OS X Printing crash

Classic Servoy
1

Hi all

I have a horrible printing bug affecting one subset of users of a solution that I built.

The database server is Servoy version R2 2.2.4-build 336. It is running on a 2.0Ghz DP G5 with java 1.5.

The local subnet clients, call it head office - and this is the biggest group of clients have no problems whatsoever printing to a Xerox, some Epson’s a HP colour laserjet and an OKI laserjet.

Another group of users in a remote office, on a different isp broadband account, have servoy unexpectedly quit every time they try to print any form in the solution (no error, no dialogue, no indication, it just disappears). They are 3 new G5 iMacs, all running 10.4.6 (and I tried in 10.4.4 before upgrading them). They crashed with servoy 1.4.2 and 1.5, they crashed after I reinstalled java 1.4.2 v.3 from apple, they crash no matter what, reinstalled the HP Laserjet driver.

I changed the servoy client preferences to use Servoy’s print dialogue and it prints fine, problem gone. Unfortunately you cannot do pdf previews from that which is important for this.

The weird thing is that there is another - bigger remote office 2 miles away from the crashing 3 iMac office, who have no problems printing, a similar (though not identical) HP colour laserjet, a similar broadband connection…

Another weird thing about this is that my Powerbook G4, in every location, works fine. I can print using the OS X Dialogue in the crashing 3 iMac office, same versions of OS X, same version of java.

Anyone have any ideas on what I can try to solve this?? Unfortunately both of the remote offices are 200 miles from London so it is tricky to get to them, the fix needs to be instructions for them.

Thanks for any light that can be shed…

Bevil

2

I changed the servoy client preferences to use Servoy’s print dialogue and it prints fine, problem gone. Unfortunately you cannot do pdf previews from that which is important for this.

I think I misunderstand this part. So, you print without print preview? You say you need to do a pdf preview. But you can not do that anywhere else but in the dialog (on os x)? So, do you use the dialog or not?

3

Hi Marcel

in Servoy client preferences, there is a checkbox to “use system print dialog”. When it is ticked (when OS X handles printing), Servoy client crashes on all three machines in this one location. When it works (like when on my laptop), you can choose to print directly to pdf which is very useful (doesn’t use up a client license with the pdf print plugin, doesn’t need to be built into each print form (like the plugin) and is a very quick way of generating pdfs from any app in OS X)

if I untick the “use system print dialog”, Servoy prints and does not crash, but there is no access to the print to pdf option from the servoy print dialog since it is no longer being handled by OS X.

4

Hmm, something in their switch they use? Just guessing but when everything works but these three machines it is something they share I guess other than Servoy or whatsoever…

5

except my Powerbook works fine in the same location… Same printer, same printer driver, same version of OS X, same version of Java, same switch, same airport base station, same everything.

The only thing that I can make unique to the three machines that crash are that they are all G5 iMacs from I guess the same batch…

6

Hi Bevil,

It can only be voodoo, mate :evil:

Seriously though, if your powerbook works without problem at the rogue location then have you considered taking one of the rogue location’s iMacs to a working site and plugging it in there for testing ?

Also take a machine from a working site and plug it in at the rogue location.

Seems that this process might allow you to focus on whether it is a machine problem or an office location problem !

Cheers
Harry