EPSON ET-3850 CUPS gstoraster filter failed

jonathan-ta · May 9, 2026, 2:28pm

For some reason, the printer filter failed and I am unable to print. Here is the image showing the error

anotheruser · May 9, 2026, 3:26pm

Impossible to assess w/o any error message.
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Does this happen for every print job or only for a specific document?
what gives /usr/lib/cups/filter/gstoraster -h and lpstat -t ?

jonathan-ta · May 9, 2026, 3:54pm

This issue happens for every print job not just a specific job. Not sure why this filter failure is occurring when prior to today there were no printer issues.

anotheruser · May 9, 2026, 3:58pm

you have to enable debug or more verbose logging and produce the actual error message for a print job. There could be several filters involved, but gstoraster is the last step preparing data for the printer.
Printing the test page fails too?

Do you see any errors journalctl -b -u cups? Do not use screenshots for text.
Instead copy and paste as preformatted text see the ‘</>’ symbol in the toolbar

jonathan-ta · May 9, 2026, 8:26pm

Here are the error logs for the printer, however printer still shows listed in CUPS.

May 07 07:56:08 fedora systemd[1]: Starting cups.service - CUPS Scheduler...
May 07 07:56:08 fedora systemd[1]: Started cups.service - CUPS Scheduler.
May 07 07:56:10 fedora cupsd[1344]: REQUEST localhost - - "POST / HTTP/1.1" 200 173 Create-Printer-Subscriptions successful-ok
May 07 07:56:13 fedora cupsd[1344]: REQUEST localhost - - "POST / HTTP/1.1" 200 359 Create-Printer-Subscriptions successful-ok
May 07 07:56:15 fedora cupsd[1344]: REQUEST localhost - - "POST / HTTP/1.1" 200 261 CUPS-Create-Local-Printer successful-ok
May 07 07:56:16 fedora cupsd[1344]: REQUEST localhost - - "POST / HTTP/1.1" 200 261 CUPS-Create-Local-Printer successful-ok
May 07 07:56:24 fedora cupsd[1344]: REQUEST localhost - - "POST / HTTP/1.1" 200 366 Create-Printer-Subscriptions successful-ok
May 07 08:32:00 fedora cupsd[1344]: REQUEST localhost - - "POST / HTTP/1.1" 200 350 Create-Printer-Subscriptions successful-ok
May 07 08:32:03 fedora cupsd[1344]: REQUEST localhost - - "POST / HTTP/1.1" 200 3469199 CUPS-Get-PPDs -
May 07 08:32:33 fedora cupsd[1344]: REQUEST localhost - - "POST / HTTP/1.1" 200 158 Cancel-Subscription successful-ok
May 07 09:00:04 fedora cupsd[1344]: REQUEST localhost - - "POST / HTTP/1.1" 200 189 Renew-Subscription client-error-not-found
May 07 13:47:57 fedora cupsd[1344]: REQUEST localhost - - "POST / HTTP/1.1" 200 189 Renew-Subscription client-error-not-found
May 09 09:15:02 fedora cupsd[1344]: REQUEST localhost - - "POST / HTTP/1.1" 200 189 Renew-Subscription client-error-not-found
May 09 09:17:18 fedora cupsd[1344]: REQUEST localhost - - "POST /printers/EPSON_ET-3850_Series HTTP/1.1" 200 1746593 Print-Job successful-ok
May 09 09:17:18 fedora cupsd[1344]: [Job 62] The printer may not exist or is unavailable at this time.
May 09 09:17:19 fedora cupsd[1344]: [Job 62] The printer may not exist or is unavailable at this time.
May 09 09:17:20 fedora cupsd[1344]: [Job 62] The printer may not exist or is unavailable at this time.
May 09 09:17:22 fedora cupsd[1344]: [Job 62] The printer may not exist or is unavailable at this time.
May 09 09:17:25 fedora cupsd[1344]: [Job 62] The printer may not exist or is unavailable at this time.
May 09 09:17:30 fedora cupsd[1344]: [Job 62] The printer may not exist or is unavailable at this time.
May 09 09:17:38 fedora cupsd[1344]: [Job 62] The printer may not exist or is unavailable at this time.
May 09 09:17:39 fedora cupsd[1344]: [Job 62] The printer may not exist or is unavailable at this time.
lines 1-22

May 07 07:56:08 fedora systemd[1]: Starting cups.service - CUPS Scheduler...
May 07 07:56:08 fedora systemd[1]: Started cups.service - CUPS Scheduler.
May 07 07:56:10 fedora cupsd[1344]: REQUEST localhost - - "POST / HTTP/1.1" 200 173 Create-Printer-Subscriptions successful-ok
May 07 07:56:13 fedora cupsd[1344]: REQUEST localhost - - "POST / HTTP/1.1" 200 359 Create-Printer-Subscriptions successful-ok
May 07 07:56:15 fedora cupsd[1344]: REQUEST localhost - - "POST / HTTP/1.1" 200 261 CUPS-Create-Local-Printer successful-ok
May 07 07:56:16 fedora cupsd[1344]: REQUEST localhost - - "POST / HTTP/1.1" 200 261 CUPS-Create-Local-Printer successful-ok
May 07 07:56:24 fedora cupsd[1344]: REQUEST localhost - - "POST / HTTP/1.1" 200 366 Create-Printer-Subscriptions successful-ok
May 07 08:32:00 fedora cupsd[1344]: REQUEST localhost - - "POST / HTTP/1.1" 200 350 Create-Printer-Subscriptions successful-ok
May 07 08:32:03 fedora cupsd[1344]: REQUEST localhost - - "POST / HTTP/1.1" 200 3469199 CUPS-Get-PPDs -
May 07 08:32:33 fedora cupsd[1344]: REQUEST localhost - - "POST / HTTP/1.1" 200 158 Cancel-Subscription successful-ok
May 07 09:00:04 fedora cupsd[1344]: REQUEST localhost - - "POST / HTTP/1.1" 200 189 Renew-Subscription client-error-not-found
May 07 13:47:57 fedora cupsd[1344]: REQUEST localhost - - "POST / HTTP/1.1" 200 189 Renew-Subscription client-error-not-found
May 09 09:15:02 fedora cupsd[1344]: REQUEST localhost - - "POST / HTTP/1.1" 200 189 Renew-Subscription client-error-not-found
May 09 09:17:18 fedora cupsd[1344]: REQUEST localhost - - "POST /printers/EPSON_ET-3850_Series HTTP/1.1" 200 1746593 Print-Job successful-ok
May 09 09:17:18 fedora cupsd[1344]: [Job 62] The printer may not exist or is unavailable at this time.
May 09 09:17:19 fedora cupsd[1344]: [Job 62] The printer may not exist or is unavailable at this time.
May 09 09:17:20 fedora cupsd[1344]: [Job 62] The printer may not exist or is unavailable at this time.
May 09 09:17:22 fedora cupsd[1344]: [Job 62] The printer may not exist or is unavailable at this time.
May 09 09:17:25 fedora cupsd[1344]: [Job 62] The printer may not exist or is unavailable at this time.
May 09 09:17:30 fedora cupsd[1344]: [Job 62] The printer may not exist or is unavailable at this time.
May 09 09:17:38 fedora cupsd[1344]: [Job 62] The printer may not exist or is unavailable at this time.
May 09 09:17:39 fedora cupsd[1344]: [Job 62] The printer may not exist or is unavailable at this time.

anotheruser · May 10, 2026, 6:57pm

Jonathan Allen:

May 09 09:17:18 fedora cupsd[1344]: REQUEST localhost - - "POST /printers/EPSON_ET-3850_Series HTTP/1.1" 200 1746593 Print-Job successful-ok
May 09 09:17:18 fedora cupsd[1344]: [Job 62] The printer may not exist or is unavailable at this time.

I assume job 62 was not successful? Did you try to print a PDF or Postscript document in job 62?

Try runnig the gstoraster filter manually with the same document, you’ll need to install rasterview to view the document

$ ls
sample.pdf

$ /usr/lib/cups/filter/gstoraster <sample.pdf >sample_raster
DEBUG: cfFilterGhostscript: Output format: CUPS Raster
DEBUG: cfFilterGhostscript: Copying input to temp file "/tmp/befbc6a099b45"
DEBUG: cfFilterGhostscript: Input format: PDF
DEBUG: Color space requested: Default
DEBUG: Final output format: CUPS Raster
DEBUG: Format of the input document: (null)
DEBUG: Document's input format does not provide absolute size dimensions for each page, falling back to US Letter if no output page size is provided.
WARN: Could not determine the output page dimensions, falling back to US Letter format
WARN: cfFilterPDFToPDF: Could not determine the width of the left margin, falling back to 18 pt/6.35 mm
WARN: cfFilterPDFToPDF: Could not determine the width of the bottom margin, falling back to 36 pt/12.7 mm
WARN: cfFilterPDFToPDF: Could not determine the width of the right margin, falling back to 18 pt/6.35 mm
WARN: cfFilterPDFToPDF: Could not determine the width of the top margin, falling back to 36 pt/12.7 mm
DEBUG: Print rendering intent = 
DEBUG: Color Manager: Calibration Mode/Off
DEBUG: Calling FindDeviceById(cups-/usr/lib/cups/filter/gstoraster)
DEBUG: Failed to send: org.freedesktop.ColorManager.NotFound:device id 'cups-/usr/lib/cups/filter/gstoraster' does not exist
DEBUG: Failed to get find device cups-/usr/lib/cups/filter/gstoraster
DEBUG: Calling FindDeviceById(cups-/usr/lib/cups/filter/gstoraster)
DEBUG: Failed to send: org.freedesktop.ColorManager.NotFound:device id 'cups-/usr/lib/cups/filter/gstoraster' does not exist
DEBUG: Failed to get device cups-/usr/lib/cups/filter/gstoraster
DEBUG: Color Manager: ICC Profile: None
DEBUG: cfFilterGhostscript: Ghostscript using Any-Part-of-Pixel method to fill paths.
DEBUG: cfFilterGhostscript: Ghostscript command line: gs -dQUIET -dSAFER -dNOPAUSE -dBATCH -dNOINTERPOLATE -dNOMEDIAATTRS -dUsePDFX3Profile -sstdout=%stderr -sOutputFile=%stdout -sDEVICE=cups -sOutputType=automatic -r300x300 -dDEVICEWIDTHPOINTS=612 -dDEVICEHEIGHTPOINTS=792 -dcupsBitsPerColor=8 -dcupsColorOrder=0 -dcupsColorSpace=18 -dcupsBorderlessScalingFactor=0.0000 -I/usr/share/cups/fonts -sOutputICCProfile=sgray.icc -c '<</.HWMargins[18.000000 36.000000 18.000000 36.000000] /Margins[0 0]>>setpagedevice' -f -_
DEBUG: cfFilterGhostscript: Started Ghostscript (PID 782270)
DEBUG: cfFilterGhostscript: Started logging (PID 782271)
DEBUG: cfFilterGhostscript: Input data feed completed
INFO: cfFilterGhostscript: Start rendering...
INFO: cfFilterGhostscript: Processing page 1...
INFO: cfFilterGhostscript: Processing page 2...
INFO: cfFilterGhostscript: Processing page 3...
INFO: cfFilterGhostscript: Processing page 4...
INFO: cfFilterGhostscript: Processing page 5...
INFO: cfFilterGhostscript: Processing page 6...
INFO: cfFilterGhostscript: Processing page 7...
INFO: cfFilterGhostscript: Processing page 8...
INFO: cfFilterGhostscript: Processing page 9...
INFO: cfFilterGhostscript: Processing page 10...
INFO: cfFilterGhostscript: Processing page 11...
INFO: cfFilterGhostscript: Rendering completed
DEBUG: cfFilterGhostscript: Ghostscript (PID 782270) exited with no errors.
DEBUG: cfFilterGhostscript: Logging (PID 782271) exited with no errors.

$ echo $?
0

$ rasterview sample_raster

Any errors from gstoraster? Did the document render correctly in rasterview?

Otherwise,
01/ make sure printer is runnig the latest firmware. Upgrade if not.

02/ does avachi-browse find your printer, is it using the same name or ip address as configured in the cups printer queue?

avahi-browse --all --terminate -v

03/ increase verbose level in cups and retry printing the document, and inspect the journal again for the new print job

UPdate: ALso note that cups’ default errorpolicy for printers is to stop the printer.

# grep ErrorPolicy /etc/cups/printers.conf
ErrorPolicy stop-printer
ErrorPolicy stop-printer

see man cupsd.conf / ErrorPolicy

you need to clear the error from the queue

$ cupsenable  *printer_queue*

jonathan-ta · May 12, 2026, 1:29pm

How do I install raster view?

Correct, Job 62 was not successful. No I did not try to print a PDF nor Postscript documents in Job 62.

01 / Printer has latest firmware install.

02 / here is the latest information

avahi-browse --all --terminate -v
Server version: avahi 0.8; Host name: fedora.local
E Ifce Prot Name                                          Type                 Domain
: Cache exhausted
+     lo IPv4 Passim-1A65                                   _cache._tcp          local
: All for now

anotheruser · May 12, 2026, 2:34pm

what type of document was it? A picture like jpeg ? We need to know the filters used for that job see files in /usr/share/cups/mime/*types *convs define which filter to use for a particular mime type.

rasterview: sudo dnf install rasterview
see also Making sure you're not a bot!

avahi-browse didn’t detect your printer. I missed in one of the screenshots that the device uri is ipp//localhost:60000/ipp/print which seems to be an usb printer.

what is the output of, ( copy paste the whole block into a bash shell )

( set -x
systemctl status ipp-usb
sudo ipp-usb status
sudo ipp-usb check
lpstat -e  )

With this info, shouldn’t the printer queue name be EPSON_ET-3850_Series_USB instead of EPSON_ET-3850_Series? Not 100% sure, because I never used printers via USB.

You can use this rhel documentation as a guide

jonathan-ta · May 13, 2026, 11:03am

I was able to get my printer working again. Here are the steps:

Make sure EPSON ET-3850 is plugged in via USB
Go to http://localhost:631/
Go to Administration, Login in with root username and password.
Go to “Printers” section and click on “Add Printer”.
Under “Add Printer” Select Radio Button for “EPSON ET-3850 Series (driverless)”
Click “Continue”
Set Name to “EPSON_ET-3850_Series_USB”
Set Description to personal preference.
Set location to “Home Office” (or preferred location name in home)
Click “Continue”.
Set Make to “EPSON”
Set Model to “EPSON ET-3850 Series, Driverless, Cups-filters 2.0.1 (en)”
Click “Add Printer”..
Set Default options to your preference. I recommend 2-Sided Printing (Portrait).
Click “Set Default Options”. Printer has now been added.
On CUPS menu bar click on “Printers”.
Under Queue name click on highlighted “EPSON ET-3850…” printer name.
Next, click on “Maintenance” drop down menu.
Scroll down to and click “Print Test Page” to verify successful setup.

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EPSON ET-3850 CUPS gstoraster filter failed

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