i set up lprng and did the following to provide print access to gtk applications: cat .gtkrc-2.0 gtk-print-backends = "file,lpr" the interesting thing is that the first time i set this up, it worked. the print menu item was enabled and the file and lpr entries were present. i then attempted to simply put the backend entry in /etc/gtk-2.0/gtkrc and when i tested the entry was greyed out. so i deleted the etc file, moved it back to my home account, but the entry is still greyed out. i've attempted to set this up and a separate computer, but i get the same result. looking at strace does not provide any clues. so strange that it worked the first time... p.s. the print entries for iceweasel are just fine, so this seems to be a claws-mail thing...
wow. that's really weird. after simply sitting there for about 15 or 20 minutes, the print entry is now enabled an the file/lpr entries are both present. i exited and restarted claws-mail, and ... the entry is greyed out again. I have no idea what's going ! I've launched it with strace, maybe that will give me a clue.
DOH! the print is greyed out unless a message, or some other PRINTABLE thing is selected. so embarrassing...