how to fix " unable to print , broken pipe ! " when passing through CUPS protocol after successfully adding printers in vmware.

[Polytropon]

On Tue, 19 Sep 2017 11:47:19 +0200 (CEST), Trond Endrestøl wrote:
> On Tue, 19 Sep 2017 11:22+0200, Polytropon wrote:
> 
> > On Tue, 19 Sep 2017 14:10:37 +0530, manash pal wrote:
> > > I am very new to FreeBSD, after stuyding at google and youtube, I have  
> > > started to wipe out some embarrassment to go through this unix like os.  
> > > however, after succussfully adding my printer through cups , I tried to  
> > > proceed printing of a pdf document. but , got a repeated reply " UNABLE TO  
> > > PRINT DOCUMENT, BROKEN PIPE ! " what does it mean ?
> > 
> > Depends. The error "broken pipe" indicates a problem with data
> > transmission between programs, usually the kind of "output of
> > program A is input of program B". In CUPS, this piping concept
> > creates a "data flow" through the different parts of the whole
> > printing mechanism (technically not fully correct, but think of
> > it like entry queue -> printer spooler -> printer filter -> out-
> > out channel to printer). On that way, something happened.
> > 
> > Open your web browser and go to http://localhost:631/ where
> > you find the CUPS web interface. In the printer listing, you
> > can see the full error.
> > 
> > More information can be obtained from the CUPS log files,
> > for example /var/log/cups/error_log. See if you find additional
> > details there.
> > 
> > Sidenote: When you say "I print a PDF document", please specify
> > _how_ you print it, as there are several ways to do so, and
> > this could also be part of the problem you're experiencing.
> > For example,
> > 
> > 	% lpr somefile.pdf
> > 
> > is one way to print a PDF document, but so is opening it in
> > a PDF viewer (which there are at least 5 availabe on FreeBSD)
> > and hitting the "Print" button. Printing PDFs from Gimp is
> > possible, too.
> > 
> > The same (!) applies for the error message: Where did you read
> > it? Which program provided the error message? CUPS? The PDF
> > viewer you printed from? Was it a console message? If possible,
> > provide the full text of the error message. In many cases, the
> > error message text contains 50 % of the solution of the problem
> > it is informing you about.
> > 
> > The fewer guesswork is involved, the easier is it to get the
> > desired diagnostic result. :-)
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > > and how to solve this  
> > > problem ?
> > 
> > Without proper diagnostics, there is nothing that I can say...
> 
> Watch your PATH. I've seen plenty of CUPS and lpd(8) problems due to 
> /usr/bin/l* being used instead of /usr/local/bin/l*, and vice versa.

Yes. And I have invented many ugly hacks to deal with this
situation. :-)

CUPS's default installation path for the binaries is /usr/local/bin,
as intended. But due to the order in $PATH, the wrong utility could
be called (the lpd one instead of the CUPS one). There is a port
option to install the binaries into the OS location /usr/sbin and
overwrite the OS tools, but that can cause problems during updates.

There is lots of potential for confusion. :-)



-- 
Polytropon
Magdeburg, Germany
Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0
Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...