Lubuntu 13.04 - CUPS fails to start on bootup

[Dennis N]

Lubuntu 13.04:

CUPS is not starting at boot-up. I discovered this when attempting to install the printer with this new install. I then started CUPS from the terminal, was able to install the printer, and print. However, on restarting the computer, the service again fails to start. How do I configure this service to always automatically start on bootup?

There is a Desktop Sessions Settings dialog of automatically started applications, but CUPS is not included there.

[Synoc]

open a terminal and give me the output of

head /etc/init/cups.conf

I've not SEEN it configured wrong before, but I've never not not seen CUPS start on startup before either

[Dennis N]

Here is the output:

dn@Alexa:~$ head /etc/init/cups.conf
# cups - CUPS Printing spooler and server

description     "CUPS printing spooler/server"
author          "Michael Sweet <msweet@apple.com>"

start on (filesystem
          and started avahi-daemon
          and (started dbus or runlevel [2345]))
stop on runlevel [016]

[tgalati4]

Look for clues in /var/log/cups.

[Dennis N]

I'm looking at the output I gave, and I am not a coder, but it looks to me like for cupsd to start avahi-daemon must be started first? Am I right or wrong?

[tgalati4]

avahi simply advertises services--in this case shared printers. It should not cause cupsd to fail. CUPS does not have a direct dependecy but "recommends" avahi-daemon, which means it should be able to run without avahi-daemon.

If you are running 13.04, try the following:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
reboot

Then check your printers.

[Dennis N]

Look for clues in /var/log/cups.

As to the cups log files, here is part of the error log, with output from a session earlier this afternoon:

W [26/Apr/2013:13:23:26 -0700] CreateProfile failed: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown:The name org.freedesktop.ColorManager was not provided by any .service files
W [26/Apr/2013:13:23:26 -0700] CreateProfile failed: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown:The name org.freedesktop.ColorManager was not provided by any .service files
W [26/Apr/2013:13:23:26 -0700] CreateDevice failed: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown:The name org.freedesktop.ColorManager was not provided by any .service files
E [26/Apr/2013:13:38:54 -0700] [cups-driverd] Bad driver information file "/usr/share/cups/drv/cupsfilters.drv"!
W [26/Apr/2013:13:38:59 -0700] CreateProfile failed: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown:The name org.freedesktop.ColorManager was not provided by any .service files
W [26/Apr/2013:13:38:59 -0700] CreateProfile failed: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown:The name org.freedesktop.ColorManager was not provided by any .service files
W [26/Apr/2013:13:38:59 -0700] CreateDevice failed: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown:The name org.freedesktop.ColorManager was not provided by any .service files
W [26/Apr/2013:13:48:04 -0700] CreateProfile failed: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown:The name org.freedesktop.ColorManager was not provided by any .service files
W [26/Apr/2013:13:48:04 -0700] CreateProfile failed: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown:The name org.freedesktop.ColorManager was not provided by any .service files
W [26/Apr/2013:13:48:04 -0700] CreateDevice failed: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown:The name org.freedesktop.ColorManager was not provided by any .service files

Not sure these are that relevant to the cups-not-running problem - Lubuntu 12.10 on another computer shows similar errors (except for the bad driver information file line) and it prints normally.

Thanks for pointing out the logs.

[Dennis N]

avahi simply advertises services--in this case shared printers. It should not cause cupsd to fail. CUPS does not have a direct dependecy but "recommends" avahi-daemon, which means it should be able to run without avahi-daemon.

If you are running 13.04, try the following:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
reboot

Then check your printers.

I already tried this earlier. No effect.

Yes, cupsd does not need avahi-daemon, and can run without it, but from the structure of the code, it appears to me that cupsd will not start unless avahi-daemon has been started first. Am I wrong on that interpretation?

Next, I just found that avahi-daemon is not installed with Lubuntu 13.04:

dn@Alexa:~$ apt-cache policy avahi-daemon
avahi-daemon:
  Installed: (none)
  Candidate: 0.6.31-1ubuntu3
  Version table:
     0.6.31-1ubuntu3 0
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ raring/main i386 Packages

It's not installed on my Lubuntu 12.10 installation either, and Lubuntu 12.10 prints normally. But on 12.10, the cups.conf does not include any reference to avahi-daemon - here is the cups.conf from Lubuntu 12.10:

dn@Roxanne:~$ head /etc/init/cups.conf
# cups - CUPS Printing spooler and server

description     "CUPS printing spooler/server"
author          "Michael Sweet <msweet@apple.com>"

start on (filesystem
          and (started dbus or runlevel [2345]))
stop on runlevel [016]

respawn

I think I need to install avahi-daemon, or else change the code to remove reference to it.

Comment?

[Dennis N]

Well, I edited cups.conf and removed the line referring to avahi-daemon. I was correct - this was stopping cupsd from starting. Tested and confirmed this solution. Printing on Lubuntu 13.04 now works.

Now, anyone who downloads and installs Lubuntu 13.04 from the same iso is going to be affected by the same problem.

The iso is at:

http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/lubuntu/re...sktop-i386.iso

and has a misconfigured cups.conf that will prevent the cups-daemon from starting unless fixed.

The corrected cups.conf begins:

# cups - CUPS Printing spooler and server

description     "CUPS printing spooler/server"
author          "Michael Sweet <msweet@apple.com>"

start on (filesystem
          and (started dbus or runlevel [2345]))
stop on runlevel [016]

respawn

Thanks to Synoc and tgalati4 for your input.

[ViniNITRO]

thanks for the tip. Solved this issue for me too.