Ubuntu
system-config-printer package

Toner levels make the Printer Properties dialog too wide for my screen

Bug #487314 reported by Ross Younger on 2009-11-23

This bug affects 2 people

Affects		Status	Importance	Assigned to	Milestone
	System Config Printer	Fix Released	Medium	redhat-bugs #540826
	system-config-printer (Ubuntu)	Fix Released	Undecided	Unassigned

Bug Description

Binary package hint: system-config-printer

After installing the PPD for my Brother HL4040CN and printing a test page, I had a look through the properties. After I pressed Refresh on the "Ink/Toner Levels" page, the whole properties dialog resized itself to be wider than my screen and won't allow itself to be resized any smaller. It's about 1800 pixels wide on my 1280x1024 display; I grabbed a screenshot (in two parts!) which I'll attach.

The PPD I'm using comes as a pair of .debs downloaded directly from Brother (URLs below); it's entirely possible that the bug lies with those packages but I would have thought that system-config-printer ought to detect a situation like this.

* http://www.brother.com/cgi-bin/agreement/agreement.cgi?dlfile=http://solutions.brother.com/Library/sol/printer/linux/rpmfiles/lpr_debian/hl4040cnlpr-1.0.0-7.i386.deb&lang=English_lpr
* http://www.brother.com/cgi-bin/agreement/agreement.cgi?dlfile=http://solutions.brother.com/Library/sol/printer/linux/rpmfiles/cups_wrapper/hl4040cncups-1.0.0-7.i386.deb&lang=English_gpl

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: amd64
Date: Mon Nov 23 21:15:59 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
ExecutablePath: /usr/share/system-config-printer/system-config-printer.py
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 9.10 "Karmic Koala" - Release amd64 (20091027)
InterpreterPath: /usr/bin/python2.6
Lpstat: device for HL4040CN: lpd://beryl/PASSTHRU
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Package: system-config-printer-gnome 1.1.12+git20090826-0ubuntu8
PackageArchitecture: all
Papersize: a4
PpdFiles: HL4040CN: Brother HL-4040CN series CUPS v1.1
ProcCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-14-generic root=UUID=f96b4ff3-2ed5-4c2d-bff6-d7c0a193ae99 ro quiet splash
ProcEnviron:
PATH=(custom, user)
LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-14.48+ureadahead2-generic
SourcePackage: system-config-printer
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-14-generic x86_64
XsessionErrors:
(gnome-settings-daemon:5876): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_propagate_error: assertion `src != NULL' failed
(gnome-settings-daemon:5876): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_propagate_error: assertion `src != NULL' failed
(polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1:5999): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_once_init_leave: assertion `initialization_value != 0' failed
(nautilus:5975): Eel-CRITICAL **: eel_preferences_get_boolean: assertion `preferences_is_initialized ()' failed
(gnome-terminal:6043): Gtk-CRITICAL **: gtk_paint_extension: assertion `style->depth == gdk_drawable_get_depth (window)' failed
dmi.bios.date: 05/10/2007
dmi.bios.vendor: Intel Corp.
dmi.bios.version: MQ96510J.86A.1687.2007.0510.0258
dmi.board.asset.tag: Base Board Asset Tag
dmi.board.name: DG965SS
dmi.board.vendor: Intel Corporation
dmi.board.version: AAD41678-306
dmi.chassis.type: 3
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnIntelCorp.:bvrMQ96510J.86A.1687.2007.0510.0258:bd05/10/2007:svn:pn:pvr:rvnIntelCorporation:rnDG965SS:rvrAAD41678-306:cvn:ct3:cvr:

Tags:

Revision history for this message

Ross Younger (crazyscot) wrote on 2009-11-23:

First part of the too-wide dialog Edit (30.4 KiB, image/png)
BootDmesg.txt Edit (48.3 KiB, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
CupsErrorLog.txt Edit (733 bytes, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
CurrentDmesg.txt Edit (3.1 KiB, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
Dependencies.txt Edit (5.7 KiB, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
Locale.txt Edit (317 bytes, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
Lspci.txt Edit (15.3 KiB, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
Lsusb.txt Edit (712 bytes, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
PrintingPackages.txt Edit (703 bytes, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
ProcCpuinfo.txt Edit (1.4 KiB, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
ProcInterrupts.txt Edit (1.6 KiB, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
ProcMaps.txt Edit (58.8 KiB, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
ProcModules.txt Edit (2.1 KiB, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
ProcStatus.txt Edit (793 bytes, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
UdevDb.txt Edit (106.3 KiB, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
UdevLog.txt Edit (215.6 KiB, text/plain; charset="utf-8")

Revision history for this message

Ross Younger (crazyscot) wrote on 2009-11-23:

Second part of the too-wide dialog Edit (15.6 KiB, image/png)

Second part of the dialog screenshot.

Revision history for this message

In Red Hat Bugzilla #540826, Tim (tim-redhat-bugs) wrote on 2009-11-24:

Description of problem:
When there are many marker levels and their names are long the properties dialog becomes too wide. See the linked Ubuntu bug report for a screenshot.

The marker-names labels should be word-wrapped, and perhaps we need a smarter way of sizing the ink drops table. Perhaps the ink drops table could be put inside a scrolled viewport?

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
system-config-printer-1.1.13-10.fc12.x86_64

How reproducible:
Should be easy

Steps to Reproduce:
1.Create a backend shell script to write out 'ATTR:' lines to stderr to set the marker-* attributes as shown in the screenshot, and end it like:

if [ -z "$6" ]; then cat >/dev/null; fi

2.Create a queue using that backend and send a job to it.
3.Run system-config-printer and view the ink levels tab in the properties dialog.

Actual results:
Dialog is too wide and cannot be resized smaller.

Revision history for this message

In Red Hat Bugzilla #540826, Tim (tim-redhat-bugs) wrote on 2009-11-24:

(Release set to 11 but both F-11 and F-12 are affected.)

Revision history for this message

In Red Hat Bugzilla #540826, Tim (tim-redhat-bugs) wrote on 2009-11-26:

Created attachment 374032
test backend

For reference, here is the backend shell script I used to reproduce this problem.

Revision history for this message

In Red Hat Bugzilla #540826, Fedora (fedora-redhat-bugs) wrote on 2009-12-02:

system-config-printer-1.1.15-1.fc11 has been pushed to the Fedora 11 testing repository. If problems still persist, please make note of it in this bug report.
If you want to test the update, you can install it with
su -c 'yum --enablerepo=updates-testing update system-config-printer'. You can provide feedback for this update here: http://admin.fedoraproject.org/updates/F11/FEDORA-2009-10893

Revision history for this message

In Red Hat Bugzilla #540826, Fedora (fedora-redhat-bugs) wrote on 2009-12-04:

#10

system-config-printer-1.1.15-3.fc11 has been pushed to the Fedora 11 testing repository. If problems still persist, please make note of it in this bug report.
If you want to test the update, you can install it with
su -c 'yum --enablerepo=updates-testing update system-config-printer'. You can provide feedback for this update here: http://admin.fedoraproject.org/updates/F11/FEDORA-2009-10893

Revision history for this message

In Red Hat Bugzilla #540826, Fedora (fedora-redhat-bugs) wrote on 2009-12-10:

#11

system-config-printer-1.1.15-6.fc11 has been pushed to the Fedora 11 stable repository. If problems still persist, please make note of it in this bug report.

Revision history for this message

JP Vossen (jp-jpsdomain) wrote on 2010-01-15:

I confirm the same problem using a Brother MFC-9840CDW with the Brother drivers on 64-bit Karmic (stock System76 factory install).

system-config-printer-common-1.1.12+git20090826-0ubuntu8
system-config-printer-gnome-1.1.12+git20090826-0ubuntu8
system-config-printer-udev-1.1.12+git20090826-0ubuntu8
Linux 2.6.31-17-generic #54-Ubuntu SMP Thu Dec 10 17:01:44 UTC 2009 x86_64 GNU/Linux

I'm not sure "toner" anything has anything to do with it. I installed the printer drivers [1] and when to System > Admin > Printing, select the printer and get properties. That was OK. Then, I changed the device URI and hit apply, at which point the dialog expended way off the screen (too wide, as per above).

[1] Drivers I installed are (have to D/L via browser, wget results in 404):
http://welcome.solutions.brother.com/bsc/public_s/id/linux/en/download_prn.html#MFC-9840CDW
mfc9840cdwcupswrapper-1.0.2-4.i386.deb
mfc9840cdwlpr-1.0.2-4.i386.deb

And FYI I also have these:
brscan-skey-0.2.1-3.amd64.deb
brscan2-0.2.5-1.amd64.deb

mfc9840cdwcupswrapper-1.0.2-4.i386.deb contains (note duplicate files):
$ md5sum $(find -type f)
70b4415b80772a1a8e66fb2d1f123cb1 ./usr/local/Brother/Printer/mfc9840cdw/cupswrapper/cupswrapperSetup_mfc9840cdw
40f6fcbfe11d75b762ee934abd13d362 ./usr/local/Brother/Printer/mfc9840cdw/cupswrapper/brlpdwrapper_mfc9840cdw
2123704b072e0345a16a77a016fb570d ./usr/local/Brother/Printer/mfc9840cdw/cupswrapper/brcupsconfcl1
bc9dd0b62458b34bac3b4fa0207df5d5 ./usr/share/cups/model/brmfc9840cdw.ppd
bc9dd0b62458b34bac3b4fa0207df5d5 ./usr/share/ppd/brmfc9840cdw.ppd

I eyeballed all of them and nothing jumped out at me, but I'm not really familiar with PPDs or CUPS other than as an end-user. If someone can tell me what setting(s) in what file(s) might cause this, I can go back through older drivers and try to spot a change. I did diff mfc9840cdwcups-1.0.0-7.i386.deb against mfc9840cdwcupswrapper-1.0.3-1.i386.deb but again, nothing jumped out at me.

So on one hand this looks like a Brother driver problem, but on the other, system-config-printer should be smart enough not to exceed screen size. I will also bring this bug to the attention of the product managers at Brother.

I confirm the same problem using a Brother MFC-9840CDW with the Brother drivers on 64-bit Karmic (stock System76 factory install).

I'm not sure "toner" anything has anything to do with it.  I installed the printer drivers [1] and when to System > Admin > Printing, select the printer and get properties.  That was OK.  Then, I changed the device URI and hit apply, at which point the dialog expended way off the screen (too wide, as per above).

And FYI I also have these:
brscan-skey-0.2.1-3.amd64.deb
brscan2-0.2.5-1.amd64.deb

mfc9840cdwcupswrapper-1.0.2-4.i386.deb contains (note duplicate files):
$ md5sum $(find -type f)                        
70b4415b80772a1a8e66fb2d1f123cb1  ./usr/local/Brother/Printer/mfc9840cdw/cupswrapper/cupswrapperSetup_mfc9840cdw
40f6fcbfe11d75b762ee934abd13d362  ./usr/local/Brother/Printer/mfc9840cdw/cupswrapper/brlpdwrapper_mfc9840cdw
2123704b072e0345a16a77a016fb570d  ./usr/local/Brother/Printer/mfc9840cdw/cupswrapper/brcupsconfcl1
bc9dd0b62458b34bac3b4fa0207df5d5  ./usr/share/cups/model/brmfc9840cdw.ppd
bc9dd0b62458b34bac3b4fa0207df5d5  ./usr/share/ppd/brmfc9840cdw.ppd

I eyeballed all of them and nothing jumped out at me, but I'm not really familiar with PPDs or CUPS other than as an end-user.  If someone can tell me what setting(s) in what file(s) might cause this, I can go back through older drivers and try to spot a change.  I did diff mfc9840cdwcups-1.0.0-7.i386.deb against mfc9840cdwcupswrapper-1.0.3-1.i386.deb but again, nothing jumped out at me.

So on one hand this looks like a Brother driver problem, but on the other, system-config-printer should be smart enough not to exceed screen size.  I will also bring this bug to the attention of the product managers at Brother.

Revision history for this message

JP Vossen (jp-jpsdomain) wrote on 2010-01-27:

So, the official word from Brother product managers is as follows. The short, over-simplified version is, they think it's a problem in the Ubuntu PrintManager and have no plans to change anything for my printer at least. Newer ones will probably not show the bug as they will use a simpler string.

From what they describe, it does sound like the Ubuntu PrintManager needs a tweak on how it deals with long strings.

On 2010-01-21 04:15 PM, Tom @ Brother wrote:
>> We are researching the query that takes place after the device is created.
>>
>> As a test I created a print queue and pointed it to an IP address that was not active. In this case the properties dialog displayed correctly. Once I corrected the IP address and enabled the queue, the dialog jumped past the screen as described in the fault.
>>
>> We are reviewing the data capture to see what information Unbuntu is using via SNMP to get the consumable information. We have worked with other manufactures who use SNMP to get this type of information and so far we have not seen any problems with the strings coming out of their requests.
>>
>> For some reason the information being reported is reflecting the P/N for each consumable on a worldwide basis. Perhaps there is a process that is used to identify the region and then query the device via SNMP for the specific region.
>>
>> I will let you know once we determined the issue and have a recommendation.

On 2010-01-26 09:45 AM, Tom @ Brother wrote:
> Our official response...
>
> Although the PrintManager of Ubuntu is accessing the Printer MIB (prtMarkerSuppliesDescription), it seems that the PrintManager isn't handling the value correctly. The specification of the MIB is defined Max 255 strings and in the case of the 9840 we come close to using up the max string space. It would seem that the Unbuntu PrintManager should be able to handle at least 255 bytes.
>
> Anyway, our newer printers like HL-3070 or HL-2170 are not designed to specify the supply model number (too difficult to include country localization) anymore for the MIB and it makes the wording shorter (Just Black Toner, Cyan Toner, etc.). There are no plans to change the MFC-9840CDW to this new format.

So, the official word from Brother product managers is as follows.  The short, over-simplified version is, they think it's a problem in the Ubuntu PrintManager and have no plans to change anything for my printer at least.  Newer ones will probably not show the bug as they will use a simpler string.

From what they describe, it does sound like the Ubuntu PrintManager needs a tweak on how it deals with long strings.

On 2010-01-26 09:45 AM, Tom @ Brother wrote:
> Our official response...
> 
> Although the PrintManager of Ubuntu is accessing the Printer MIB (prtMarkerSuppliesDescription), it seems that the PrintManager isn't handling the value correctly. The specification of the MIB is defined Max 255 strings and in the case of the 9840 we come close to using up the max string space. It would seem that the Unbuntu PrintManager should be able to handle at least 255 bytes.
> 
> Anyway, our newer printers like HL-3070 or HL-2170 are not designed to specify the supply model number (too difficult to include country localization) anymore for the MIB and it makes the wording shorter (Just Black Toner, Cyan Toner, etc.). There are no plans to change the MFC-9840CDW to this new format.

Revision history for this message

Pascal De Vuyst (pascal-devuyst) wrote on 2010-10-10:

According to the upstream bugzilla report this has been fixed in system-config-printer 1.1.15 / Ubuntu 10.04 LTS or higher.
Feel free to reopen should the problem still occur in 10.04 or higher.
Thanks!

Changed in system-config-printer (Ubuntu):
status:	New → Fix Released

Bug Watch Updater (bug-watch-updater) on 2017-10-27

Changed in system-config-printer:
importance:	Unknown → Medium
status:	Unknown → Fix Released

Report a bug

This report contains Public information

Everyone can see this information.

You are

Subscribing...

Edit bug mail

Other bug subscribers

Bug attachments

Add attachment

Remote bug watches

redhat-bugs #540826
[CLOSED ERRATA] Edit

Bug watches keep track of this bug in other bug trackers.

Ubuntusystem-config-printer package

Toner levels make the Printer Properties dialog too wide for my screen

Bug Description

Other bug subscribers

Bug attachments

Remote bug watches

Ubuntu
system-config-printer package