foo2hp, !HP2600n, and RHEL5/Scientific Linux foomatic
I am using a clone of RHEL5, approximately the same as Fedora Core 6, and get a funny color Alignment offset when using the otherwise wonderful foo2hp driver.
RHEL5 uses CUPS 1.3.7 . I do not have the problem with Ubuntu Hardy, which also uses CUPS 1.3.7 . They use different versions of foomatic.
I set the CUPS "printer options" Alignment Offset (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow) to all 0, and print a test page. The colors are offset by -100 lines, downwards. If I set the offsets to +2 or -2, the offsets are small. The numbers stored in the /etc/cups/ppd/myprinter.ppd file look OK.
It turns out that the foomatic that ships with RHEL5 does not properly parse the PPD file that comes with foo2hp. I could replace foomatic, but it would probably get broken by the next upgrade. It is easier to just leave the offsets out of the PPD. I copied the original foo2hp-supplied /usr/share/cups/model/HP-!Color_LaserJet_2600n.ppd.gz file to a simplified version, /usr/share/cups/model/!HP2600n-khl.ppd.gz, attached to this page. Simple fix, I deleted all the lines starting with
OpenGroup: Alignment (in rows)/Alignment (in rows)
and ending with
CloseGroup: Alignment (in rows)
I then used the CUPS administration page to change the driver PPD. That simplifies the configuration of Printer Options, too. If you do need to offset all the colors, use the original driver.
Updates of foo2hp will overwrite the original PPD file, but leave the modified copy alone, so that keeps me on the upgrade path.
debug stuff, historical value only
See the attachments on the right side.
Software re-downloaded and compiled Feb 7 2010, around noon PST.
sc.ppd is from /etc/cups/ppd/ and is the modified ppd file that cups made. Note that the offsets are zero in that file.
foo2hp_msg_01 is an excerpt from /var/log/messages, which shows the error offsets.