Confirmed this as a bug on RedHat6.2 (glibc 2.1.3)
OpenOffice.org1.0.1 works correctly, OpenOffice.org643 seems to
attempt to print document to printer, but fails.

synopsis:-
Linux             - standalone mode   - fail
Linux              - network mode       - fail
Solaris8Sparc  - standalone mode - fail
Solaris8sparc  - network mode - pass.

Changing priority from 2 to 1

Robert [+ ALL]:
Better re-think such a summary next time, especially if you didn't
even try spreadsheets or presentations. It is not wrong, but it is a
misleading fraction of the truth. "Cannot print with oo.org 643c"
would even be shorter. 

Because too many people don't separate text app problems from general
problems AND the word processor is the "default application", too many
issues end up in my intray "automatically" although they have NOTHING
to do with the word processor (they only occur there, TOO).

Thanks for your comprehension.

Back to the problem:
I tried on COSIX Linux 3.1 (RedHat based, glibc 2.2.3) and oo.org 643c
failed to print in all applications, but only when using NON-TrueType
Fonts. After adding TT fonts with the spadmin (oo.org doesn't bring
them along, neither do most LINUXes) I could print. Known Bug
(Internal BugID = #103023).

reassigning

Herbert, please clarify, which files are affected.

There was a major cleanup that fixed these kinds of bugs 
once and for all. The problem is during the cleanup some 
other major fixes got in so it is interwoven. 
 
There are two alternatives: 
1) cvs update -A in vcl should be ok 
2) extract and branch the fix 
3) do a quick workaround hack 
 
2) and 3) would take quite some time for a problem that is 
already fixed in SRX643 mainline 
 

There doesn't seem to be much interest in alternative 1,  
so lets pursue alternative 3.  
  
The problem seems to be that for printer builtin fonts glyphids  
are emitted instead of character codes. This can be caused by  
vcl/unx/source/gdi/salgdi3.cxx -r1.87 in the function  
SalLayout* SalGraphicsData::LayoutText( const ImplLayoutArgs& )  
  
For some reason bEnableGlyphs seems to stay true even though the  
font should be recognized as builtin font (!=truetype). 
Investigating... though some help from somebody with an almost 
complete SRX643_OO build would be appreciated. 

there are complete builds on:
     * scslsparc1 for solaris sparc 
     * cdelab8 for linux/x86

would 'print to file' outputs both before and after
vcl/unx/source/gdi/salgdi3.cxx -r1.87 be of help ?

Thank you for the pointers to complete installations. This saved  
quite some time. A surprisingly simple fix was found that is a hack  
though.  
  
Please update vcl/unx/source/salgdi3.cxx to revision 1.87.2.1. 
  

this is still broken in build 643b solaris sparc.
Now print fails in both standalone mode and in network install mode.

this problem appears to be  intermittent, out of 5 attempts to print a
text document it worked once (standalone mode) . Note that I had been
running other tests between different print attempts. I cannot
recreate how to definitely make it print.
The statement above originally suggesting the problem was only
apparent on Solaris in standalone mode may well have been incorrect,
the intermittent nature of the problem may have caused it to appear
that way.

 I think I misunderstood the problem then:  
What exactly do you mean with "cannot print"? 
  
- Are text strings displayed wrongly? This should be fixed by the  
patch above.  
- Does print to file work and the display from ghostview looks ok?  
- Does OOo not even try to contact the printer?  
  
Please be as specific as possible.  
 

Please update the status. 
 

this problem is now resolved - 

fix verifed OO>org 1.1rc - closing issue