On all current versions of the foomatic-db package the ptouch.xml driver is non-functional due to a missing <prototype></prototype> field. This causes the foomatic-ppdfile program (or a GUI like kaddprinterwizard) to fail any time an attempt is made to build a PPD for a Brother P-Touch label maker that uses this driver. The error message is: ERROR: foomatic-datafile: There is neither a custom PPD file nor the driver database entry contains sufficient data to build a PPD file. In http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=264447 a link is provided to a ptouch-driver. This driver provides a proper <prototype> field, and it is therefore possible to create a PPD using the foomatic tools. The link also includes the rastertoptch driver that is needed by the PPD in order to drive the P-Touch label printers, as well as the source xml for the printers. Unfortunately, it is not easy to create an ebuild as requested in http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=264447 because the xml files in that link conflict with those already supplied by net-print/foomatic-db. However, net-print/foomatic-db does not provide the proper ptouch.xml driver source, nor does it provide the required rastertoptch driver. About all Gentoo could do would seem to be to strip the P-Touch files which are supplied by ptouch-driver out of foomatic-db (this would be the source/driver/ptouch.xml file and the various source/printer/Brother-PT* files) and create an ebuild for the ptouch-driver tarball. This would ensure that the proper rastertoptch driver was compiled and installed, that a working ptouch.xml foomatic driver was provided, and would install the Brother P-Touch printer source files that are otherwise useless without the first two items. The best fix would be to get upstream to correct the foomatic-db tarball. Reproducible: Always
This really is a problem - and 9 moths old by now... I created a bug[1] upstream. 1: http://bugs.linux-foundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=447
Created attachment 235473 [details] removed ptouch files from ebuild I attached a foomatic-db ebuild, which does not install the ptouch files. Using this ebuild it is possible to install ptouch-drivers from bug 264447
upstream says[1] about the conflicting files: >The mentioned files are not for generating PPDs, they make up the pages >on the OpenPrinting web site and this way inform the users of Brother's label >printers that they are supported by the ptouch driver. So our only option is to remove this files from the ebuild (see my previous post) and have a separate ptouch ebuild[2]. 1: http://bugs.linux-foundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=447 2: bug 264447
Created attachment 255667 [details] patched version 4.0.20101123 The problem is unchanged - as is our ebuild. So the fix (sadly) is unchanged, too.
Created attachment 272563 [details, diff] patch for version 4.0.20110506 Here we are - about 6 months later - the patch is still the same...
Created attachment 293155 [details, diff] A patch adding the "Debug messages" setting for the ptouch driver Hi, I've written my own ptouch-driver ebuild together with 3 useful patches: - adding a "Debugging messages" setting for the printer so that you can switch on debug messages from rastertopcth - fixing the wrong value of dpi for QL-500 and QL-550 causing them to eat too much sticker tape (see here: http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-535392-start-0.html) It would be good to integrate them too when the foomatic-db conflict is resolved. Can we do something to make this happen ?
Created attachment 293157 [details, diff] Fix the dpi settings for Brother QL-500 and Brother QL-550
Created attachment 293159 [details, diff] Enable debug codepaths in rastertopcth
Ooops, this was meant for https://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=264447 ... Sorry for wrong posts.
Hi Maciej, thanks for the patches. Wouldn't it be better to move them to Bug 264447, since this is the bug for the moudified foomatic-db ebuild?
Created attachment 299205 [details, diff] foomatic-db-4.0.20120117.ebuild.patch This bug is now nearly 2.5 years old. Still the patch remains the same...
