When I print certain webpages with firefox, or when I use atril to print
a PDF produced by "Save as PDF" in firefox, it does not work. The
printer produces a single "click" sound, then nothing.
I don't know whether it is all PDF's/webpages or only some. An example
is the simple html page
https://www.dybdal.dk/kbp-jd/
I have presented the problem for ChatGPT, and here is some of its output:
Let me restate the really important facts to make sure we’re aligned:
Debian Trixie 13.3
Native firefox-esr, not snap/flatpak
lp < text ✅ works
Atril prints some PDFs ✅
Atril fails on Firefox “Save to PDF” PDFs ❌
Firefox Print → Save to PDF works
Firefox Print → printer ❌
Printer clicks once → job dies
No CUPS errors logged
Worked before → broke after system updates
That combination points very strongly to a PDF compatibility
regression, not a driver or CUPS core issue.
and
> Fastest confirmation test (very telling)
>
> Take a Firefox-generated PDF and down-convert it:
> gs -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -dCompatibilityLevel=1.4 \
> -dPDFSETTINGS=/printer \
> -o fixed.pdf original.pdf
>
> Now try printing fixed.pdf with Atril.
> If it prints
>
> => 100% confirmed PDF filter incompatibility
and it does print.
My knowledge of how printing in Linux works is very limited. There
should be absolutely nothing non-standard in my printer setup (an HP
laser printer, standard installation in Trixie).
ChatGPT suggests some workarounds, of which the one I liked doesn't
work, and the others require more than pressing ctl-p to print.
Is this a known problem?
Thanks,
Jesper
--
Jesper Dybdal
https://www.dybdal.dk
