Can I run the root installation tasks manually?
If you do not run the root level tasks during installation, or if they fail, you can manually run them later by running the following shell scripts as root:
~/server/bin/linux-*/roottasks
~/providers/print/linux-*/roottasks
Why can’t I open the admin interface?
Or… why does http://[server_name]:9191/admin not work?
The first step is to check to see if the PaperCut NG/MF is listening on the port. The command:
netstat -anp | grep 9191
should list the pc-app as the owner of the process on port 9191. If nothing is listed, check that the Application Server has started (e.g. ps -ef | grep pc-app).
If the server is already running, the next step is to ensure no IP filtering is applied to the port. Some Linux distributions have strict iptables filters enabled by default. Ensure that port 9191 is accessible from all local network systems.
Can I use a custom script to start the server?
The SYSV style start script included should work with all systems using an /etc/rc*.d style boot process. Some administrators might want to replace the app-server with a custom script that better fits in with their Linux distributions style guide. Administrators should consider storing this script outside the PaperCut NG/MF install structure so it’s not overwritten in any further upgrade.
However, if the system is using SYSD, use the service definition files (see
Root Level Tasks
) for configuration changes. Do not modify the app-server script.
Can I run/install PaperCut NG/MF under an account other than ‘papercut’?
No. At the moment the installation, and other scripts, assume the existence of a user called papercut. This might, however, change in the future. E-mail your thoughts to the development team!
Is an RPM or .deb package available?
No. At the moment we’re supplying it as a self-extracting and self-installing archive. This allows the flexibility to support install-over-the-top for upgrades and maintain full control over the installation process. The process also allows PaperCut NG/MF to run and install on systems not using RPM or apt. We also plan on supporting other Unix based operating systems in the future such as FreeBSD and Solaris. The current installation method should work with all standard Linux distributions.
What does the error ‘Too many open files’ mean?
If you receive a browser error page that contains the following messages:
javax.servlet.ServletException: Could not parse specification context:/WEB-INF/Error.page.
java.io.FileNotFoundException: /opt/papercut/server/tmp/webapp-8196/WEB-INF/Error.page (Too many open files)
or see the same thing in the server.log file, and your PaperCut server is running on Linux, you may be encountering a resource ulimit for the PaperCut user account.
Many Linux distributions limit the number of open files/sockets to a number acceptable for a user in a desktop session. PaperCut is a server application, including a web server and database amongst other services, and may need more resources than the default limits allow.
The user manual section
Installation on Linux -> Step 2 - Create the host user account and firewall settings
contains a recommended change for /etc/security/limits.conf to increase the limit on the number of open files to 65535. Making this change as described should prevent these errors.
Why do I see the error ’extraction failed’ when trying to install on Linux?
gunzip: stdin: invalid compressed data—format violated
87+0 records in
86+0 records out
tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors
Error: extraction failed
This message indicates that the installer is corrupt or failed to fully download. Please try downloading again. Some common causes of this are:
- The software was downloaded via FTP in TEXT format rather than BINARY format
- The software was downloaded on Windows and WinSCP was used in the process (this program corrupts *.SH files by changing the text format!)
- The program did not fully download
The recommended method of download is to use the command line program wget in conjunction with a download URL retrieved from our website. An example is shown below:
wget https://cdn.papercut.com/files/pcng/17.x/pcng-setup-17.0.7-linux-x64.sh
sh ./https://cdn.papercut.com/files/pcng/17.x/pcng-setup-17.0.7-linux-x64.sh
Why do I see the error ’time stamp is in the future’ when trying to install on Linux?
tar: papercut/providers/hardware…… : time stamp 2011–08025 14:39:42 is 1723090.801629397 s in the future
The machine that you are installing to has an incorrectly set clock. Its time is too old and so we get warning messages when extracting files which have a datestamp newer than the files in the installation archive. To fix this, fix the clock on your machine.
Why do I see ‘Java heap space’ errors in my server logs?
There have been a few reports of customers running a combination of 32-bit Linux virtual machines with smaller amounts of system RAM having problems starting later versions of the PaperCut NG or PaperCut MF Application Server. This appears to be limited to environments with 2GB or less of system RAM.
Users who have experienced this issue will see similar errors in their server.log located in [app-path]\server\logs\.
2011-10-17 08:40:27,523 FATAL AppServer:197 - Unable to start
application server. Java heap space [WrapperSimpleAppMain]
java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: Java heap space
Note: As of version 17.1 of PaperCut NG and PaperCut MF, a 32-bit variant for Linux is no longer made available.
Possible resolution
It is possible that this error may be resolved by increasing the RAM fraction that the Application Server has access to. Testing of the Java Heap error has not been able to reproduce this issue as at the time of writing, so this is something to try if increasing the system RAM is not possible.
PaperCut NG and PaperCut MF’s Application Server requires at least 192MB of RAM, and we would recommend 256MB of RAM or more in most environments. By default the Application Server will use 25% of available system RAM; this means that to meet the minimum requirement of 192MB of RAM, the system should have at least 768MB of system RAM. To meet 256MB you would therefore require 1GB of RAM.
If you cannot increase the amount of physical RAM, you can try increasing the fraction of RAM available to the Application Server by following this KB article: Managing the amount of memory used by PaperCut NG/MF
Why are held jobs being lost on my Linux CUPS server?
“I’ve run into a problem where my held print jobs in PaperCut are being routinely lost from my Linux Print Server. Every day (or week) I notice that the print jobs that were held in my queue(s) are no longer there, and there are Print Provider error messages in my logs. What do we need to do/how can we fix this/why does this happen?”
Due to the way PaperCut interacts with print jobs in a Linux CUPS environment - where a hold/release process is in place for printing - PaperCut is reliant on the CUPS service on the server as part of the hold/release process.
A ‘logrotate’ process that is enabled in most Linux systems which rotates the log files when they reach a certain size, or when they are scheduled to do so. The logrotate process is an automated process which can include a restart of the CUPS service during the rotation.
When the CUPS service is restarted by the logrotation, this causes the print jobs that are ‘held’ (pending release) in the print queue(s) on that server to become orphaned from the PaperCut Print Provider, and therefore unable to be released. They are lost.
Symptoms include:
- Held jobs in the queue are no longer there (you’ll normally see that this occurs in a regular pattern of frequency)
- Print Provider offline error messages in logs against print jobs
Possible resolution
Although the problem isn’t directly caused by PaperCut, we’ve found (and other sysadmins have found) that forcing CUPS to remain active resolves this. The most popular way to do this is a config change in Linux to change the OS from using logrotate to instead use syslog - which does not restart CUPS.
Is PaperCut NG/MF code open source?
PaperCut NG/MF in not “open source” in reference to it being available under the GPL or another popular open source license. Source code is, however, provided to customers upon request as needed for security reviews. As a company, PaperCut Software is transparent in our development approach, works closely with our users, and support a number of open source projects both financially and with code submission. PaperCut NG/MF, however, remains a commercial application with commercial support at the current time.
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