Network printers couldn't handle large files

[Jie Li]

I have another question:
Our network printers couldn't handle large files. If we print a file bigger than 85 pages it will unable to print the rest pages and begin to recover in wrong way.
It will print multiple copies and then print from page 1 to page 3 repeatly. I have disabled the recovery function but I think it will not solve the problem completely.

[Pete Randall]

By any chance is /var filling up during this printing?

Pete

[Rodney Hills]

If their are a number of printers that have this problem, then I would take a look at the network traffic on your lan. It is possible that with too many retries only small jobs can get through.

My 2 cents...

-- Rod Hills

[Jie Li]

How can we detect if /var is filled up?

[S.K. Chan]

When you print the file will spool to the directory /var/spool/lp/request/ on the printer server side. Unless you have /var/spool/lp setup as a separate FS, the disk space that you should check is /var filesystem (on the printer server side). Just run ..
# bdf
and look for the "/var" FS line. Another think you may want to confirm is .. is the printer buffer large enough to handle the print request ?

[Pete Randall]

Run the command dmesg and check the output for messages about "vxfs: mesg 001: vx_nospace - /dev/vg00/lovl? file system full (1 block extent)" or something like that. You might also check /var/adm/syslog/syslog.log though I don't think you'll see anything there.

Pete

[Pete Randall]

The bdf command will show the current state of /var which may well be fine at this point. Use dmesg.

Pete

[Jie Li]

I checked - only 36% is used in /var. Is this possible that there are something wrong with HP's driver? How to check it out?

[S.K. Chan]

To answer that you got to provide these deatils ..
1) What is the printer model ?
2) What application are you printing it from and how ?

[Pete Randall]

You used bdf, didn't you? Check the output of the dmesg command.

Pete