13.04, CUPS regression(?): Network printing no longer available.

[Rexilion]

FIXED: See post #9 of this thread.

I have a somewhat normal computer setup. All mentioned hosts are in the same network.

- Delta [Ubuntu 13.04] connected to printer through USB. Is capable of directly printing. I ticked the share printer in the cups main screen and I ticked the share this printer for this specific printer.
- Alpha, Gentoo box with CUPS server. Picks up printer from delta without a problem, until I upgraded to 13.04.

I also share the printer with avahi-daemon (script). That is one briliant piece of work. With Linux, you can actually trick Ipad's into thinking they are talking to an Airport printer. The printer is an old HP PSC2355p and we did not pay the 100 euro markup for it so we can print with an Apple device . This functionality requires avahi-daemon which is installed on Delta. Presumably, this mechanism worked fine along the (by now, obsoleted) printer sharing mechanism CUPS is using.

However, since I upgraded from 12.10 to 13.04, the CUPS sharing mechanism stopped working. Here is the deal, Delta can print. The Ipad can print. But Alpha cannot. The printer will not show up. I did not change my configuration between 12.10 and 13.04.

[pqwoerituytrueiwoq]

i have not had any issues sharing my printer
you should be able to enable it from http://127.0.0.1:631/admin (click link on Delta) if you cant find it in the GUI, it is under printers in the settings manager on xubuntu
i used the web based gui once on a mint cinnamon cause i could not find a option for it, maybe the gnome devs removed it cause it is 'too complicated'

[Rexilion]

I already mentioned I followed that procedure. However, if you are talking about something different then what I'm thinking, to prevent confusion I posted a photo.

[Rexilion]

Found it. I'm still on cups 1.5 1.4.8 on Gentoo. So thanks Apple!

[kurt18947]

I'm not sure if it'll help but the 'classic' printer management app found in Xubuntu, Mint etc. is still around. From the repositories look for "system-confg-printer(-gnome)". If you can't find it via search it should launch in a terminal using a "system-config-printer" command. Why Unity/Canonical/Gnome felt compelled to dumb-down that app I don't know.

[Rexilion]

The malfunctioning part is further up the chain. It's not a local program having issue's communicating with CUPS. It's a problem between to cups servers, where one sends the printer for the other to receive. They just ripped out the protocol, or so it seems.

[chmegr]

hmmm....I've had no issues with a very similar set-up....

[Rexilion]

So, your CUPS 1.6 vs CUPS 1.4.8 work just fine?!?!?

[Rexilion]

Solved! I noticed that CUPS listed the printers as 'not shared' while I did tick the boxes. I searched apt and stumbled on the missing piece of the puzzle. It turns out that the legacy broadcasting has been relegated to a seperate package. CUPS is handling dnssd broadcasts, but you need cups-browsed to handle the old broadcast.

Get this, I had to install cups-browsed:

aptitude -yR install cups-browsed

Edit /etc/cups/cups-browsed.conf to start broadcasting the legacy protocol:

#BrowseLocalProtocols none
BrowseLocalProtocols cups

And, finally, I restarted both services:

service cups-browsed restart
service cups restart

And now, it works!