When the cups server is in a stopped state with the StateMessage /usr/lib/cups/backend/lpd failed, you can review the file /var/log/cups/error_log.
. What caused this? Well, I am not really sure, however the cups server error logs (http://localhost:631/admin/log/error_log, or alternatively /var/log/cups/error_log) tell at least part of the story, as shown below.
W [25/Apr/2012:14:47:31 -0400] [Job 1676612] Remote host did not respond with command status byte after 300 seconds!
E [25/Apr/2012:14:47:31 -0400] PID 29000 (/usr/lib/cups/backend/lpd) stopped with status 1!
I [25/Apr/2012:14:47:31 -0400] Hint: Try setting the LogLevel to “debug” to find out more.
I [25/Apr/2012:14:47:31 -0400] [Job 1676612] Backend returned status 1 (failed)
I [25/Apr/2012:14:47:31 -0400] Saving printers.conf…
I [25/Apr/2012:14:56:02 -0400] Adding start banner page “none” to job 1676622.
From the error log, you can see that the communication with the printer timed out which caused the lpd to exit with an error status. Due to this error the cups server has stopped the printer.
lpq -Pmyprinter where myprinter is your printer name.
The printer is listed as not ready as is shown in the output below.
printer is not ready
no entries
In your /etc/printer/cups.conf, you’ll see a “State Stopped” error message followed by the lpd failed line.
State Stopped
StateMessage /usr/lib/cups/backend/lpd failed
To correct the problem, you can replace the 2 lines above with this line:
State Idle
Restart the cups server using service cups restart or /etc/init.d/cups restart.
Run another lpq -Pmyprinter and you’ll see the status has changed to “ready”.
printer is ready
no entries
Jose
May 23, 2012 at 4:31 am
Thank you so much!!!