Hello,

I recently upgraded to GIMP 2.2 from 2.0, and I have found that I couldn't print anything anymore. The printing process would start (the calculation bar under the image running to 100%), but then nothing would be sent to the printer (I left it on for hours, but nothing happened). The printer, using CUPS, would remain idle.

So I decided to renew my printer software and installed gimp-print 5.0 beta2, the most recent CUPS version etc. Printing from other programs works well, but while the installed GIMP 2.2.0 does use the new version of gimp-print (configured with gimp2, cups, foomatic, ghostscript), the error persists. So I decided to try the version 2.2.4. This wil not compile; configure stopped the first time saying that gimpprint-config was 4.2.6 while gimp-print 5.0 was found, and I should remove the old version. I did that, and re-compiled gimp-print 5 just to be on the safe side. Now the old gimpprint-config is gone, but there isn't any new one, so configure now stops saying that there is no version of gimp-print at all. The prefixes used are standard, and there really is no gimpprint-config anywhere... But as I said, gimp-print 5 is used by gimp 2.2.0, it just doesn't actually print. Its interface shows etc.

So what this boils down to is two questions: what is going wrong with the printout in the installed GIMP version, and what can I do to make the newer GIMP version compile?

My system is SuSE 9.1, but I have installed so many things from source instead of SuSE rpms by now that it no longer resembles the original system very much. GIMP is not located in the /opt tree anymore but in /usr/local, for example, as is gimp-print - which had been working perfectly with 2.0.

Any help or advice is greatly appreciated.

Robin

Ok, first off, thanks to all who have answered so far.

The situation at present: I have compiled and installed gimp 2.2.4 without print option, then ran ldconfig because the readme said so, then compiled and installed gutenprint 5.0 beta 3 with gimp, cups, foomatic, and ghostscript. All without problem.

I restarted cups with the printer switched on (an Epson CX5400) and modified the printer to use the recommended gutenprint plus cups driver for the same printer.

Sadly, the problem still persists. I have started gimp from a terminal in the hope that some error message would appear, but nothing. I can open the image, select 'print', then I get the gutenprint dialogue. I set all the values to what I need (but I've also tried the standards and other values), press print, and the dialogue disappears, the 'printing' bar underneath the picture grows to 100%, and then silence. No error, the cancel button and gimp as a whole react normally, but the printing bar remains at 100%. No error in the terminal, nothing.

Opening the CUPS configuration page in my browser, there are no print jobs in progress, as if nothing was sent to CUPS. The printer is idle. A CPU monitor does not show any agitation there - top tells me there are a couple of 'print' and 'lp' tasks running:

28384 bitpicke 16 0 16764 11m 6756 S 0.0 1.7 0:00.00 print 28385 bitpicke 15 0 3300 1340 1056 S 0.0 0.2 0:00.22 lp 28386 bitpicke 19 0 16764 11m 6756 S 0.0 1.7 0:00.00 print 28550 bitpicke 17 0 1868 512 436 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.00 gnome-pty-helpe 28551 bitpicke 16 0 4028 1724 1264 S 0.0 0.2 0:00.06 bash 28678 bitpicke 16 0 16064 10m 6752 S 0.0 1.6 0:00.00 print 28679 bitpicke 15 0 3300 1340 1056 S 0.0 0.2 0:00.21 lp 28680 bitpicke 19 0 16064 10m 6752 S 0.0 1.6 0:00.00 print

But this is very near the end of the list, only the idle browser in the background is even lower. They never do much.

In /var and its subdirectories the only things I can find which have something to do with the print attempt are two 13 MB temp files with (possibly) hexadecimal names in /var/tmp - they were made within four minutes of each other about after I started the printing process. I later tried another printout of a different file, and a new file turned up there. Of course that didn't print either.

I can then cancel the printing process, close the image, close gimp, all without any error whatsoever.

That's all I know. Does anyone have any suggestion what I can do next in order to make gimp actually print something?

Robin

I'd like to return to my printing problem for a last time - if I'm breaking any list rules or going on everybody's nerves, just tell me.

I have now compiled gimp 2.2.6 without print option and then gutenprint beta 3 with gimp2, cups, foomatic and ghostscript. Before the installation of gutenprint the new gimp had no print option, after that it now has. But still the printing process does not get finished.

I do have a workaround now, though: if I let gimp and gutenprint print the content to a ps file and then use the printing command as given in gutenprint on the command line with the file name as an option, printing works perfectly - so it seems that gimp just doesn't pass the calculated content to print to the printing system.

But I have no idea why it doesn't do that.

Robin