Can't print -- requires authentication

[HarryM]

When I try to print documents under Ubuntu 9.04, I get a strange prompt:

"Authentication required for printing document `Test Page' (Job 53)"

with a box that looks like a password box but doesn't mask characters, and the text "none" to the left of it. See screenshot.

I've tried entering my account password, along with several others, to no avail. Leaving it blank doesn't work either. I've tried rebooting the machine and printer, and reinstalling the driver using the latest version from http://foo2qpdl.rkkda.com. No joy.

Any ideas?

[revnoah]

I have this problem too. I'm using a Samsung ML-2240 with the drivers installed from the CD.

I am trying to print over a local network. The PC the printer is connected to prints fine and it is also running the same version of Ubuntu.

When prompted for authentication, I've tried entering the password of the current remote user, the admin password, leaving the field blank and even going out on a limb and writing 'none', in case that was a prompt default improperly displayed.

I'm sure there must be a simple solution but I have no idea what it might be.

[czljxt]

I have exact same problem. Re-booting or re-logging in sometimes helps, but it's annoying.

I am using the "Samsung Unified Linux Driver". I have a feeling that the trouble started after the last automatic update of CUPS. But don't know for sure.

It makes my wife upset... please help!

[ecowan]

For ehat it's worth...
I just started having the same pop-up, just after I set up some cups classes with users and quotas.
So I'm looking for hints as to what is required int the 'negotiate' box.

[mooscape]

I have a very similar problem. I am asked for username and password though. The problem is: nothing I enter seems to work.

Why are there so many problems with Ubuntu nowadays? Networking and printing is a nightmare. Anyone wishing to use the system must google for days. There are solutions out there, but why should they be "out there" and not resolved within the system in the first place. Authentication is turning into a real dealbreaker. Rather scrap it and let people add security later. We are forced to use windows just so that we can print!

[jeSah8ci]

Suffering from the same problem. I used to enter my own username and password and the job would go through... but now not even that!

Anyone had any luck?

[Jonadab]

Oh, man, I think I just narrowed down the cause of the problem. FINALLY.

Scenario: my print server is Debian lenny and had not been updated for a while (since shortly after lenny was released, in fact). (It's on a LAN, with no inbound traffic forwarded to it from the internet, so upgrading it was low-priority.) The printer was set up in CUPS and shared via Samba. Both Windows XP and Linux clients *had* been able to print, but a recent upgrade on the client side had caused the "Authentication required" issue on the Linux clients, and no auth credentials were good enough to release any of the held jobs. Windows systems could still print, but they hadn't recently been updated. (They're all still XP.) None of the things discussed in this thread so far helped.

But I finally made progress: on a whim, I did a dist-upgrade on the print server. It's still using lenny, but it's a somewhat more up-to-date version of lenny now, and several of the CUPS packages *were* updated. Now, all of a sudden, when my Linux clients give me the "Authentication required" grief, and when I type in the username and password (the one from smbpasswd on the print server), now it actually prints (instead of the former behavior of just prompting me *again* for authentication, ad infinitum, as if the credentials were incorrect).

So I'm guessing what I had was some kind of incompatibility between the newly upgraded stuff on the client and the old not-recently-updated stuff on the server.

Now that I've got that far, I'm going to go back and try some of the things in the thread again and see if I can get it to stop prompting for authentication in the first place.

[Jonadab]

I'm going to go back and try some of the things in the thread again and see if I can get it to stop prompting for authentication in the first place.

Confirmed: once the server was updated, I was able to finish solving the problem by going into Printers on the client, deleting the printer, adding it new, and specifying the auth details upfront as usual. Oh, I also restarted CUPS on the client; not certain if that's relevant.

[oldos2er]

Old thread closed.