527381 - Paper size defaults to 11x17

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(MailNews Core :: Printing, defect)

Description

[jsl]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux x86_64; en-US; rv:1.9.0.3) Gecko/2008092807 Firefox/3.0.3
Build Identifier: Thunderbird 2.0.0.23

When trying to print email the printer asks for 11x17 paper size.  There is no paper size control accessible from Page/Page Setup.  System/Admin/Printing default size is letter.  /etc/papersize is letter.  Problem began after major updates came in for ubuntu 8.04 hardy heron kernel and xpdf was forced on us.  Printer is HP 4V through samba network.  Problem was also seen in Open Office spreadsheets and pdfs but deleting printer and reloading printer driver has cleared those applications. Xpdf was removed and another reader installed prior to recovering Open Office and pdf print control.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. open email
2. print
3.
Actual Results:  
printer asks for 11x17 paper size

Expected Results:  
default size; letter

Access to available paper sizes should be available from page setup but is not.

In the past (prior to the major updates) I recall a printer control helper dialog being available allowing manually changing paper size.  There seems to be a setting stored somewhere in the system carried over from manually changing the default for a one time print job.  After searching for about 10 hours I´m unable to locate it or correct the problem.

Comment 1

[Ludovic Hirlimann [:Usul]]

(In reply to comment #0)
> User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux x86_64; en-US; rv:1.9.0.3)
> Gecko/2008092807 Firefox/3.0.3
> Build Identifier: Thunderbird 2.0.0.23
> 

> Expected Results:  
> default size; letter

A4 ;-)
 
> Access to available paper sizes should be available from page setup but is not.
>


Any chance that you could test with Thunderbird 3.0b4 and tell us if it's better there ?

Comment 2

[rsx11m]

(In reply to comment #1)
> > default size; letter
> A4 ;-)

Ideally, that should be part of the localization, assuming that localizers know best which paper format is used in their region (and letter is a safe default even when printing on A4 - it will always fit, whereas printing A4 on letter size crops away about an inch, or 1.76cm to be exact).

The default paper should be defined by the print.printer_CUPS/*.print_paper_* preferences. Go into Edit > Preferences > Advanced > General > Config Editor and enter print_paper into the search bar on top of the preference window that pops up. Change the preferences that look wrong to their appropriate value and see if it sticks.

There have been reports that changing settings won't stick on SeaMonkey 2.0 under Linux, thus the same likely applies to Thunderbird 3.0.

Comment 3

[rsx11m]

... using the print properties dialog, that is, changing preferences directly in the Config Editor should always work.

Comment 4

[jsl]

Spent a few hours trying to load Thunderbird 3.0b4 but was not successful.  This is an AMD64 machine and the /usr/lib32 directory does not have needed files.  After much searching I was unable to locate the correct versions of libnspr4-0d and libcurl3.

The Config Editor was checked before making the bug report and all looks good there.  Only the /tmp directory shows paper sizes other than letter.

Comment 5

[jsl]

Problem solved.  Printing control to change default paper size was regained using synaptic and loading GtkLP.  The interface accessed wherever it is the printer settings are stored and allowed changing paper size.  Considerable time was spent looking at the various prefs.js files in directories for firefox and thunderbird as well as the config editor.  I was unable to locate the page size setting this way, maybe the value is stored with the printer and not in firefox directories.  Troubleshooting this came across other user comments about Thunderbird not carrying over printer controls available in firefox.  Please throw my straw on the pile to migrate printer controls to T-bird.

Comment 6

[rsx11m]

Firefox and Thunderbird are two different and independent applications, thus
I don't see how this migration would be performed. Neither Thunderbird 2.0 nor 3.0 are looking for a Firefox profile to migrate when first started up.

If there are no preferences in prefs.js, then the underlying backend (either CUPS or apparently GTK in your case) should care of the management. If it uses different settings for the two applications, it's more a problem in CUPS/GTK than on Thunderbird's side as it simply uses the backend functions provided.

Comment 7

[jsl]

Clarification on using the term migrate. Problem with print function does not appear to be any fault of Thunderbird.  Migrate was used in the context of request to add more printer control functions directly into Thunderbird Page Setup.  Controls similar to those existing in other applications.

Comment 8

[rsx11m]

(In reply to comment #5)
> Thunderbird not carrying over printer controls available in firefox.

Ok, I think the issue may be that you are seeing controls in Firefox 3.x which you don't see in Thunderbird 2.0, correct? The upcoming Thunderbird 3.0 version will share the same Print dialog as Firefox 3.5, thus would hopefully take care of any different behavior and be closer tied to the operating system functions. There may still be options which are only available using OS tools, apparently  GtkLP is one of them to access the CUPS settings through gnome.

Comment 9

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

jsl do you still see this problem with version 7 or newer?

Comment 10

[Joshua Cranmer [:jcranmer]]

RESOLVED INCOMPLETE due to lack of response to last question. If you feel this change was made in error, please respond to this bug with your reasons why.