Various printing problems

  • Thread starter Thread starter Xplicare
  • Start date Start date
X

Xplicare

Hi everybody,

I've been running a Windows 2003 server with 2X ApplicationServer 7.1 for some time now and apart from some minor issues everything's ok. Printing from 2X published applications however is often a problem for my users. Here are a few:

1. Our Ubuntu (9.04) users don't see their own (locally attached) printers when they want to print from a published application. The only way to access one of their printers is by creating a desktop launcher that starts their program like this:
Code: 
/opt/2X/Client/bin/appserverclient -s servername -u username -p password -a application_name -P "Printer name"
This method works, but now only one printer is available.
Using the option (to have 2X use the printers from /etc/printcap) doesn't work.

Code: 
-P "printcap"
It just adds a printer named printcap to Windows.
Adding printers in the 2X client GUI doesn't work; they don't show up. By the way; what do you have to put in the field 'Printer Driver Name'? I think it is the device URI (because that's the only value it accepts), but I'm not sure.
The manual doesn't mention this part.

2. One of our Windows XP users has a HP LaserJet 4200n network printer. When she uses a 2X published application, the printer shows up as a mapped printer (HP LaserJet 4200 PCL 6 (from COMPUTER_NAME). The trouble is that the default configuration is wrong (letter instead of A4 paper, wrong tray setting, duplex unit not installed etc.). She's able to adjust some of the settings in the print dialog, but all settings are discarded once she's logged out. I tried adjusting the printer settings of her mapped printer from the server console (as administrator), but all settings are gone once she's logged out.
Where does Windows pull the (wrong) printer settings from? They're correct on her own computer.

3. The user from point 2 has access to the 2X universal printer, so that should solve her printing problems, right? Well, there are three options: 'Print to default printer', 'Select printer before printing' and 'Use the following printer'. Printing to the default printer sometimes does nothing, the print task simply disappears immediately. Select printer before printing, doesn't always show the dialog window. Using a fixed printer for 2X universal printing mostly works, but this doesn't solve the problem from point 2.

Maybe simple problems for seasoned Windows/2X administrators, but I'm stuck :cry:

Thanks in advance for any help you can give me.

Paul
 
which version of 2x windows client are you using? also try to upgrade your 2x linux client to Version 7.3.0 (720)as a fix has been released to Improve printing functionality and to handle printers with spaces in there name.
 
Hi Jurgen,

Sorry for the late reply; we've been busy testing various settings and clients. The problem is still somewhat complex, but we've solved part of it. Here's the status so far. The Windows and Linux clients have been upgraded to the latest (7.3) version. This solved some of the problems, but not all:

  • Printing from a 2X published application when connected by HSDPA can be problematic. The connection sometimes drops, when the user re-establishes the connection, she can continue to use the application, but the mapped printer's gone. It's not the biggest problem though, since the HSDPA-connection is too slow at her location to be usable.
  • Printing from a computer in one subnet (e.g. 192.168.168.x) to a printer in another subnet (e.g. 192.168.1.x) works for local applications (in Ubuntu), but not for 2X published applications. We've (temporarily) solved this by placing the netbooks in the same subnet as the printer.
  • The universal printer sometimes seems to stop working; if you print to the universal printer you get a dialog box listing all available printers, but the end result is a blank page. This is the case for all printers (local and mapped) and can sometimes be resolved by disabling and then re-enabling Universal Printing from the 2X-console. The method that always works is restarting the server, but this is of course far from desirable.
  • Multifunction and USB-printers are a pain; sometimes they don't get mapped at all. If they're mapped and you print to the printer from a 2X published application, a universal printer job appears in the client's print spooler. This job then disappears and reappears in the list in 1-2 second intervals. Nothing is ever printed, but the print spooler is of course busy.
  • If a user starts a 2X application and closes it, we've set a script that will log off this user from the server (shutdown -l). We did this to stop an annoying problem: if the user starts the application again, he sees an empty blue window (the server's wallpaper, no icons or taskbar visible). This script resolves that problem, unless the application has opened an 'invisible' dialog box (that is, invisible to the user, because 2X doesn't show it). The current workaround is a 2X published link to the application TSlogoff.exe that will forcefully log off the user from the server.
    The trouble is that sometimes printer mapping doesn't work anymore after this procedure. It's hard to find a pattern.

The most urgent problem is the crashing universal printer. The trouble is that it doesn't really crash (if it did, we could script an automatic restart of the service), it just doesn't work properly anymore. We can't detect it automatically, we 'detect' it by the phone calls from angry users :roll:
More suggestions are welcome.

Paul
 
# Printing from a 2X published application when connected by HSDPA can be problematic. The connection sometimes drops, when the user re-establishes the connection, she can continue to use the application, but the mapped printer's gone. It's not the biggest problem though, since the HSDPA-connection is too slow at her location to be usable.

yes,This issue might occur in slow connection

# Printing from a computer in one subnet (e.g. 192.168.168.x) to a printer in another subnet (e.g. 192.168.1.x) works for local applications (in Ubuntu), but not for 2X published applications. We've (temporarily) solved this by placing the netbooks in the same subnet as the printer.


# The universal printer sometimes seems to stop working; if you print to the universal printer you get a dialog box listing all available printers, but the end result is a blank page. This is the case for all printers (local and mapped) and can sometimes be resolved by disabling and then re-enabling Universal Printing from the 2X-console. The method that always works is restarting the server, but this is of course far from desirable.

This issue is being address and it might be solved in next available build.



# Multifunction and USB-printers are a pain; sometimes they don't get mapped at all. If they're mapped and you print to the printer from a 2X published application, a universal printer job appears in the client's print spooler. This job then disappears and reappears in the list in 1-2 second intervals. Nothing is ever printed, but the print spooler is of course busy.

This issue is being address and it might be solved in next available build.


# If a user starts a 2X application and closes it, we've set a script that will log off this user from the server (shutdown -l). We did this to stop an annoying problem: if the user starts the application again, he sees an empty blue window (the server's wallpaper, no icons or taskbar visible). This script resolves that problem, unless the application has opened an 'invisible' dialog box (that is, invisible to the user, because 2X doesn't show it). The current workaround is a 2X published link to the application TSlogoff.exe that will forcefully log off the user from the server.
 
hi ,

i have installed 2X server Ver4.3 on application server and 2X client Ver7.3 on ubuntu/linux mint machines.
i have two problems.

1 #
I tried the code /opt/2X/Client/bin/appserverclient -s 192.168.1.2 -u sam -p xyz -a inpage -P "printer name" (hp 1320 or any network printer) through launcher in every version of ubuntu and linux mint (currently using Linux mint 7). application starts and works fine in all versions.printing from local or network printers is fine, but fail to get prints from local or network printers through 2X applications using above code.

2 #
when i updated 2X client ver7.3 to ver10, application server desktop of the user is opened instead of opening desired application. when i reinstall the ver7.3, its OK.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top