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.\" @(#)7.t 6.6 (Berkeley) 4/17/91
There are several messages that may be generated by the
the line printer system. This section
categorizes the most common and explains the cause
for their generation. Where the message implies a failure,
directions are given to remedy the problem.
In the examples below, the name
is the name of the printer from the
lpr: \fIprinter\fP\|: unknown printer
database. Usually this is a typing mistake; however, it may indicate
a missing or incorrect entry in the /etc/printcap file.
lpr: \fIprinter\fP\|: jobs queued, but cannot start daemon.
on the local machine failed.
This usually means the printer server started at
boot time has died or is hung. Check the local socket
/dev/printer to be sure it still exists (if it does not exist,
Usually it is enough to get a super-user to type the following to
You can also check the state of the master printer daemon with the following.
% ps l`cat /usr/spool/lpd.lock`
Another possibility is that the
program is not set-user-id to \fIroot\fP, set-group-id to group \fIdaemon\fP.
lpr: \fIprinter\fP\|: printer queue is disabled
This means the queue was turned off with
% lpc disable \fIprinter\fP
from putting files in the queue. This is normally
done by the system manager when a printer is
going to be down for a long time. The
printer can be turned back on by a super-user with
waiting for \fIprinter\fP to become ready (offline ?)
The printer device could not be opened by the daemon.
This can happen for several reasons,
the most common is that the printer is turned off-line.
This message can also be generated if the printer is out
of paper, the paper is jammed, etc.
The actual reason is dependent on the meaning
of error codes returned by system device driver.
Not all printers supply enough information
to distinguish when a printer is off-line or having
trouble (e.g. a printer connected through a serial line).
Another possible cause of this message is
some other process, such as an output filter,
has an exclusive open on the device. Your only recourse
here is to kill off the offending program(s) and
\fIprinter\fP is ready and printing
program checks to see if a daemon process exists for
and prints the file \fIstatus\fP located in the spooling directory.
If the daemon is hung, a super user can use
to abort the current daemon and start a new one.
waiting for \fIhost\fP to come up
This implies there is a daemon trying to connect to the remote
to send the files in the local queue.
If the remote machine is up,
on the remote machine is probably dead or
hung and should be restarted as mentioned for
The files should be in the process of being transferred to the remote
If not, the local daemon should be aborted and started with
Warning: \fIprinter\fP is down
The printer has been marked as being unavailable with
Warning: no daemon present
The \fIlpd\fP process overseeing
the spooling queue, as specified in the ``lock'' file
in that directory, does not exist. This normally occurs
only when the daemon has unexpectedly died.
The error log file for the printer and the \fIsyslogd\fP logs
diagnostic from the deceased process.
To restart an \fIlpd\fP, use
% lpc restart \fIprinter\fP
no space on remote; waiting for queue to drain
This implies that there is insufficient disk space on the remote.
If the file is large enough, there will never be enough space on
the remote (even after the queue on the remote is empty). The solution here
is to move the spooling queue or make more free space on the remote.
lprm: \fIprinter\fP\|: cannot restart printer daemon
This case is the same as when
prints that the daemon cannot be started.
program can log many different messages using \fIsyslogd\fP\|(8).
Most of these messages are about files that can not
be opened and usually imply that the
file or the protection modes of the files are
incorrect. Files may also be inaccessible if people
manually manipulate the line printer system (i.e. they
In addition to messages generated by
spawns may log messages using \fIsyslogd\fP or to the error log file
(the file specified in the \fBlf\fP entry in \fIprintcap\fP\|).
This case is the same as when
reports that the daemon cannot be started.
cannot examine spool directory
Error messages beginning with ``cannot ...'' are usually because of
incorrect ownership or protection mode of the lock file, spooling