[plug] using CUPS & netatalk to do mac printer spooling

[indy at THE-TECH.MIT.EDU]

On Tue, Oct 21, 2003 at 03:23:06PM +0800, Craig Ringer wrote:
> 
> Unfortunately, whenever any of the macs print via the print spooler, the 
> printer spews endless reams of complete gibberish. If I set the CUPS 
> printer they use to point to 'socket://localhost:9100' (jetdirect 
> printing) and use 'nc -l -p 9100 > /tmp/pscapture.ps' then print from 
> one of the macs, the resulting PostScript file /looks/ OK. GhostScript 
> can display it fine, or convert it to a PDF as well as it ever can.
> 
> If I then cat that file to the printer, the printer spews gibberish. 
> This happens with both our Xerox DocuPrint 4200 and the HP 4MV, so it's 
> not a printer-specific PostScript bug.


It seems that this indicates a problem with the file, 
i.e. the Postcript
i.e. the Postscript interpreter.
i.e. AdobePS

so, do you have an earlier version of that around to try out?

Actually though, you should note this is unproven, and the entire
problem chain you have sequenced (direct printing works, through cups doesn't)
indicates that CUPS is the problem, however much we'd rather not believe it.

One option is to set up an actual lpd server (rather than a cups one)
and see what happens then.

I've personally (not that you want to hear this) had a lot more success with 
printing from Macs using M$ appletalk services. Maybe you can test with the NT
box despite it's troubles, setting it up is usually not that hard?
Equally, you may not have a spare Mac, but the old Mac net print spooler
worked pretty well in the past, might it be worth a try?


Indy.
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