printing from inside Linux firefox

[Frank Shute]

On Fri, Dec 03, 2010 at 07:22:34PM -0800, Dan Strick wrote:
>
> I am running FreeBSD release 8.1.  I normally run a Linux Firefox
> (currently version 3.5.15) because I need the flash plugin
> (/usr/ports/www/linux-f10-flashplugin10).  I also need to print web pages
> on occasion but the Linux Firefox does not recognize the printers attached
> to my system.  It writes warning/error messages like this in the window
> from which I ran the Firefox program:
> 	(firefox-bin:77065): Gtk-WARNING **: libcups.so.2: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
> 
> If I copy the missing library (from Fedora 10 Linux) into /compat/linux,
> Firefox complains about another missing library.  If I give it more
> libraries until it shuts up, it still does not find my printers.  I
> speculated that cups requires additional configuration, so I created the
> file /compat/linux/etc/cups/pinters.conf with a <DefaultPrinter ps0>
> entry, but Firefox still won't recognize my printer and it produces
> no warning/error messages that might give me a hint.
> 
> Obviously, I don't know what I am doing.  Can this be made to work?
> 
> I tried /usr/ports/www/firefox which installs as firefox3, a native
> FreeBSD Firefox program.  It will print via lpr, but It won't
> do flash.  I tried the flashplugin-mozilla port, but it just causes a
> segmentation violation when I visit a page with flash items.
> (Oddly enough, if I install linux-f10-flashplugin10 in a recent 3.6.xxx
> version of Linux Firefox, it seems to fail in the same way.)
> 
> I tried printing to a file, but both the Linux and FreeBSD Firefox
> programs create slightly strange postscript and pdf files which seem
> to display correctly via the ghostscript and acroread programs but
> won't print correctly on my postscript printer (a Brother HL-1270N).

Firefox produces OK postscript. Your printer setup is borked. Try
using lpr and doing away with CUPS is my advice. Then you can send ps
directly to the printer.

Below are the important files for my postscript printer. I just
convert everything to postscript before I lpr it.

$ cat /etc/printcap

lexmark|local:\
    :lp=/dev/lpt0:\
    :if=/home/frank/bin/myfilter:\
    :sd=/var/spool/lpd/lexmark:\
    :lf=/var/spool/lpd/lexmark/log:\
    :af=/var/spool/lpd/lexmark/acct:\
    :mx:\
    :sh:

$ cat /home/frank/bin/myfilter

#!/bin/sh
#

cat - 
echo "\f"



> I tried Linux Opera.  It fails just like the Linux Firefox.
> This is actually a serious problem.  There are sometimes when I just
> *have* to be able to save a postscript image (e.g. a map) and print
> it later.
> 
> My sister tells me that I should be using MS Windows because that always
> works correctly.  I don't know how to prove her wrong.
> 

You can prove her wrong by reading the handbook and installing flash
with the native Firefox; it works fine for me.

> Help!
> 
> Dan Strick

Regards,

-- 

 Frank

 Contact info: http://www.shute.org.uk/misc/contact.html