# [SOLVED] Firefox prints empty pages

## Troopo

Hi,

I've set up my printer and it works just fine except it can't seem to print PDF files off the browser, the job log shows the following message:

"Use "pdftops-renderer" option (see cups-filters README file) to use Ghostscript or MuPDF for the PDF -> PostScript conversion."

I've found the following command:

```

lpstat -v

lpadmin -p <printer> -o pdftops-renderer-default=gs

```

I've tried gs and mupdf but gs gives an empty page while mupdf give an error "Level 3 PostScript not supported by mutool"

Any ideas?

Adding some more info:

PDF prints fine from a local file using various programs but not from the web browser.

The PDF job from Firefox was 600kb while the same file from a PDF program was only 120kb so there is some kind of conversion there.

When i looked at the completed jobs in Cups i saw the error i mentioned which made me think it is something that isn't set so i googled a lot and ended up in a thread that mentioned those commands.

https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-999916-start-0.html

The first one prints the name of all available printers while the second sets the value of pdftops which is the filter used to convert PDF file while printing.

While pdftops has many values the only available on my machine are ghostscript mupdf and none, i've mentioned the result of that attempt, mupdf give another error while GS prints an empty page like before.

I should also mention i've checked all my packages and they all have the right flags so everything seems to be connected and should work, i even checked allow printing from the internet inside of cups but it didn't help

I've rebuilt all the related packages it also didn't help, tried with a2pdf as well, i've tried to print a regular page from firefox that also didn't work so it's a general browser problem not just PDFLast edited by Troopo on Tue Sep 08, 2020 12:31 pm; edited 2 times in total

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## figueroa

How about net-print/cups-pdf?

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## Troopo

 *figueroa wrote:*   

> How about net-print/cups-pdf?

 

Isn't that for creating PDF files?

I can't even print regular web pages

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## figueroa

 *Troopo wrote:*   

>  *figueroa wrote:*   How about net-print/cups-pdf? 
> 
> Isn't that for creating PDF files?
> 
> I can't even print regular web pages

 

Agreed -- your post left some room for ambiguity.

Is your browser firefox or firefox-bin?  I'm using firefox-bin and it prints fine out-of-the-box.

How about trying a different browser, if only for testing/troubleshooting. I suggest Vivaldi.

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## charles17

 *Troopo wrote:*   

> Isn't that for creating PDF files?
> 
> I can't even print regular web pages

 

So you problem is with firefox?  Or also with other browsers.

You'd better adjust this topic's title to "Firefox printing" or so.

For printer setup see https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Driverless_printing

Best print command for printing pdf is lp, simple as lp /tmp/foobar.pdf

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## Troopo

 *figueroa wrote:*   

>  *Troopo wrote:*    *figueroa wrote:*   How about net-print/cups-pdf? 
> 
> Isn't that for creating PDF files?
> 
> I can't even print regular web pages 
> ...

 

You were right, i also have konqueror installed and it prints just fine.

So the issue is only with Firefox and i'm using Firefox not Firefox-bin.

I will add the flags i have but i don't have anymore ideas.

```

www-client/firefox-80.0.1-r1::gentoo  USE="dbus geckodriver gmp-autoupdate openh264 pulseaudio screenshot system-av1 system-harfbuzz system-icu system-jpeg system-libevent system-libvpx system-webp -bindist -clang -custom-cflags -custom-optimization -debug -eme-free -hardened -hwaccel -jack -lto -pgo -screencast (-selinux) -test -wayland -wifi" CPU_FLAGS_X86="-avx2" L10N="-ach -af -an -ar -ast -az -be -bg -bn -br -bs -ca -cak -cs -cy -da -de -dsb -el -en-CA -en-GB -eo -es-AR -es-CL -es-ES -es-MX -et -eu -fa -ff -fi -fr -fy -ga -gd -gl -gn -gu -he -hi -hr -hsb -hu -hy -ia -id -is -it -ja -ka -kab -kk -km -kn -ko -lij -lt -lv -mk -mr -ms -my -nb -nl -nn -oc -pa -pl -pt-BR -pt-PT -rm -ro -ru -si -sk -sl -son -sq -sr -sv -ta -te -th -tr -uk -ur -uz -vi -xh -zh-CN -zh-TW"

```

I'm on the latest now but even before that i had the same issue with the stable version.

 *charles17 wrote:*   

>  *Troopo wrote:*   Isn't that for creating PDF files?
> 
> I can't even print regular web pages 
> 
> So you problem is with firefox?  Or also with other browsers.
> ...

 

Fixed the title, the issue is only with Firefox.

After setting up a default destination, lp printed just fine but so does any other client, the problem is with Firefox.

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## charles17

Maybe https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/670298?

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## Troopo

 *charles17 wrote:*   

> Maybe https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/670298?

 

Well the good news is the problem is fixed, the less good news is, i'm not sure what fixed it.

Based on that link i checked my about:config and my print\setup page

Margins in the config were fine, i did see another value for Linux "Print.print unwriteable margin" which was 17 so i tried to change that.

Apart from this and trying to play with the type of page A4 -> A6 

The only other thing i was doing at the same time was to emerge my Firefox with emptytree which found 2 conflicts, once resolved it let it run so i was in the middle of rebuilding when i tested.

That margin setting was reset  after printing so it wasn't it so did the scale variable i played with.

It's either the A4-Ext page laytout to A4 change i did on the printing setting or it was the rebuild process.

My money is on the rebuilding since it did had some conflicts and the page layout difference is barley there.

Anyway Thanks for the help Everyone  :Smile: 

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## charles17

Too late to tell you to try with a clean firefox' profile starting firefox -p in terminal

This always is the first to do when Firefox starts to behave strange.

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## Troopo

 *charles17 wrote:*   

> Too late to tell you to try with a clean firefox' profile starting firefox -p in terminal
> 
> This always is the first to do when Firefox starts to behave strange.

 

I know that one but didn't want to do it yet, i tried with safe mode and it was the same but settings and extensions aren't the same.

Oh well at least it was a happy ending after all

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