1585745 - Can't see (network) printers in print dialog, other software finds the printers

Status: RESOLVED INVALID

(Firefox :: Untriaged, defect)

Description

[Doron Behar]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:68.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/68.0

Steps to reproduce:

I'm using NixOS, CUPS and HPLIP as a driver for my specific network printer. I can see the network printer defined in CUPS' web interface and I can print from the command line with the command lp.

If I press Ctrl-p in Firefox, I expect to see my printer in the printing dialog.

Actual results:

I think it has been like that ever since 69.0.0. I've asked about this in the support forums: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1269804

I don't even see the PDF (print to file) "printer" there.

Expected results:

I expect to see the print-to-file option listed, along with the network printer I've defined with cups.

Comment 1

[Daniel Bodea [:danibodea]]

I will attempt to reproduce your issue, but at first look, it is unreproducible.
Can you, please, give detailed steps on how (exactly) you installed your printer? Maybe give a tutorial that you used to install it?

To understand, the problem is that the "Print to file" option is missing from the print dialog (CTRL+P), right?
Does the installed printer appear and function correctly?
Last but not least, which exact version of Firefox are you using and seeing this issue reproduce on?

Thank you for your contribution!

Comment 2

[Doron Behar]

Attachment: Troubleshooting Info raw data

The process for setting up my network printer is pretty straight forward: After cups is installed using my distribution's package manager, I start the service and then add the printer through the administration page (usually http://localhost:631/admin).

I can print a test page using cups web interface and I can print files using `lp` - the command line front-end of cups.

Firefox however, doesn't show me in the print dialog my printer **and** it doesn't show me the "Print to file" option.

I've managed to install different pinned versions of Firefox my distro offers to install. I've installed them with:

```
nix-env -iA nixpkgs.firefox-esr-60
nix-env -iA nixpkgs.firefox-esr-68
nix-env -iA nixpkgs.firefox-beta-bin
```

With all of those versions and launching Firefox in safe-mode, no printers showed in the print dialog. My suspicion is that this a distribution specific issue. With what Linux distro did you test it? For example, does Firefox depend on specific dbus settings to search for printers?

I can show here the build configuration we have on our default version of Firefox

```

Comment 3

[Doron Behar]

Attachment: Troubleshooting info raw data of version 69

My previous attachment was of version 60, this is the default version offered by NixOS.

Comment 4

[Doron Behar]

The process for setting up my network printer is pretty straight forward: After cups is installed using my distribution's package manager, I start the service and then add the printer through the administration page (usually http://localhost:631/admin).

I can print a test page using cups web interface and I can print files using lp - the command line front-end of cups.

Firefox however, doesn't show me in the print dialog my printer and it doesn't show me the "Print to file" option.

I've managed to install different pinned versions of Firefox my distro offers to install. I've installed them with:

nix-env -iA nixpkgs.firefox-esr-60
nix-env -iA nixpkgs.firefox-esr-68
nix-env -iA nixpkgs.firefox-beta-bin

With all of those versions and launching Firefox in safe-mode, no printers showed in the print dialog. My suspicion is that this a distribution specific issue. With what Linux distro did you test it? For example, does Firefox depend on specific dbus settings to search for printers?

I can show here the build configuration we have on our default version of Firefox

(In reply to Doron Behar from comment #2)

The process for setting up my network printer is pretty straight forward:
After cups is installed using my distribution's package manager, I start the
service and then add the printer through the administration page (usually
http://localhost:631/admin).

I can print a test page using cups web interface and I can print files using
lp - the command line front-end of cups.

Firefox however, doesn't show me in the print dialog my printer and it
doesn't show me the "Print to file" option.

I've managed to install different pinned versions of Firefox my distro
offers to install. I've installed them with:

nix-env -iA nixpkgs.firefox-esr-60
nix-env -iA nixpkgs.firefox-esr-68
nix-env -iA nixpkgs.firefox-beta-bin

With all of those versions and launching Firefox in safe-mode, no printers
showed in the print dialog. My suspicion is that this a distribution
specific issue. With what Linux distro did you test it? For example, does
Firefox depend on specific dbus settings to search for printers?

I can show here the build configuration we have on our default version of
Firefox

Comment 5

[Doron Behar]

Sorry for all the noise, I'm not that used to the interface of this bug tracker. I just wanted to mention that I've asked the NixOS community as for this issue here:

https://discourse.nixos.org/t/firefox-doesnt-show-my-printers-anymore/4313

Comment 6

[Doron Behar]

The problem was that GTK printer backends weren't found, see this comment: https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/issues/69559#issuecomment-541045007