Thursday, November 29, 2012

Linux stuffy print "Q" tip

Watched a guy on TV live with wild turkeys, he hung wid the byrds from egg to adults. What an interesting adventure, much like living with 6 cats. Only I'm not getting down on their level. No offense to you cat whisperers out there. My nose is always clogged with cat stuffs and breathing thru a filter is snot the way to go thru life. This brings me to the point of this blog, the print que.

Ever since acquiring my printers there has been this thing hanging over my head. You send a print to the printer and it sits in a que until the PC is done with it and the printer is ready for it. If by chance these events never happen.......................you will wait for...ev....er. When your PC crashes at least MS XP gives you the blue screen of death, Linux freezes (penguins like that), but when printing fails, nothing. "Warning, warning Will Robinson", would be nice. Linux does have printer tools but in the version I have they are not in an graphic application like GIMP or a print application like PhotoPrint. They are part of the system software, so if you don't read the manual (if you can find one) or search the user forums (I don't need no stinkin map!), you won't know. You will suffer a stuffy "Q" and get no prints.

Is there a solution, yes. I finally went to a forum on line and asked the question. There are probably a few answers but I grabbed the first one, it works fine for me. First I'll set the scene.

 You been trying to print artwork. Regular docs print OK but artwork can have changed settings, size, orientation, paper. No matter, no prints. Code heads usually go to the dreaded command-line (oh no, not the command-line, what if I blow up something or fry my PC?). Relax, but just a little. Deep breaths and unclench your death-grip on the mouse. Open your web browser, yes the web browser. It can do a few things off line like speak to your PC.

OK, now type: "localhost:631/jobs/" into the address bar and hit the return. Up pops a screen with your print "Q". You can now select which jobs you want to cancel. I had three jobs all stalled. I canceled them, cleared the "Q". It worked so easy. I was able to adjust my print settings and print like crazy. Now I don't know if this will work on MS Windows system, it works on my Linux Mint system. So, you need to inquire of the community who have similar hardware and software as you, if you have the same problem. In the parley of techie-dom, "google it". I hope I helped un-stuff your stuffy "Q" and free your printing.

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