Mint12 "/usr/lib/cups/backend/cups-pdf failed"

[cwky42]

I am accustomed (since LM5) to making pdf files by selecting the printer labelled PDF, with the results showing up in my home folder. With Mint12 things aren't working so well. Gnome3 (I assume, it's a pop-up sort of thing, bottom center) puts up a notification saying the job was cancelled, and that "/usr/lib/cups/backend/cups-pdf failed". I've reinstalled cups-pdf several times with no changes observed.

After each failed attempt, the /var/log/cups/cup-pdf_log will have an entry like this:
Wed Dec 14 03:51:19 2011 [ERROR] failed to open source stream

And the /var/log/cups/error_log will have an entry like this:
E [14/Dec/2011:03:51:19 -0500] [Job 9] Job aborted due to backend errors; please consult the error_log file for details.
D [14/Dec/2011:03:51:19 -0500] [Job 9] The following messages were recorded from 03:51:19 to 03:51:19
D [14/Dec/2011:03:51:19 -0500] [Job 9] Adding start banner page "none".
D [14/Dec/2011:03:51:19 -0500] [Job 9] Adding end banner page "none".
D [14/Dec/2011:03:51:19 -0500] [Job 9] File of type application/pdf queued by "carl".
D [14/Dec/2011:03:51:19 -0500] [Job 9] hold_until=0
D [14/Dec/2011:03:51:19 -0500] [Job 9] Queued on "PDF" by "carl".
D [14/Dec/2011:03:51:19 -0500] [Job 9] Sending job to queue tagged as raw...
D [14/Dec/2011:03:51:19 -0500] [Job 9] job-sheets=none,none
D [14/Dec/2011:03:51:19 -0500] [Job 9] argv[0]="PDF"
D [14/Dec/2011:03:51:19 -0500] [Job 9] argv[1]="9"
D [14/Dec/2011:03:51:19 -0500] [Job 9] argv[2]="carl"
D [14/Dec/2011:03:51:19 -0500] [Job 9] argv[3]="TestDoc"
D [14/Dec/2011:03:51:19 -0500] [Job 9] argv[4]="1"
D [14/Dec/2011:03:51:19 -0500] [Job 9] argv[5]="PageSize=Letter job-uuid=urn:uuid:3e675da8-d16d-3e72-5338-42531a7ec276 job-originating-host-name=localhost time-at-creation=1323852679 time-at-processing=1323852679"
D [14/Dec/2011:03:51:19 -0500] [Job 9] argv[6]="/var/spool/cups/d00009-001"
D [14/Dec/2011:03:51:19 -0500] [Job 9] envp[0]="CUPS_CACHEDIR=/var/cache/cups"
D [14/Dec/2011:03:51:19 -0500] [Job 9] envp[1]="CUPS_DATADIR=/usr/share/cups"
D [14/Dec/2011:03:51:19 -0500] [Job 9] envp[2]="CUPS_DOCROOT=/usr/share/cups/doc-root"
D [14/Dec/2011:03:51:19 -0500] [Job 9] envp[3]="CUPS_FONTPATH=/usr/share/cups/fonts"
D [14/Dec/2011:03:51:19 -0500] [Job 9] envp[4]="CUPS_REQUESTROOT=/var/spool/cups"
D [14/Dec/2011:03:51:19 -0500] [Job 9] envp[5]="CUPS_SERVERBIN=/usr/lib/cups"
D [14/Dec/2011:03:51:19 -0500] [Job 9] envp[6]="CUPS_SERVERROOT=/etc/cups"
D [14/Dec/2011:03:51:19 -0500] [Job 9] envp[7]="CUPS_STATEDIR=/var/run/cups"
D [14/Dec/2011:03:51:19 -0500] [Job 9] envp[8]="HOME=/var/spool/cups/tmp"
D [14/Dec/2011:03:51:19 -0500] [Job 9] envp[9]="PATH=/usr/lib/cups/filter:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/bin:/usr/bin"
D [14/Dec/2011:03:51:19 -0500] [Job 9] envp[10]="SERVER_ADMIN=root@Mint12Duobox"
D [14/Dec/2011:03:51:19 -0500] [Job 9] envp[11]="SOFTWARE=CUPS/1.5.0"
D [14/Dec/2011:03:51:19 -0500] [Job 9] envp[12]="TMPDIR=/var/spool/cups/tmp"
D [14/Dec/2011:03:51:19 -0500] [Job 9] envp[13]="USER=root"
D [14/Dec/2011:03:51:19 -0500] [Job 9] envp[14]="CUPS_SERVER=/var/run/cups/cups.sock"
D [14/Dec/2011:03:51:19 -0500] [Job 9] envp[15]="CUPS_ENCRYPTION=IfRequested"
D [14/Dec/2011:03:51:19 -0500] [Job 9] envp[16]="IPP_PORT=631"
D [14/Dec/2011:03:51:19 -0500] [Job 9] envp[17]="CHARSET=utf-8"
D [14/Dec/2011:03:51:19 -0500] [Job 9] envp[18]="LANG=en_US.UTF-8"
D [14/Dec/2011:03:51:19 -0500] [Job 9] envp[19]="PPD=/etc/cups/ppd/PDF.ppd"
D [14/Dec/2011:03:51:19 -0500] [Job 9] envp[20]="RIP_MAX_CACHE=128m"
D [14/Dec/2011:03:51:19 -0500] [Job 9] envp[21]="CONTENT_TYPE=application/pdf"
D [14/Dec/2011:03:51:19 -0500] [Job 9] envp[22]="DEVICE_URI=cups-pdf:/"
D [14/Dec/2011:03:51:19 -0500] [Job 9] envp[23]="PRINTER_INFO=Generic CUPS-PDF Printer"
D [14/Dec/2011:03:51:19 -0500] [Job 9] envp[24]="PRINTER_LOCATION="
D [14/Dec/2011:03:51:19 -0500] [Job 9] envp[25]="PRINTER=PDF"
D [14/Dec/2011:03:51:19 -0500] [Job 9] envp[26]="PRINTER_STATE_REASONS=none"
D [14/Dec/2011:03:51:19 -0500] [Job 9] envp[27]="CUPS_FILETYPE=document"
D [14/Dec/2011:03:51:19 -0500] [Job 9] envp[28]="AUTH_I****"
D [14/Dec/2011:03:51:19 -0500] [Job 9] Started backend /usr/lib/cups/backend/cups-pdf (PID 7785)
D [14/Dec/2011:03:51:19 -0500] [Job 9] Backend returned status 5 (cancel job)
D [14/Dec/2011:03:51:19 -0500] [Job 9] End of messages
D [14/Dec/2011:03:51:19 -0500] [Job 9] printer-state=3(idle)
D [14/Dec/2011:03:51:19 -0500] [Job 9] printer-state-message="/usr/lib/cups/backend/cups-pdf failed"
D [14/Dec/2011:03:51:19 -0500] [Job 9] printer-state-reasons=none

On a whim, I tried the "Print to File" printer for the first time, and lo and behold, creating pdfs is an option there, and seems to work perfectly, so I have a functional option. I guess the question is, should cups-pdf be working, if yes, then why might mine not be, and if no, then why is it there?

I'm not a total n00b, but not exactly a Linux guru either. Far closer to the former than the latter, because I stick with Mint and most of the time things just work, so I miss out on a lot of wonderful experiences... Thanks in advance, Carl

[unprinted]

Same problem here. There has just been an upgrade to cups, so it's not impossible that something has been broken.

[stanley82]

I've installed my epson stylus color 660 on the parallel port. Well the internal one that's not serial. Seems to go through the motions fine only hick nothing comes out of the printer. Mint 11 was great and mint 12 is getting to be a challenge with one little hick and another. Any ideas? Ian.

[hayden]

i am not sure if this will help or not, but it helped me when i was setting up my epson priner. I installed a package called mtink. In the software manager, type in mtink and download and install it. I think its only for epson printers.

[pseudomorph]

Just wanted to update this in case anyone else came across the same issue.

Gnome3 (I assume, it's a pop-up sort of thing, bottom center) puts up a notification saying the job was cancelled, and that "/usr/lib/cups/backend/cups-pdf failed". I've reinstalled cups-pdf several times with no changes observed.

I noticed the same issue when using Print_to_PDF which uses cups-pdf and after a little hunt around I found this bug from 2008 which solves this very issue.

As explained in the bug, it appears that for some reason apparmor stops cups-pdf from printing to the home directory.

Putting the cupsd apparmor into complain mode works around the issue.

Code: Select all

sudo aa-complain cups-d

I found I needed to install the apparmor-utils package as aa-complain was not installed.

[farna]

I'm also having a problem with a similar error message. In my case it pertains to printing to a PostScript printer, not using the PDF printer driver. the error message reads "/usr/lib/cups/filter/pstopdf failed"

I tried using the solution in this thread, but this is what I get:

frank2@frank2 ~ $ sudo aa-complain cups-d
Can't find cups-d in the system path list. If the name of the application is correct, please run 'which cups-d' as a user with the correct PATH environment set up in order to find the fully-qualified path.
frank2@frank2 ~ $

I had to install the AppArmor Utils also. I have no idea what the correct path should be... any help? I won't know if this fixes the PostScript printing problem until I can get it installed. I've been giving the PageStream (a commercial Linux DTP program) fits because their software won't print on my system! What I'm having to do is save as a PDF file then use a PDF viewer to print. That's a PITA if/when I need to print one sample page in the middle of a multi-page document to see if something prints the way I want/need it to! I've got to go apologize to those guys for ranting about not getting their program to print right now...