# Printer "not ready" and not reacting: Where to start?

## fsavigny

Hi there,

my printer has not been reacting for a couple of days, but I cannot link that to any software update. I have collected a bunch of information, but I am clueless how to isolate the problem. The physical connection between printer and computer seems to be OK, but no device file such as /dev/lpusb or whatever crops up. What does seem to crop up is an additional device file in /dev/bus/usb/002, and one in /dev/char.

This is the information I have collected:

When I run udevadm monitor and then switch on the printer, it outputs the following:

```
monitor will print the received events for:

UDEV - the event which udev sends out after rule processing

KERNEL - the kernel uevent

KERNEL[13468.540741] add      /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.7/usb2/2-3 (usb)

KERNEL[13468.540893] add      /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.7/usb2/2-3/2-3:1.0 (usb)

UDEV  [13468.543873] add      /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.7/usb2/2-3 (usb)

UDEV  [13468.544423] add      /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.7/usb2/2-3/2-3:1.0 (usb)

```

lsusb emits this additional line when the printer is switched on:

```
Bus 002 Device 012: ID 06bc:0269 Oki Data Corp. 

```

Whenever I run lpq or whatever, it will say:

```
> lpq

OKI is not ready

no entries

```

(OKI is the name I have given to the printer in CUPS.)

Can anybody give me some guidance on how to isolate the problem properly? As I said, I cannot link it to a software update. It just started a few days ago. (Or so it seems to me, at least.)

Thank you very much for any help. Not being able to print is a huge problem.

Best regards,

Florian

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## Jaglover

Is printer hardware failure ruled out?

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## fsavigny

 *Quote:*   

> 
> 
> Is printer hardware failure ruled out?
> 
> 

 

Yes. It's dual-boot machine, and the printer works fine on Windows, with exactly the same cable etc.

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## Jaglover

Well ... I do not have much USB printing experience, I prefer networked printers. All I know is you must have USB printing enabled in kernel or in CUPS, but not both at the same time. Then add verbosity to CUPS logging if normal error log is not helpful..

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## Clad in Sky

What does the CUPS interface say about the state of the printer?

My girlfriend's Brother (Brother as in printer manufacturer) won't work if it was switched on during boot up. Cups will say that the printer is "not ready or turned off". Usually switching it off and on again does the trick in this case; but sometimes I have to re-add the printer in CUPS to get it working again (probably switching it off and rebooting would also work, but this takes longer than just adding the printer again).

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## fsavigny

Sorry I did not answer for so long (simply too busy). Very wary of hours of troubleshooting (and thus, hesitatingly), I tried to implement what Jaglover has suggested. I did so by setting

```

/etc/cups/cupsd.conf:

LogLevel debug

```

Which did result in masses of more output to /var/log/cups/error_log.

Before, however, I could make sense of all this stuff, I somehow happened to peek into /etc/cups/printers.conf - actually, just like that. But it contained interesting stuff:

```

# Printer configuration file for CUPS v1.6.2

# Written by cupsd on 2013-09-19 07:34

# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE WHEN CUPSD IS RUNNING

<DefaultPrinter OKI>

UUID urn:uuid:6a01093c-e3a2-380e-5aa7-2e752ffbc2d2

Info OKI B431d

Location Arbeitszimmer

MakeModel OKI DATA CORP B431(PS)

DeviceURI usb://OKI%20DATA%20CORP/B431?serial=AK17008654

State Stopped

StateMessage Unable to send data to printer.

StateTime 1379568875

Reason paused

Type 8425556

Accepting Yes

Shared No

JobSheets none none

QuotaPeriod 0

PageLimit 0

KLimit 0

OpPolicy default

ErrorPolicy stop-printer

</Printer>

```

Interestingly, the time when it was written seems to be exactly the time my printer stopped printing (as per /var/log/cups/pages.log). Then, I discovered that cups had kept the previous version, under the name printers.conf.0, whose contents sounded more like business as usual:

```

# Printer configuration file for CUPS v1.6.2

# Written by cupsd on 2013-07-18 10:14

# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE WHEN CUPSD IS RUNNING

<DefaultPrinter OKI>

UUID urn:uuid:6a01093c-e3a2-380e-5aa7-2e752ffbc2d2

Info OKI B431d

Location Arbeitszimmer

MakeModel OKI DATA CORP B431(PS)

DeviceURI usb://OKI%20DATA%20CORP/B431?serial=AK17008654

State Idle

StateTime 1374135238

Type 8425556

Accepting Yes

Shared No

JobSheets none none

QuotaPeriod 0

PageLimit 0

KLimit 0

OpPolicy default

ErrorPolicy stop-printer

</Printer>

```

I simply tried out the following (some gut impulse): Replace printers.conf with printers.conf.0. It worked. Everything is back to normal. 

I honestly have no clear idea of what happened, but it looks to me as if I had some problem on 19 September, and CUPS decided to disable the whole system to prevent further damage. Or whatever.

So I am relieved now (I had been braced for something much more tedious and uncertain), but if anybody cares to comment, I would certainly be curious. Or maybe this post will help someone else one day?

Best regards,

Florian

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