Printing files from evince and gedit may not work in RHEL

Solution Verified - Updated -

Issue

  • Some PDFs are not printed by evince
  • Trying to print certain PDF (Portable Document Format) files from evince results in CUPS believing the job is complete, but no pages are printed. CUPS logs show no filter errors, the data transfer to the printer is successful, and CUPS believes that the job is complete.
  • I opened gedit, opened the file test.txt and tried to print. The printer shows activity but prints nothing. Printing the same file using the command line prints fine.
  • If I fill out the PDF, the PDF fails to print with "ERROR: undefined OFFENDING COMMAND: pa "0a" COMMAND TYPE: nametype".
  • Unable to print interactive or password protected files using Evince v2.28.2. Printer warms up but nothing prints. Problem also occurs on RHEL 6.5 if you apply the RHEL 6.6 gtk updates.
  • Sometimes the printer does not print any pages and other times the printer requests the wrong paper feed tray, and other times the print comes through with incorrect orientation in some pages or stops halfway.
  • We can directly print the PDF with no issues. Both CUPS and Evince are able to generate a PS file that successfully prints directly from the original PDF. The issue arises when trying to print the PDF directly from evince.
  • When the file was printed by evince, the page wasn't printed but this PostScript message was printed instead:

    ERROR: undefined
    OFFENDING COMMAND: 0a
    
    STACK:
    
    -mark-
    false
    

Environment

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 6.6
  • Graphical program such as gedit or evince that use the gtk shared libraries
  • PostScript Printer

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