Ubuntu
kdebase package

PPD fails to parse - "Unable to load a valid driver for printer"

Asked by Luke Plant

I have installed a number of printers on my machine using Kubuntu 8.04. The most recent is a HP F4200 series (and this is the only one currently connected, though the other printers are still listed in KDE/CUPS lists of printers). This last one required a newer version of hplip, so I removed the Ubuntu version (2.8.2) and installed 2.8.9 from a tarball.

They all worked fine until recently, but a bug has recently occurred in all KDE interfaces for configuring one printer. There must have been some KDE update in hardy-updates that has changed this, as I haven't changed anything else. (Also, other CUPS interfaces all work fine, including the web configurator and printing from GNOME/GTK apps).

If I try to print any document with a KDE program, and select the HP F4200 printer and choose 'Properties', the 'Driver Settings' tab is missing. (If I subsequently select any of the other printers, they are also missing the 'Driver Settings' tab, but if I close the KDE dialog and try the other printers first, they all work).

Trying to diagnose this in the Printers section in the KDE control panel:

If I choose "Configure" from the context menu of the F4200 printer, I get this message:

Unable to load a valid driver for printer Deskjet_F4200. Error message received from manager:
/tmp/4965393179517(line 40): syntax error, unexpected ':'

If I try again, I get a different syntax error, e.g. (line 2) syntax error, unexpected QUOTED

Similarly to with the KDE print dialog, if I *subsequently* try to 'Configure' one of the other printer drivers, I get a "syntax error" message. But if I close the control panel and re-open it, and try one of the other printers first, I can configure them fine.

So, the problem seems to be that the PPD is failing to parse, and *also* that it is somehow stateful -- you get different error messages each time, and one thing failing causes subsequent failures.

The failing PPD file is attached, but I don't know if this is really the problem.

I can still print with this printer fine, it is just that the 'Driver settings' tab is not available, and I cannot set the defaults using the KDE printers control panel.

Current package version for kdeprint: 4:3.5.10-0ubuntu1~hardy2

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This question was originally filed as bug #314904.

Revision history for this message
Luke Plant (spookylukey) said : 		#1
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Luke Plant (spookylukey) said : 		#2

I tried downgrading kdeprint to 4:3.5.9-0ubuntu7 (without downgrading the rest of KDE), and I get the same problem. So I do not know what could have caused this change.

Is there any way of getting a chronological list of updates that have been added to hardy-updates to see what could have caused this regression?

Revision history for this message
Harald Sitter (apachelogger) said : 		#3

There were no recent updates, so I doubt this is a bug, also since hplip is not the original ubuntu one it makes the hp printing stack unsupported. I am converting the bug to a question, so you can get assistance with your problem nonetheless

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Launchpad Janitor (janitor) said : 		#4

This question was expired because it remained in the 'Open' state without activity for the last 15 days.