topic Re: Printing Issue in Operating System - HP-UX

Printing Issue

Chrisl_2 — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 11:58:24 GMT

Hi all. HPUX 11.00 PARISC

I have lots of printers. Last nite jobs got stuck in one of them. I can ping the printer ok, so I lpshut lpsched. Still no go. Nothing interesting in /var/spool/lp/log. So I cancelled the jobs and sent another simple job to the queue. It's stuck again and I get the following in /var/spool/lp/log:

waitpid: Interrupted system call
rev-4104 root rev Mar 17 08:41

also, for some reason 2 lpsched processes are running, which I think is not the way it's supposed to work...

>ps -ef |grep lpsched
lp 4907 1 0 08:09:13 ? 0:00 lpsched
root 6338 3877 1 08:57:57 pts/3 0:00 grep lpsched
lp 5744 4907 0 08:41:12 ? 0:00 lpsched

lpstat just shows the jobs in the queue

whadda ya think?

Re: Printing Issue

Jeff Schussele — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 12:03:12 GMT

Hi,

I think it's the printer itself.
You don't have 2 lpsched running - the 1st is the grep command - normal.
Can u print to it via Windoze?
Can it do a self-test?

Jeff

Re: Printing Issue

A. Clay Stephenson — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 12:03:35 GMT

Okay, first do an lpshut. Next look for any lpsched processes and kill them. Next look for any hpnpf processes and kiil them. Hpnpf is the program that sends data to the JetDirect port of a Networked printer. If the hanging printer is a Remote (as opposed to Network) printer then you should power cycle the printer. Now do an lpsched.

Re: Printing Issue

Sivakumar TS — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 12:13:28 GMT

Hi,

try

#lpstat -t

This will display full information
such as
scheduler status
system default destination
queue status ---
etc...

hope this helps...

Siva.

Re: Printing Issue

Chrisl_2 — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 15:51:27 GMT

ok, tested windows printing ..fine
lpshut - grep for and kill lpsch and hpnpf processes - fine
powercycle printer - restart lpsched - ping printer - fine
test printer - stuck in queue! It also launches another instance of lpsched when I send the first print job ....

Re: Printing Issue

Marlou Everson — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 19:31:25 GMT

Are you sure you are pinging the printer? May be you have a duplicate address and you are pinging someone's PC. I've had that happen before. If it is a Jetdirect printer, can you telnet to it? Also, do a selftest and check the IP status. On a Jetdirect, the IP status should be ready.

BTW, the second lpsched (PID 5744) is the child of the first one (PID 4907). I just checked my system and I have one stuck since yesterday and they have that parent/child relationship.

Marlou

Re: Printing Issue

Bill Hassell — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 23:52:20 GMT

The behavior you are seeing with lpsched is absolutely normal. The very first lpsched is the daemon or monitor process. It has the parent PID of init (PPID=1) and reads the print commands from the FIFO. If a command to print a job is found, another copy of lpsched is launched which will have the PPID of the first lpsched. If there are 10 jobs printing, then there will be 11 copies of lpsched running. Each print job starts with lpsched which then starts a shell to read and interpret the printer's print script.

As far as the hangs are concerned, is this a network printer (which means an HP JetDirect LAN card), or a non-HP LAN card, or some computer acting as a print server? Each connection requires very different troubleshooting steps.