Printing issue with pdftops for XML publisher reports.

Question

Hi All,
We have recently upgraded from 11.5.10 to R12.1.3.
We are facing a strange issue for some of the seeded reports that were converted to type XML after R12 upgrade.
First, the reports were printed with junk / xml character while submitting the requests from application (e.g. Account Analysis Report)
We made the following changes.
- Added PDF Publisher style with required flag set to yes to the  Account Analysis Report.
- Set proifle option "FND: Default Template Output Type"  to PDF   (it was blank)
- The pasta_pdf.cfg is configured to use pdftops for conversion
- Restarted the manager.
After this, the above report is priting fine and pdftops is converting it to correct format before printing.
But one of the printer that Oracle EBS is configured is getting stuck specifically for this postscript based request.  The same report prints well on another printer.
The 'lpstat -t' shows the following status for the failing printer.
=============
printer PRT1 is idle.  enabled since Tue 23 Jul 2013 03:24:40 PM EDT
        /usr/lib/cups/filter/pstoraster failed
=============
The printer queue logs on the application servers shows the following details for the failing printer.
=========================================
I [22/Jul/2013:15:00:48 -0400] [Job 137] Queued on "PRT1" by "appldfin".
I [22/Jul/2013:15:00:48 -0400] [Job 137] Started filter /usr/lib/cups/filter/pdftops (PID 13530)
I [22/Jul/2013:15:00:48 -0400] [Job 137] Started filter /usr/lib/cups/filter/pstoraster (PID 13531)
I [22/Jul/2013:15:00:48 -0400] [Job 137] Started filter /usr/lib/cups/filter/hpcups (PID 13532)
I [22/Jul/2013:15:00:48 -0400] [Job 137] Started backend /usr/lib/cups/backend/socket (PID 13533)
E [22/Jul/2013:15:00:48 -0400] [Job 137] Job stopped due to filter errors.
==========
The printer that works fine on the same application server has the following message.
==========
I [22/Jul/2013:15:16:44 -0400] [Job 139] Queued on "PRT2" by "appldfin".
I [22/Jul/2013:15:16:44 -0400] [Job 139] Started filter /usr/lib/cups/filter/pdftops (PID 15825)
I [22/Jul/2013:15:16:44 -0400] [Job 139] Started backend /usr/lib/cups/backend/socket (PID 15826)
I [22/Jul/2013:15:16:44 -0400] [Job 139] Completed successfully.
==============
It only goes through 2 filters and prints just fine
The system admin team has tried to re-install the printer driver but no luck.
Any idea what could be the cause and how can fix it?
Any pointers will be highly appreciated.
Thanks
Sunil Bhavsar

Answer 1

Thanks Hussein.
I will check the 2 options you recommended. At the same, I would like to test the direct print from the OS using pdftops utility.  But not sure how can I do that?
The concurrent request creates the .tmp file under APPLTMP and pass that as the parameter while printing such requests. But if we need to test the .PDF output using pdftops directly, what should be the syntax? Or I would say, what should be the input file and output file?
e.g.
pdftops {infile} {outfile}
I have got the .PDF output under $APPLCSF/$APPLOUT. But from one of the failed request logs, I see the system passes both as .tmp. If we need to test this directly, is there any way?
In the meantime, I will check the debug logs option and update if it provides any additional information.
Regards,
Sunil