[wplug-bsd] CUPSD and USB printer "USB Port Busy..."

Brandon Kuczenski brandon at 301south.net
Mon Sep 26 20:50:25 EDT 2005


So I just found out that in fact the OS does matter when running CUPS.  So 
I have moved my line of questioning to the FreeBSD list.

I have installed an HP LaserJet 2550 series printer.  Thanks to Bill 
Moran's suggestion about path, I have modified root's path to put 
/usr/local/bin before /usr/bin, which is something that the cups 
installation documentation actually specified.

So, on to the next problem, which I fear is a FreeBSD/USB problem rather 
than a CUPS problem.  Currently, lpstat is telling me "USB Port Busy; will 
retry in 30 seconds...".  It will continue to tell me that until I unplug 
the USB cable and plug it into a different USB port.  At that point, the 
printer roars back to life and prints another document from its job queue. 
Sometimes it finishes that job; sometimes it doesn't; in any case, the 
printer then returns to a stalled state, even when there are jobs in the 
queue.

Then I try to poke at stuff.  I pause and restart the printer, for 
example... that returns me to "USB Port Busy; will retry in 30 
seconds...".  Holding and releasing the print job doesn't seem to do 
anything.  Restarting the daemon doesn't do anything.

Setting LogLevel debug in CUPS doesn't give me anything useful ... it just 
seems like the whole daemon is sitting on its hands waiting for something 
magical to happen with the USB port.

I noticed there is no section for USB in the handbook.  I don't really 
know how it works or what sorts of settings to look at, but it certainly 
isn't reasonable for me to unplug the USB cable every time someone wants 
to print.

I did see somewhere that the 'uhid' kernel module (for "Human Interface 
Devices") can interfere with the 'usb' kernel module -- that was when I 
was researching UPSs[1].  My kernel has uhid enabled.  Could that be an 
issue here?

-Brandon


[1] http://www2.apcupsd.com/3.10.x-manual/Apcupsd_Known_USB_Issues.html -- 
towards the bottom of the page.


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