User-specified print settings in GTK applications are silently overriden by system printer defaults
UPDATE: I have since ascertained that this is a GTK printing issue, after testing in multiple desktop environments (GNOME, Cinnamon, MATE, XFCE, Budgie, and KDE Plasma) and trying to print in different applications. The problem is present in all GTK applications in every desktop environment tested, whereas KDE/Qt applications are completely unaffected. With this added information, does anybody have ideas about how to resolve this issue or know where to post/label so that GTK developers can be alerted to this problem and/or propose a workaround or solution?
I have been testing Ubuntu 22.04.2 LTS on multiple computers on our network and have been having a problem printing to network printers using user-specified settings. When I print from an application like Firefox (both apt and snap), LibreWriter, or Evolution, the print dialogs allow me to select options like duplex (double-sided) printing and color-vs-monochrome printing. The actual, physical print process, however, does not respect the options I select in the application print dialog(s) and instead prints according to the system-wide duplex and color options set in the GNOME-control-center Printer settings.
I've tried changing the duplex and color options in the application print dialogs in multiple ways, for example, using the default Firefox print dialog and also the "Print using the system dialog..." option, both of which fail to have any effect on the final printout, which simply follows the System-wide duplex and color settings. I've also tried changing the default values via the CUPS web interface, but it also has no effect (the resultant printouts print according to the system-wide gnome-control-center settings for the selected printer and ignore the settings selected by the user and CUPS defaults without any indication to the user about what is happening).
Printers:
Lexmark XM3150, driverless, cups-filters 1.28.15 (monochrome printer, so only the duplex issue is obviously occurring)
Xerox AltaLink C8170, driverless, cups-filters 1.28.15 (color printer — both duplex and color-mode user application print settings are overridden by the settings in the Gnome Control Center, without any indication to the user that this is happening)
Steps to reproduce:
- Open GNOME Settings -> Printers
- Click printer's Gear_button-> Printing Options-> Page Setup-> Select "One Sided" for the Two-sided option
- Click printer's Gear_button-> Printing Options-> Color-> Select "Color" for the Print Color Mode
- Print a document from LibreWriter, Firefox, or Evolution using the application's print dialog, selecting the duplex and Monochrome printing options.
- The printout(s) do not print double-sided or grayscale, as specified by the user in the application print dialogs, and the user is not warned that their settings are not being accepted or used. The printouts instead print according to what has been selected in Gnome Settings-> Printers, which the user may have no idea about, leading to much frustration, confusion, repeated tries, and wasted paper.