topic Network printer breaks the connection in Operating System - HP-UX

Network printer breaks the connection

Andre de Koning_1 — Thu, 30 Jan 2003 14:58:53 GMT

On HP-UX 10.20 we used to have 5Si printers which are now replaced with 8150's. Everything seems to work okay, except bigger print jobs are stopped halfway and printing restarts after a while (duplicating some pages) just about where it stopped. The messages in the lp log say:
"printer breaks the connection
Unable to finish the job, try to recover job 13"
(13 is the last page number).
From windows (spooler running on an NT4 server) everything works ok.
I can reproduce this problem, but one time it will work and the next it will print in 2 or 3 jobs (it's intermittent).
I have changed the printers' idle-timeout setting to 900, with no luck. I have also updated the hp-ux jetadmin to hppi (which gives me better control over the 8150), again with no luck. Also, the 'Status Log' feature of hppi doesn't give me more information (just that the printer breaks the connection).

I hope there is some twiddle or tweak I have overlooked and that someone can point me to!

Re: Network printer breaks the connection

BFA6 — Thu, 30 Jan 2003 16:04:31 GMT

Do you know if Windows is trying to print to the printer, at the time you get the connection break ?

I have problems with printers shared between unix & Windows, where the printers sometimes stop printing completely from unix, but are fine from Windows until the printer is power cycled.

Hilary

Re: Network printer breaks the connection

Andre de Koning_1 — Fri, 31 Jan 2003 11:26:17 GMT

I just checked: it is not caused by printing from windows at the same time.
One other thing I just remembered: the printerqueue is set to 'AUTO', this causes the job to be really slow. I changed the queue to PCL and it prints a lot faster that way, the only problem is: if someone prints PostScript the language is not interpreted but printed.

Re: Network printer breaks the connection

Jose Mosquera — Fri, 31 Jan 2003 11:59:49 GMT

Hi,

Pls check if new printers have any **buffer** option capability (DIP switches for matrix printers) or increasing RAM for Laser printers. It looks like a bottle neck trouble.

Rgds.

Re: Network printer breaks the connection

Andre de Koning_1 — Thu, 20 Feb 2003 10:12:34 GMT

I don't think there are buffer settings I overlooked. It looks more like some kind of network condition: one time it prints correct, the next time it doesn't.
To make it more clear, here is an example of the loggings.

In /var/adm/lp/log:
Apc03-1480 pof Apc03 Feb 20 10:42
Start: Apc03-1480 Thu Feb 20 10:42:17 MET 2003
End: Apc03-1480 Thu Feb 20 10:50:47 MET 2003
Start: Apc03-1480 Thu Feb 20 10:51:08 MET 2003
End: Apc03-1480 Thu Feb 20 10:59:40 MET 2003
Start: Apc03-1480 Thu Feb 20 11:00:01 MET 2003
End: Apc03-1480 Thu Feb 20 11:08:32 MET 2003
Start: Apc03-1480 Thu Feb 20 11:08:52 MET 2003
End: Apc03-1480 Thu Feb 20 11:09:10 MET 2003
/etc/lp/interface/model.orig/Apc03
/opt/hpnpl/bin/hpnpf -j Apc03-1480+pof -w -a1 -x Apc03 -s /opt/hpnpl/tmp/Apc03.log
printer breaks the connection
Unable to finish the job, try to recover job 10
printer breaks the connection
printer breaks the connection

In /opt/hpnpl/tmp/Apc03:
Feb 20 10:42:17%%[ status: Job: Apc03-1480; User: pof ]%%
Feb 20 10:42:17%%[ status: making connection to Apc03; source: ethernet ]%%
Feb 20 10:42:17%%[ status: connected to Apc03; source: ethernet ]%%
Feb 20 10:42:17%%[ status: transmitting data ]%%
Feb 20 10:42:37%%[ status: printed 1 pages ]%%
Feb 20 10:42:39%%[ status: printed 2 pages ]%%
Feb 20 10:42:41%%[ status: printed 3 pages ]%%
Feb 20 10:42:58%%[ status: printed 4 pages ]%%
Feb 20 10:43:30%%[ status: printed 5 pages ]%%
Feb 20 10:44:35%%[ status: printed 6 pages ]%%
Feb 20 10:46:43%%[ status: printed 7 pages ]%%
Feb 20 10:47:48%%[ status: printed 8 pages ]%%
Feb 20 10:48:51%%[ status: printed 9 pages ]%%
Feb 20 10:49:56%%[ status: printed 10 pages ]%%
Feb 20 10:50:47%%[ status: printer breaks the connection ]%%

Feb 20 10:51:08%%[ status: Job: Apc03-1480; User: pof ]%%
Feb 20 10:51:08%%[ status: making connection to Apc03; source: ethernet ]%%
Feb 20 10:51:08%%[ status: connected to Apc03; source: ethernet ]%%
Feb 20 10:51:08%%[ status: transmitting data ]%%
Feb 20 10:59:40%%[ status: printer breaks the connection ]%%

Feb 20 11:00:01%%[ status: Job: Apc03-1480; User: pof ]%%
Feb 20 11:00:01%%[ status: making connection to Apc03; source: ethernet ]%%
Feb 20 11:00:01%%[ status: connected to Apc03; source: ethernet ]%%
Feb 20 11:00:01%%[ status: transmitting data ]%%
Feb 20 11:08:32%%[ status: printer breaks the connection ]%%

Feb 20 11:08:52%%[ status: Job: Apc03-1480; User: pof ]%%
Feb 20 11:08:52%%[ status: making connection to Apc03; source: ethernet ]%%
Feb 20 11:08:52%%[ status: connected to Apc03; source: ethernet ]%%
Feb 20 11:08:52%%[ status: transmitting data ]%%
Feb 20 11:09:12%%[ status: finish sending print data ]%%
Feb 20 11:09:21%%[ status: printed 11 pages ]%%
Feb 20 11:09:23%%[ status: printed 12 pages ]%%
Feb 20 11:09:25%%[ status: printed 13 pages ]%%
Feb 20 11:09:27%%[ status: printed 14 pages ]%%
Feb 20 11:09:29%%[ status: printed 15 pages ]%%
Feb 20 11:09:30%%[ status: printed 16 pages ]%%
Feb 20 11:09:32%%[ status: printed 17 pages ]%%
Feb 20 11:09:34%%[ status: printed 18 pages ]%%
Feb 20 11:09:36%%[ status: printed 19 pages ]%%
Feb 20 11:09:38%%[ status: printed 20 pages ]%%
Feb 20 11:09:40%%[ status: printed 21 pages ]%%
Feb 20 11:09:42%%[ status: printed 22 pages ]%%
Feb 20 11:09:44%%[ status: printed 23 pages ]%%
Feb 20 11:09:46%%[ status: printed 24 pages ]%%
Feb 20 11:09:47%%[ status: printed 25 pages ]%%
Feb 20 11:09:48%%[ status: User: pof; total printed pages: 25 ]%%
Feb 20 11:09:48%%[ status: end of job ]%%

Re: Network printer breaks the connection

Andre de Koning_1 — Fri, 07 Mar 2003 12:20:06 GMT

This morning we found out that this behaviour might be caused by the toner running low. Which is strange, because we have the printer setup so that it should continue in case the toner runs low. When we placed a new cartridge, printing resumed.

Re: Network printer breaks the connection

Holger Dietze — Wed, 21 May 2003 19:10:14 GMT

Hello,

did the toner really fix your problem? I just found this message:

designjet-4940 loewe designjet May 12 09:17
/opt/hpnp/bin/xjjm th2:0 designjet-4940 &
/etc/lp/interface/model.orig/designjet hpgl2
/opt/hpnp/bin/hpnpf -j designjet-4940+loewe -b 277887 -x designjet
printer breaks the connection
Unable to finish the job, try to recover job

in my log, and the destination is a designjet 600C (old Firmware Revision, not capable of PostScript) with extern (parallel connected) JetDirect Interface. I believe a network or memory limit, but do not know how to track that down. Can you help?