Why am I unable to print from the 'File -> Print' menu in the MATLAB editor in my Linux machine running CUPS?

I am unable to print from the 'File->Print' menu in the MATLAB Editor, but I am able to print using the PRINT command. I am running Linux with the CUPS/IPP printing system and all my other programs are able to print.

When I invoke PRINTDLG, it produces the error "There are no properly configured printers on your system". If I execute the Java command:

javax.print.PrintServiceLookup.lookupDefaultPrintService

I obtain an empty string.

Answer 1

[MathWorks Support Team]

When you print from the 'File->Print' menu, a totally different code path is taken from that used when you execute the PRINT command. When you print from the menu, Java is used to send the print job whereas the PRINT command interfaces directly with the operating system. In some cases, the results obtained from these two printing methods is different. In this case, Java is unable to find the default printer in your system, so printing from the menu fails.

This issue might be produced by a misconfiguration of the CUPS printing system.

Below, you will find the uncommented lines of the file '/etc/cups/cupsd.conf' for a Linux Fedora Core 4 running CUPS 1.1.17 that has a unique printer called Jupiter.

 LogFilePerm 0600

 MaxLogSize 2000000000

 LogLevel info

 Printcap /etc/printcap

 <Location />

 Order Deny,Allow

 Deny From All

 Allow From 127.0.0.1

 </Location>

 <Location /admin>

 AuthType Basic

 AuthClass System

 Order Deny,Allow

 Deny From All

 Allow From 127.0.0.1

 </Location>

 <Location /printers/jupiter>

 Order Deny,Allow

 Deny From All

 Allow From 127.0.0.1

 AuthType None

 </Location>

 Browsing On

 BrowseProtocols cups

 BrowseOrder Deny,Allow

 BrowseAllow from @LOCAL

 Listen 127.0.0.1:631

Also, here are the uncommented lines of the file '/etc/cups/printers.conf'

 <DefaultPrinter jupiter>

 DeviceURI lpd://printers/jupiter

 Location

 Info

 State Idle

 Accepting Yes

 JobSheets none none

 QuotaPeriod 0

 PageLimit 0

 KLimit 0

 </Printer>

You may also access 'cupsd.conf' through the web interface by visiting the following link (provided you are accessing the machine locally):

 http://localhost:631

Using the configuration files above, you might be able to print both from the file menu and using the PRINT command. Moreover, the output of the Java call that looks for the default printer is

javax.print.PrintServiceLookup.lookupDefaultPrintService

ans =

IPP Printer : jupiter

We have seen that in some Linux distributions, such as Debian 3.1, there is more that one line with the 'Listen' parameter in the CUPS configuration file. This line reads

 Listen /var/run/cups/cups.sock

Commenting this line out and restarting the CUPS service sometimes solved the issue. After restarting CUPS, close and open MATLAB before you try to print again.

Sometimes, leaving the above line uncommented and commenting this line:

 Listen localhost:631

also works. However, commenting out this line will disable the GUI for updating the CUPS configuration.

Some customer have also reported that the issue was caused due to an unusually named PPD file. Check the following folder that holds all the Printer Drivers (PPD):

/etc/cups/PPD

Check to see if any of the printer driver filenames have special characters in them. for example:

"HP_LaserJet_M1522nf_MFP_[00CNC89DN058]_(Fax).ppd"

Removing this driver and restarting cups and MATLAB seemed to resolve the issue. MATLAB was able to recognize other printers installed on the system.