[solved] CUPS server error when adding new printer

[Member afghan]

I decided to to do a fresh install of antiX 21 yesterday and it did install without drama and everything seemed to work fine until I tried to add some printers today.

I could detect my printers fine (I have 2 different printers which I have been using with antiX 17 and 19). I could select the printer model/ppd and all, but just the final step of adding the printer leads to a cryptic CUPS error dialog: server-error-internal-error. I did the entire reinstall again today (fresh without even updating after install) and the same thing. Tried it on a live USB install and I get the same error. Anyone else encountering this?

I tried adding the printer using the CUPS web interface (localhost:631). It does add a printer without the error, but then I can’t connect to the printer to print (even when it detect the connected printer in the first place).

Any ideas anyone?

• This topic was modified 1 year, 3 months ago by anticapitalista. Reason: solved

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[Forum Admin anticapitalista]

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Are you running antiX-full? sysVinit or runit?
Are you sure cups is running?

Philosophers have interpreted the world in many ways; the point is to change it.

antiX with runit - leaner and meaner.

[Member afghan]

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I’m running antiX full 64bit sysVinit. cups is running for sure. That was the first thing I checked by restarting the service.

I’m doing another clean install of the runit version at this moment just for the heck of it. See how it goes.

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[Member afghan]

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Update: same error with the new install of the runit version.

Btw I have 2 different network printers connected to my router which I never had problems setting up and connecting.

I also have another notebook running Debian Bullseye and that did not have this problem.

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[Member ModdIt]

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Hi afghan,
please give more details, if you are USB connecting or network, running Brother drivers etc.
Is 32 bit support needed for drivers. On one of my systems removing connman killed printing immediately.

Brother is problematic depending on model, mine stopped working but something in a recent update fixed it,
now as fast and good as with windoze drivers.

What at times happens lately is the system finds a printer and adds it, cups same and neither works. Deleted
all printers then used the controll center dialog to connect first printer then then a laser which must have
a PPD supplied, got both working.

[Member afghan]

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I’m using both network printers: Epson PX-S270T and EW-M754TW. They are both WiFi capable network printer and I had no problems before setting them up and using them for a long time with various other antiX or Debian version; all 64bit. The epson drivers are 64bit Linux drivers that worked well before also. Nothing has changed except this new install.

I did printer install like I always do. Just gives me “server-error-internal-error” every time. Can anyone try adding a printer on their antiX 21 system and see if you get the error?

Googling the strange error message didn’t turn up anything useful.

Beware of people who knows nothing; they are the ones that won't know that they know nothing.

[Forum Admin anticapitalista]

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There seems to be plenty of hits to try – https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-e&q=server-error-internal-error+cups

Philosophers have interpreted the world in many ways; the point is to change it.

antiX with runit - leaner and meaner.

[Member olsztyn]

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afghan wrote:

Can anyone try adding a printer on their antiX 21 system and see if you get the error?

I also have two network printers, plugged in to network switch:
– HP Color Laser Jet 4550
– Xerox Phaser 3635MFP.
Per your request I deleted one and re-installed through antiX Control Center.
Printer installed as expected, no error message. Printed test page after install.
I am using antiX 21 runit Live.

Live antiX Boot Options (Previously posted by Xecure):
https://antixlinuxfan.miraheze.org/wiki/Table_of_antiX_Boot_Parameters

[Member afghan]

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Thanks for the responses everyone. It was getting late into the night (early in the morning?) in my part of the world after the last post.

I did try some of the “googled” remedies but so far nothing works. I’ll go through them more thoroughly again :(. Thank you @olsztyn for doing the test. It sort of indicates the problem is likely with me and not the world crumbling into chaos!

I’ll report back if I manage to fix it, or find out what went wrong; hopefully not something stupid that I overlooked.

Beware of people who knows nothing; they are the ones that won't know that they know nothing.

[Member olsztyn]

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I have used network printers as long as I can remember and for reliability and simplicity of configuration:
– I always use fixed IP address. In configuration I point directly to the IP address.
– If printers are WiFi capable, I have disabled WiFi networking on printers. My current printers are not WiFi so I did not need to do this.
Another possibility in your case is to check if you use JetDirect protocol to define printer communication. Both my HP and Xerox are defined as JetDirect interface.

Live antiX Boot Options (Previously posted by Xecure):
https://antixlinuxfan.miraheze.org/wiki/Table_of_antiX_Boot_Parameters

[Member afghan]

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OK some progress after much fiddling. Adding printer using the Print Settings (system-config-printer) still gives me server-error-internal-error no matter what printer I try to add. However adding the printer through the CUPS web-interface (localhost:631) does work as before, except this time I need to select the PASSTHRU connection type for it to work. Now I can print! The printer does appear on the Print Settings as normal after adding through the web-interface.

I still have no idea what’s wrong, but at least I can now print. Issue in system-config-printer perhaps?

I’ll try setting up to scan next and see how that goes.

btw I do setup my printers with fixed IP addresses to make things simple.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 3 months ago by afghan.

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[Member afghan]

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Scanning over the network works! Both printers now working.

Beware of people who knows nothing; they are the ones that won't know that they know nothing.

[Member afghan]

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I did a bit more troubleshooting in case anyone else is interested. This time I’m comparing a PC with Debian Bullseye and a PC with antiX 21. Both are using the same CUPS version 2.3.3op2-3+deb11u1 (except that on antiX there’s the additional -nosystemd).

I can add printers to Debian, but not on antiX (except using web-interface and only using direct PASSTHRU connection).

I checked the logs in /var/log/cups on both system when adding printers and found that on Debian, CUPS polls the network printer that’s found and waits a few seconds for the printer to response; after which the printer is added. However on antiX CUPS polls the found network printer but does not wait for it to response. It immediately gives

D [20/Jan/2022:10:27:27 +0900] [Client 222] New state is HTTP_STATE_WAITING
D [20/Jan/2022:10:27:27 +0900] [Client 222] Waiting for request.
D [20/Jan/2022:10:27:27 +0900] cupsdSetBusyState: newbusy="Dirty files", busy="Active clients and dirty files"
D [20/Jan/2022:10:27:27 +0900] [Client 222] HTTP_STATE_WAITING Closing for error 32 (Broken pipe)
D [20/Jan/2022:10:27:27 +0900] [Client 222] Closing connection.
D [20/Jan/2022:10:27:27 +0900] cupsdSetBusyState: newbusy="Dirty files", busy="Dirty files"
I [20/Jan/2022:10:27:28 +0900] Expiring subscriptions...

It waited several seconds the network printers to response when searching, but it doesn’t give it time to response when adding the printer (which it does on the Debian system). I’m guessing the “error 32 (broken pipe)” is shown as server-errror-internal-error on the dialog box.

I’m able to add the printers using the web interfaces perhaps because it does not time out immediately there. However printing does not work if I don’t use PASSTHRU connection. The “dns sd” or “ipps” connection types times out immediately again when I try printing. Likely the same cause. PASSTHRU perhaps works because it just dumps data out to the IP address without waiting for a response.

I’d prefer not to use PASSTHRU connection as printer the proper settings and options are not retrieved from the printer.

Could it be a problem with CUPS expecting some specific behaviour when interacting with dbus/systemd that is causing some unintended failure?

• This reply was modified 1 year, 3 months ago by afghan.

Beware of people who knows nothing; they are the ones that won't know that they know nothing.

[Forum Admin anticapitalista]

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afghan wrote:

…

Could it be a problem with CUPS expecting some specific behaviour when interacting with dbus/systemd that is causing some unintended failure?

Possibly. But I would be very surprised if this were the case.
You could test by removing all of cups on your antiX install, remove (temporarily) nosystemd from antix.list in apt sources, apt update and install cups from Debian repo.

Philosophers have interpreted the world in many ways; the point is to change it.

antiX with runit - leaner and meaner.

[Member stevesr0]

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Hi afghan,

Could this be a wifi problem?

Can you connect the printers by ethernet to see if they work without PASSTHRU?

stevesr0

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