Section 2 : Client Applications

Q208: Document file is not valid TIFF ...?

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Q.
"Document file is not valid TIFF ..."?

I have compiled v2.2.2beta043, but still no go! Can only receive fax but sending results in errors. I use

sendfax -d xxxxxx -lm -p -v plot.ps to submit a fax (plot.ps genterated by gnuplot, checked wtih gs) and I get this error "Document file is not valid TIFF (check for PostScript conversion problems)" in the server trace log. I don't know why the PostrScript file is not valid. What other debug commands can I use? Your help is really appreciated.

A.
This diagnostic means that the server invoked the PostScript interpreter to image a submitted PostScript document but the resultant document file was invalid (TIFF is the file format used for imaged facsimile). If the server machine is setup correctly this should never happen. (Incorrect PostScript documents should be returned to the user with a different diagnostic.)

The problem must be debugged on the server machine. The following step-by-step procedure might be used:

  1. Run faxquit to stop the fax server.
  2. Submit the problematic job using the sendfax program or similar.
  3. Position yourself at the top of the server spooling area; cd /usr/spool/fax
  4. Invoke the PostScript interpreter script as done by the fax server: bin/ps2fax -o t.tif docq/doc*.cover and look for problems. (Actually the above command line is a simplified version of the one used by the fax server; you can find the exact command line used by the fax server in the server trace log.)

From this you should see exactly why the PostScript interpreter is not functioning as expected. Once you've done that you can backtrack to figure out the step in the installation procedure that was not done correctly. If step 4 generates a valid TIFF file in the output file t.tif, then there is some problem associated with the environment the server runs in (e.g. the environment variable that specifies where to search for dynamically loaded libraries).

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