type"

On my standby machine the result is the same. However I have not compared the two XP-102-103-Series.ppd files line by line, but I am assuming that having the same file name they will be identical.

[catgate]

Further confusion.
When the printer is hooked up to the new computer, and the instruction to print a test page is given, it does not print one, but the computer believes it has done, and say print job complete.

[nelz]

printers.conf is a text file, just read it in less, or use diff to compare the two files.

Having the same name is no guarantee of having the same contents. One could be corrupt, or they could be different versions. Once again, diff is your friend.

[catgate]

printers.conf is a text file, just read it in less, or use diff to compare the two files.

Having the same name is no guarantee of having the same contents. One could be corrupt, or they could be different versions. Once again, diff is your friend.

Ah, nelz, you have gone all esoteric on me again.
The name "diff" is enough to tell me what it does, but what the rest of the instruction should be, and the manner of it's syntax, is way above my simple comprehension.
I could use some more guidemce, please.

[ferrari]

The terminal is your friend here. You could use

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sudo less /etc/cups/printers.conf

or

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sudo cat /etc/cups/printers.conf

The diff command is used like this

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diff /path/to/file1 /path/to/file2

So, use a memory stick to get the remote file, and rename it so you can compare. (Don't forget to take care of the paths or the command will fail.)

Hint: man pages are useful for command info (and google can be helpful too).

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man diff

[catgate]

Thank you both for your aid and support. The problem is now solved.
I set off with memory stick in hand and hope in my heart and very swiftly ran into user and password problems. My original aim was file comparison but eventually I thought I would copy the working .pdd file over to the other machine. Yes, more grief.
Eventually I downloaded "todays 12.04.2" (with updates) and did a complete reinstallation. Of course when it came to trying to print I had to down load a driver but that went smoothly enough and the problem was history.
Naturally I had to download the Gnome-classic-session package, because my friend is an even bigger luddite than I am.
Thanks again for pointing me in the right direction.

[ferrari]

Glad to hear of your success.

The leaning curve can be steep but it's all worth the effort.

[catgate]

Glad to hear of your success.

The leaning curve can be steep but it's all worth the effort.

Yes that is true.
I can also add, as an octagenarian, that the longer you are on the curve the steeper it gets.
I suspect that the reason is that the scaffolding, that was holding up the part of the curve over which one has passed gradually, gives way and increases the gradient!
It all become asymptotic.

[lok1950]

It all become asymptotic

If not vertical so I always have a bag of pitons to hammer into the cliff face in the tool kit . Google/linux is one of them

Enjoy the Choice