Closed Bug 310687 Opened 19 years ago Closed 17 years ago

Browser hangs attempting to print or preview (linux / CUPS)

Categories

(Core :: Printing: Output, defect)

Product:
Core
Component:
Printing: Output
Version:
1.7 Branch
Platform:
x86
Linux
Type:
defect
Priority:
Not set
Severity:
critical

Tracking

()

Status:
RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

People

(Reporter: wam, Unassigned)

References

(
URL
)

Details

(Keywords: hang) 

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.7.11) Gecko/20050729
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.7.11) Gecko/20050729

I commonly save recipes from FoodTV.com to PS files on my SuSE 8.2 (all stock)
Linux PC. I click to one of the shows, then to a specific recipe page, then to
the full page print link on that recipe page. This gives a 2nd instance of
mozilla with just the recipe, no other cruft. I then try to save the recipe by
clicking the 'Print" button on the 2nd instance of mozilla. Both instances hang
at this point, I must kill them using killall from a shell prompt.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.www.foodtx.com/
2.choose a show from the drop-down menu
3.pick a recipe from that show
4.click the 'Full Page' print link on the recipe page.
5.click the print button on the 2nd instance of Mozilla, I hang there
Actual Results:  
Both instances of mozilla 1.7.11 hang, must be killed with killall from shell prompt

Expected Results:  
Printed the page to a PS file & returned :-).

This works AOK under Mozilla 1.16 (on this same box), which I kept around just
in case :-).
I printed the recipe here without problems:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/cda/recipe_print/0,1946,FOOD_9936_31786_PRINT-RECIPE-FULL-PAGE,00.html

I tested linux SeaMonkey trunk build 2005093005, 1.0 branch build 2005092907 and
Mozilla 1.7.11.  Does that URL print ok for you?  Can you try a more recent build?
http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/seamonkey/nightly/contrib/latest-mozilla1.8/
Assignee: general → printing
Severity: normal → critical
Component: General → Printing
Keywords: hang
Product: Mozilla Application Suite → Core
QA Contact: general
Version: unspecified → 1.7 Branch
I just tried the link you e-mailed to me & it hung :-). VERY repeatable for me,
works AOK w/ Mozilla 1.6.(In reply to comment #0)
> User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.7.11)
Gecko/20050729
> Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.7.11)
Gecko/20050729
> 
> I commonly save recipes from FoodTV.com to PS files on my SuSE 8.2 (all stock)
> Linux PC. I click to one of the shows, then to a specific recipe page, then to
> the full page print link on that recipe page. This gives a 2nd instance of
> mozilla with just the recipe, no other cruft. I then try to save the recipe by
> clicking the 'Print" button on the 2nd instance of mozilla. Both instances hang
> at this point, I must kill them using killall from a shell prompt.
> 
> Reproducible: Always
> 
> Steps to Reproduce:
> 1.www.foodtx.com/
> 2.choose a show from the drop-down menu
> 3.pick a recipe from that show
> 4.click the 'Full Page' print link on the recipe page.
> 5.click the print button on the 2nd instance of Mozilla, I hang there
> Actual Results:  
> Both instances of mozilla 1.7.11 hang, must be killed with killall from shell
prompt
> 
> Expected Results:  
> Printed the page to a PS file & returned :-).
> 
> This works AOK under Mozilla 1.16 (on this same box), which I kept around just
> in case :-).
can you download the URL from comment 1 that hangs for you and reduce it down to
a testcase?  Just remove something from the html and if it doesn't hang anymore
put it back.  If it does hang, leave it out and remove something else.  Repeat
until removing anything makes the hang go away.

Also, try a more recent build or a clean profile.
I am unclear what you want in your last request. This example is pretty simple
as it is, I see little room for more simplification :-). Please advise.
The example is pretty simple, but it could probably be a lot simpler and still
hang.  Creating a testcase would show what part of the page is making it hang
for you.
Ahhh, I see. The 'print page' button renders the recipe page in essentially
text-only, so no other cruft to remove. When I hit the print-page button on the
2nd instance of the browser (containing the simplified text-only stuff), the
button doesn't even unclick, it hangs *IMMEDIATELY*, doesn't refresh pages or
anything. I don't even get the dialog asking whether to print to a file or
straight to the printer, just *IMMEDIATE* hang. Capece :-) ?
This problem also shows up when I try to print out an E-mail by right-clicking
on it & selecting the print item from the dropdown menu .... seems that
*whenever* I try to print anything which opens the print-dialog, it hangs *HARD*
....
It sounds like something is misconfigured, perhaps XPrint.  Do you have the
XPSERVERLIST environment variable set?
In response to last question: No, XPSERVERLIST is NOT set. This box is a
box-stock SuSE 8.2 install, w/ a fair amount of other goodies installed (Intel
compilers, Mozilla 1.6.n & 1.7.11, various plugins, Opera (browser)), but
otherwise BOX-STOCK, no re-compiled kernels, all stock networking, bla bla bla.
Mozilla 1.6 works fine (for printing & browsing), as does Opera & Konqueror &
all other X11/Motif apps I run, including some I write.
once it hangs, can you go to a terminal and do:

% ps u -C mozilla-bin
% kill -SEGV [pid_of_mozilla-bin]

that should trigger talkback.  Submit the talkback report.  Run
[mozilla_dir]/components/talkback/talkback and not the talkback ID.  You can
look it up at http://talkback-public.mozilla.org/talkback/fastfind.jsp and grab
the stack and attach it here or just note the talkback ID here.
As I write this, there are 6 instances of mozilla-bin running, which should I
signal ? Please advise ....
William, you say this happens any time you print, not just on foodtv recipes? Does it hang when you select File->Print preview?

1.7 includes support for printing through CUPS. It's possible that firefox is hanging while trying to read a list of CUPS printers. Could you try setting the pref "postscript.cups.enabled" to false? This should disable the CUPS subsystem.
It hangs whenever I try to print ANYTHING. I don't have CUPS working, so I save everything to a file (something.ps) & queue it for printing across my network w/ 1 of my SGI's :-). The 'Print-to-file/printer' dialog never comes up, it hangs as soon as I hit the print button at the upper right of the browser.
It hangs when I pull down the file->print-preview menu :-).
William replied to comment 12 in email:

> I don't use cups, I save stuff to files & queue them for printing across my
> network from my SGI's. I couldn't locate the pref you mentioned .... 

William, you need to create the pref if you don't have it already. See <http://kb.mozillazine.org/About:config> for some instructions on how to do that.

While you're at it, please see if you have the file "libcups.so.2" on your system. It would probably be in /usr/lib but maybe not. This file contains the CUPS client code that mozilla uses. I'd like to know if it's on your system, whether or not you use it.
Summary: Tried to print recipe page from FoodTV.com to PS file, browser hangs. → Browser hangs attempting to print or preview
libcups.so.2 is present & accounted for, in /usr/lib. I haven't done anything about the pref-bit because I didn't need to w/ Mozilla 1.6, which I left installed & still use. I shouldn't (IMHO) have to do a bunch of stuff to migrate from 1.6 to 1.7.n .... I am also *not* sure that is on the right track. The whole browser hangs *hard* (the print button doesn't even unclick) when I try to print from either the print button at top-right or the print-menu-button. This sounds like some other system-software (glibc ?) incompatibility to me ....
William, my theory is that this is a problem with the CUPS software on your system. Mozilla is querying CUPS for a list of printers and the query is hanging for some reason. Mozilla 1.6 didn't include CUPS support so naturally it wouldn't display a problem like this.

The problem you describe doesn't occur on my system and I'm not aware of any similar bug reports from other people. If you're not willing to help troubleshoot this issue, the only recourse is to close this bug as WORKSFORME.
I never have gotten CUPS to work, spent some time trying a while back, but nogo. That's why I save everything to files & print across my LAN. I opened up about:config, but saw no postscript.cups.enable variable to disable. What now ?
Summary: Browser hangs attempting to print or preview → Browser hangs attempting to print or preview (linux / CUPS)
William, are you still experiencing this? I see I gave the wrong preference name in comment 12.

Could you try creating a boolean pref called "print.postscript.cups.enabled" with the value "false"? If this resolves your problem, it points strongly to a problem with your local CUPS software.
My local CUPS is *fried* :-). I always print by saving whatever I want to print to a file & then printing it from one of my SGI's :-). However .... this all worked AOK w/ Mozilla 1.6 (still does), & fails *hard* w/ mozilla 1.7.12. That difference in behavior is the problem :-).
William, have you had a chance to try the instructions from comment 19?
To be frank, I have no idea *how* to 'create a boolean pref called ....' :-). If you could provide a bit of guidance or a pointer to some documentation, I will try it.
I have the same problem with Firefox 1.5.0.1, downloaded a few days ago, on the same Linux box, SuSE 8.2, kernel 2.4.20-4GB, all stock. Happens for all prints ....
(In reply to comment #19)
> William, are you still experiencing this? I see I gave the wrong preference
> name in comment 12.
> 
> Could you try creating a boolean pref called "print.postscript.cups.enabled"
> with the value "false"? If this resolves your problem, it points strongly to a
> problem with your local CUPS software.
> 

I just tried this (following the directions from an earlier reply which I had overlooked earlier, sorry)& I don't see the newly created preference. Please advise ....

(In reply to comment #24)
> (In reply to comment #19)
> > William, are you still experiencing this? I see I gave the wrong preference
> > name in comment 12.
> > 
> > Could you try creating a boolean pref called "print.postscript.cups.enabled"
> > with the value "false"? If this resolves your problem, it points strongly to a
> > problem with your local CUPS software.
> > 
> 
> I just tried this (following the directions from an earlier reply which I had
> overlooked earlier, sorry)& I don't see the newly created preference. Please
> advise ....
> 


Please disregard, I had a typo the 1st time. I am proceeding w/ this ....
(In reply to comment #25)
> (In reply to comment #24)
> > (In reply to comment #19)
> > > William, are you still experiencing this? I see I gave the wrong preference
> > > name in comment 12.
> > > 
> > > Could you try creating a boolean pref called "print.postscript.cups.enabled"
> > > with the value "false"? If this resolves your problem, it points strongly to a
> > > problem with your local CUPS software.
> > > 
> > 
> > I just tried this (following the directions from an earlier reply which I had
> > overlooked earlier, sorry)& I don't see the newly created preference. Please
> > advise ....
> > 
> 
> 
> Please disregard, I had a typo the 1st time. I am proceeding w/ this ....
> 


I just tried this w/ Mozilla 1.7.12 (same as always w/ this bug) & still nogo, *HARD* hang in all instances of the browser. Please advise ....
William, setting the "postscript.cups.enabled" preference to false didn't work for you?  Or you couldn't figure out a way to set it?
(In reply to comment #27)
> William, setting the "postscript.cups.enabled" preference to false didn't work
> for you?  Or you couldn't figure out a way to set it?
> 

I *did* get it set & it *didn't* cure the problem :-). I am also having this problem w/ FireFox 1.5.0.1 .... :-).

This page makes firefox hang on print and on print preview:
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YUV
Windows XP, Firefox version 1.5.0.9 and 2.0.0.1, on two different printers.
Linux/Ubuntu Edgy, Firefox version 2.0.0.1, two different installations.
Completely reproducible.

Torbjorn
The wikipedia issue was a different bug and should be fixed now in current trunk build.
Is this still an issue in current trunk build?
Can't reproduce with steps from bug report nor from comment 1 on current linux nightly. Resolving WorksForMe. Please reopen if you still see this in current nightly builds.
Status: UNCONFIRMED → RESOLVED
Closed: 17 years ago
Resolution: --- → WORKSFORME
I am not using the current nightly build, I am using what ships w/ FC6 (& now F7) for myself & customers, i.e. firefox 1.5.n.n, & both still have this behavior :-). I hear F8 ships w/ Firefox 2.0.n, I will try that on the next box I build (or might upgrade 1 of my FC6 boxen) & we'll see. But, Firefox 1.5.n.n under FC6 & F7 *definitely* still reporduce this behavior :-) ....
Resolution: WORKSFORME → INCOMPLETE
> i.e. firefox 1.5.n.n

That has known unpatched security issues (unpatched, because it's not supported any longer).  I strongly urge you to upgrade to a supported release...

That said, comment 31 is not talking about Firefx 2.0.x but rather the trunk (which will become Firefox 3).
You need to log in before you can comment on or make changes to this bug.