Gimp printing in Panther

[Anonymous]

We upgraded three computers to panther. One computer, 800 hz G4 was just updated, not a clean install and Gimp print works on our Epson 3000. One computer was brand new, 1.25Ghz G4 was just updated, but never had gimp print installed before - we can not make gimp print work on the Epson 3000. The third computer was another 800hz G4 that seemed to be having some system problems so we did a clean install - we can not print to the Epson 3000.
We have installed Gimp print 4.3.18 & ghost print, no go, We unistalled Gimp print 4.3.18, installed Gimp print 4.2.5 and ghost print, used the hacked epson 3000 PPD, no go.
We checked the atlookup in the terminal app, and believe that we are getting the correct address. The Epson is on an ethernet network, with an apple talk adapter. Why can I make it work on one computer and not on another? Any thoughts would be appreciated. Wish now we would have left panther in his cage. BTW, we were upgrading from OS X 10.2.8.

[Jacek]

Dave,
I have had the same problem trying to print to my Epson 1520 from my Mac G4 667, X.2.8 Tried everything, posted on the ArchiTalk a couple of times, no help. The funny thing was that the problem only existed whith ArchiCAD and Plotmaker! All other applications printed fine. Did I mention that I was also using Gimp. Same story; install, uninstall, different versions etc. Now that I think about it it seem to have started with X.2.6 or later. I had no problem printing earlier using Gimp.

Yesterday I have installed a 1.467 GHz processor and upgraded to System X.3 and just 'for kicks' I tried to print and guess what? It did!
Perhaps it is something to do with the system and a possible corruption. I seem to have read somewhere that the printer needs to be started prior to the computer so that the computer can sense and verify the path to it. Don't know. I was so happy when I found out that I could print again. Now reading your post my enthusism is dampened a bit. Mr Murphy is waiting in the wings, ready tostep in I guess. Brrrr.
Jacek

[__archiben]

okay - so it works like this...

if you 'repair permissions', as most good people do after a major software install, the permissions for a whole load of 'cups' files are reset from 0 to 26, (or vice versa - can't remember).

this stuffs up panther's ability to print even though you can still see the printers, (and even 'print' to them, right?)

after restarting the computer, however, the permissions are set back to what they should be to be able to print . . .

so - if you repair your permissions - restart the computer incase any other permissions have been stuffed up too...!

~/archiben

[Anonymous]

Epson has finally released a OSX print driver for the Stylus Color 3000. We have installed it in our office and it works.
http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/support/supDetail.jsp?BV_UseBVCookie=yes&oid=14430&infoType=Downl...

[Djordje]

Jacek wrote:
Mr Murphy is waiting in the wings, ready tostep in I guess. Brrrr.

Don't forget the ultimate truth:

MURPHY WAS AN OPTIMIST!

[Thomas Holm]

An idea:

Since gimp-print is included in Panther, if you have downgraded by installing an older build from the Gimp-print web site, I think you'll have to re-install it form the panther disks.

Then, grab the PPD file (it's in .gz format) for the printer in question from the machine where it works, and copy it to the same directory on the other machines.

You may have to use Terminal to do this.

Then for safety, Repair Permissions using the disk utility in Panther, and restart.

Thomas

[Anonymous]

We've managed to get our Epson 5000 (not supported by Epson under Mac X) working with Gimp-Print after a bit of head scratching.

The Epson 5000 (which replaced our Epson 3000 which committed suicide by attempting to eat the cardboard so-called 'support sheet') has the Epson ethernet interface card thingy.

The only way we could get it to work (other than via our Appleshare 6 file/print server) was to assign the printer an IP address, then use the IP address option (but, confusingly, not the Epson IP option) in the Print Centre when adding the printers. To give the printer an IP address we had to use the Epson MacAssist software (available off their website in an obscure location) and which only runs in System 9 (or, I guess, in Classic). This 'injects' an IP address into the printer's interface card, albeit that the default IP address that the programs suggests is 192.168.192.168, which doesn't work ...changing this to a more conventional address (in our case 192.169.1.46) seemed to do the job. This now allows the printer to directly receive print jobs from both Mac X (via IP) and System 9 (via the old Appletalk method).

Although, generally, a total pain in the a___, one useful feature of Gimp-Print has been the fact that we can now also use our HP 450C plotter as a printer, as the drivers are included. The complication here is that you still need to give the plotter (which is connected to our ethernet network via a HP Jetdirect box) an IP address, and the software to do this only runs in Windows, so a quick session of Virtual PC was needed...

The only remaining problem....our ArchiCAD 8.0 still won't print to any printer (but will plot). Luckily, Plotmaker will print fine, and we can save ArchiCAD files as PDF documents and then print them. Heigh-ho.