Bug#697022: system-config-printer: Xfce4 print manager can not use remote CUPS printer

Sun Dec 30 21:15:00 UTC 2012

Package: system-config-printer
Version: 1.3.7-3
Severity: normal

Dear Maintainer,

This bug makes it impossible for me to print from this system, and
thus is important at least to me.  I believe the bug is in this
package; I am experiencing it from the GUI for system settings for
Xfce.

Of course, it may also be an error in my setup.

   * What led up to the situation?
In Xfce select applications menu | settings | printing.
Select "connect" button in the popup.
Enter name of remote system (on the LAN) and hit connect.
All the printers on the remote system (CUPS on Lenny) are displayed.
Select the default printer by double-clicking.
Hit "print test page" on the window that just opened.
Nothing prints.
.xsession-errors shows
<log>
WARNING: gnome-keyring:: couldn't connect to: /home/ross/.cache/keyring-Ps65W8/pkcs11: No such file or directory
Caught non-fatal exception.  Traceback:
File "/usr/share/system-config-printer/printerproperties.py", line 1351, in load
    if self.server_is_publishing:
AttributeError: 'PrinterPropertiesDialog' object has no attribute 'server_is_publishing'
Continuing anyway..
</log>

Subsequent tries repeat everything above into the logs except the
gnome-keyring warning. 

The server's /var/log/cups/error_log shows (I'm not sure this is from
the same session, but I think it is since the IP is right)

<server log>
D [30/Dec/2012:12:43:29 -0800] cupsdAcceptClient: 26 from 192.168.40.62:631 (IPv4)
D [30/Dec/2012:12:43:29 -0800] cupsdReadClient: 26 POST / HTTP/1.1
D [30/Dec/2012:12:43:29 -0800] cupsdAuthorize: No authentication data provided.
D [30/Dec/2012:12:43:29 -0800] Cancel-Subscription /
D [30/Dec/2012:12:43:29 -0800] cupsdIsAuthorized:
requesting-user-name="ross"
I [30/Dec/2012:12:43:29 -0800] Saving subscriptions.conf...
D [30/Dec/2012:12:43:29 -0800] cupsdProcessIPPRequest: 26 status_code=0 (successful-ok)
D [30/Dec/2012:12:43:29 -0800] cupsdCloseClient: 26
D [30/Dec/2012:12:43:55 -0800] process_browse_data: HP_Deskjet_F4400_series at 192.168.40.35 not found...

D [30/Dec/2012:12:43:55 -0800] Report: clients=0
D [30/Dec/2012:12:43:55 -0800] Report: jobs=500
D [30/Dec/2012:12:43:55 -0800] Report: jobs-active=0
D [30/Dec/2012:12:43:55 -0800] Report: printers=5
D [30/Dec/2012:12:43:55 -0800] Report: printers-implicit=0
D [30/Dec/2012:12:43:55 -0800] Report: stringpool-string-count=1702
D [30/Dec/2012:12:43:55 -0800] Report: stringpool-alloc-bytes=8240
D [30/Dec/2012:12:43:55 -0800] Report: stringpool-total-bytes=32760
D [30/Dec/2012:12:43:55 -0800] cupsdNetIFUpdate: "lo" = localhost...
D [30/Dec/2012:12:43:55 -0800] cupsdNetIFUpdate: "ethfast" =192.168.40.2...
D [30/Dec/2012:12:43:55 -0800] cupsdNetIFUpdate: "ethfast:1" =192.168.40.3...
D [30/Dec/2012:12:43:55 -0800] cupsdNetIFUpdate: "ethslow" =corn.betterworld.us...
D [30/Dec/2012:12:43:55 -0800] cupsdNetIFUpdate: "lo" = localhost...
D [30/Dec/2012:12:43:55 -0800] cupsdNetIFUpdate: "ethfast" =[xxx]%ethfast...
D [30/Dec/2012:12:43:55 -0800] cupsdNetIFUpdate: "ethslow" =[xxxx]%ethslow...
D [30/Dec/2012:12:43:55 -0800] process_browse_data:
HP_Officejet_Pro_8000_A809 at 192.168.40.35 not found...
</server log>

It is true that some printers aren't connected.  The default printer
is.

Eventually (c 5 minutes) I get an error pop up ("CUPS server error
There was an error during the CUPS operation:
'server-error-internal-error'") and the display of printers in the
print manager GUI becomes empty again.  There is no additional
information in .xsession-errors.

Server logs show some sessions being closed after exactly 5 minutes:
<cups logs>
 [30/Dec/2012:12:24:35 -0800] cupsdAcceptClient: 26 from 192.168.40.62:631 (IPv4)
D [30/Dec/2012:12:24:35 -0800] cupsdAcceptClient: 27 from192.168.40.62:631 (IPv4)
D [30/Dec/2012:12:24:35 -0800] cupsdReadClient: 27 POST / HTTP/1.1
D [30/Dec/2012:12:24:35 -0800] cupsdAuthorize: No authentication data provided.
D [30/Dec/2012:12:24:35 -0800] Create-Printer-Subscription /
D [30/Dec/2012:12:24:35 -0800]
cupsdCreateSubscription(con=0x8965570(27), uri="/")
D [30/Dec/2012:12:24:35 -0800] pullmethod="ippget"
D [30/Dec/2012:12:24:35 -0800] notify-lease-duration=86400
D [30/Dec/2012:12:24:35 -0800] notify-time-interval=0
D [30/Dec/2012:12:24:35 -0800] cupsdAddSubscription(mask=18f,
dest=(nil)(), job=(nil)(0), uri="(\

.....[lots of stuff]

D [30/Dec/2012:12:29:37 -0800] Closing client 26 after 300 seconds of
inactivity...
D [30/Dec/2012:12:29:37 -0800] cupsdCloseClient: 26
D [30/Dec/2012:12:29:37 -0800] cupsdAcceptClient: 26 from 192.168.40.62:631 (IPv4)
D [30/Dec/2012:12:29:37 -0800] cupsdReadClient: 26 POST / HTTP/1.1
D [30/Dec/2012:12:29:37 -0800] cupsdAuthorize: No authentication data provided.
D [30/Dec/2012:12:29:37 -0800] Get-Notifications /
D [30/Dec/2012:12:29:37 -0800] cupsdIsAuthorized: requesting-user-name="ross"
D [30/Dec/2012:12:29:37 -0800] cupsdProcessIPPRequest: 26 status_code=0 (successful-ok)
D [30/Dec/2012:12:29:37 -0800] cupsdCloseClient: 26
D [30/Dec/2012:12:29:41 -0800] Closing client 27 after 300 seconds of inactivity...
D [30/Dec/2012:12:29:41 -0800] cupsdCloseClient: 27
</cups log>

   * What exactly did you do (or not do) that was effective (or
     ineffective)?
Ran ps to see what program was running and examined packages and dependencies.
   * What was the outcome of this action?
Back to where I started, with no printing.
   * What outcome did you expect instead?
Printers available from this system.  My main concern is printing from
     iceweasel.

Context: This system has a minimalist installation of Xfce; for
example it does not have python-gnome-keyring, which this package
suggests.  This is a diskless home theatre PC with myth.  The server
is running Lenny and is 32 bits.  I am able to print from other
computers to the server, although I think that is mostly using the SMB
interface.  I am using the same account name as on the server, but the
two systems have different passwords.  CUPS is set to allow anyone to
print from the local network.

Googling turned up various reports of trouble with remote CUPS
printing and Xfce, but most of them were old, looked different, or had
no solution.  Searching on the exact error from .xsession-errors
turned up only
http://package-import.ubuntu.com/diffs/system-config-printer
which seems to make massive changes affecting server_is_publishing
among many other things.  Since it is an Ubuntu patch to Debian, I'm
not sure if it's relevant to the Debian package.

I am comfortable programming in python if there's something you'd
like me to do here.

*** End of the template - remove these lines ***

-- System Information:
Debian Release: 7.0
  APT prefers testing-updates
  APT policy: (500, 'testing-updates'), (500, 'testing')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 3.2.0-4-amd64 (SMP w/4 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash

Versions of packages system-config-printer depends on:
ii  gnome-icon-theme    3.4.0-2
ii  python              2.7.3~rc2-1
ii  python-cups         1.9.48-1+b1
ii  python-cupshelpers  1.3.7-3
ii  python-dbus         1.1.1-1
ii  python-glade2       2.24.0-3
ii  python-gnome2       2.28.1+dfsg-1
ii  python-gtk2         2.24.0-3
ii  python-libxml2      2.8.0+dfsg1-7
ii  python-notify       0.1.1-3
ii  python-support      1.0.15

Versions of packages system-config-printer recommends:
ii  cups-pk-helper              0.2.3-2
ii  system-config-printer-udev  1.3.7-3

Versions of packages system-config-printer suggests:
pn  python-gnomekeyring  <none>
pn  python-smbc          <none>
pn  sessioninstaller     <none>

-- no debconf information