Printer support?

[lawrence-joy]

Hello (TheFu), I downloaded the trial version of Turboprint and tried to execute it. The first thing that was stated was can not communicate with CUPS. So I did the following: I am trying to download CUPS, which I execute in the terminal with 'sudo apt install cups'. "Once the download and installation have finished, the CUPS server will be started automatically."--NO!, that does not happen. I get the following: $ sudo apt install cups
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
cups is already the newest version (2.4.1op1-1ubuntu4.10).
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 23 not upgraded.
Next: The CUPS server’s behavior is configured through directives found in the /etc/cups/cupsd.conf configuration file. This CUPS configuration file follows the same syntax as the main configuration file for the Apache HTTP server.
"To configure the email address of the designated CUPS server administrator, edit the /etc/cups/cupsd.conf configuration file with your preferred text editor, and add or modify the ServerAdmin line accordingly. I tried using 'cat' to view the file but it seems to be empty. What is going on? I tried to edit the file with nano but the file was empty. So how to get to the ServerAdmin line??

[donald187]

I'm gonna throw this in in case it helps. First, I'm no expert. I have a Brother printer now and before that I had an Epson. Neither worked out of the box. i.e. driverless printing didn't work out of the box. I learned this trick from the following bug report.

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...s/+bug/1638395

I got the printer's ip address and printer name from the display on the front of the printer. In my case the ip address is something like 192.168.1.xyz. In the case of the Epson the name was something like EPSON123456. And I don't think it's labeled "printer name" on the display but I forget what it's called. So in /etc/hosts you add the line

192.168.1.xyz   EPSON123456.local

changing the ip address and printer name to your ip and printer name. Make sure you put the .local. Reboot. Then my printer works with driverless printing.

This has worked flawlessly on Debian. It seems to me that in a previous version of Ubuntu that the printer disappeared on occasion. (EDIT: This has now happened on Debian as well. A reboot brought it back.) Once it also did a weird thing where the printer name (different from what I mentioned above) in the printer settings changed to "printer at 192.168.1.xyz" spontaneously but kept working. So on Ubuntu I personally use the printer settings to add a printer once I reboot to get one that stays put. But maybe you won't have to do this and could cross that bridge when you come to it.

(Mine is printing over wifi. I don't recall if you said how your printer is connected.)

[lawrence-joy]

I was able to view the cupsd.conf file using the cat command but could not find any ServerAdmin line. I was able to get into the cupsd.conf file by code sudo nano cupsd.conf and could do editing, like adding a line for ServerAdmin, but don't know what the coding should be. My Epson ET-15000 printer is connected directly to my PC via USB cable. The PC does not have WiFi. Seems that the invoking of the cups server would automatically connect with the email account? But what do I know? Sorry to say but I need some hand holding to get through this situation. Anybody please help with your expertise.

[lawrence-joy]

Everything I have tried has been a failure. Here is what I did:
larry@larry-MS-7693:~$ sudo apt-get install -reinstall cups
E: Command line option 'r' [from -reinstall] is not understood in combination with the other options.
larry@larry-MS-7693:~$ sudo apt-get install-reinstall cups
E: Invalid operation install-reinstall
larry@larry-MS-7693:~$ sudo systemctl status cups
○ cups.service - CUPS Scheduler
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/cups.service; disabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: inactive (dead) (Result: signal) since Tue 2024-07-30 10:54:50 EDT; 1h 9min ago
TriggeredBy: × cups.socket
Docs: man:cupsd(8)
Process: 1261 ExecStart=/usr/sbin/cupsd -l (code=killed, signal=SEGV)
Main PID: 1261 (code=killed, signal=SEGV)
CPU: 11ms

Jul 30 10:54:50 larry-MS-7693 systemd[1]: cups.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 5.
Jul 30 10:54:50 larry-MS-7693 systemd[1]: Stopped CUPS Scheduler.
Jul 30 10:54:50 larry-MS-7693 systemd[1]: Dependency failed for CUPS Scheduler.
Jul 30 10:54:50 larry-MS-7693 systemd[1]: cups.service: Job cups.service/start failed with result 'dependency'.

I tried previously running 'sudo apt-get remove cups -y -s' and then rebooting my Ubuntu 22.04 OS as it is supposed to download CUPS server automatically.
No Joy!

[deadflowr]

reinstall is a double dash like so

sudo apt-get install --reinstall cups

[lawrence-joy]

I reinstalled Ubuntu 22.04, did the reinstall cups, did a restart of the OS, and did restart cups.service. Still no joy. I went to the settings and checked printers (the system goes there automatically) and states "Sorry! The system printing service doesn't seem to be available". I really need someone to stick with me, even hold my hand, to resolve this. Please, someone help me.

[lawrence-joy]

To: TheFu, Yes I have already asked the folks at TurboPrint for help on this. They have no idea, can't figure it out. I guess I am on my own. What is CUPd? Where do I look for it? How do I "inable" it? The reason I went with the Epson ET-15000 printer is because it can handle wide paper. For me I print out schematic diagrams, and other things, on 11" X 17" (ANSI/ASME size B) paper. I'll see what I can find on the Ubuntu Desktop Guide as you have suggested.--Thanks.

[euol]

CUPS (Common Unix Printing System) is a modular printing system for Unix-like operating systems that allows a computer to act as a print server.

dpkg -l | grep cups
sudo apt update
sudo apt install cups
sudo systemctl start cups
sudo systemctl enable cups

[lawrence-joy]

Okay, I carried out your terminal commands and this is what I got:
larry@larry-MS-7693:~$ dpkg -l | grep cups
ii bluez-cups 5.64-0ubuntu1.3 amd64 Bluetooth printer driver for CUPS
ii cups 2.4.1op1-1ubuntu4.10 amd64 Common UNIX Printing System(tm) - PPD/driver support, web interface
ii cups-browsed 1.28.15-0ubuntu1.2 amd64 OpenPrinting CUPS Filters - cups-browsed
ii cups-bsd 2.4.1op1-1ubuntu4.10 amd64 Common UNIX Printing System(tm) - BSD commands
ii cups-client 2.4.1op1-1ubuntu4.10 amd64 Common UNIX Printing System(tm) - client programs (SysV)
ii cups-common 2.4.1op1-1ubuntu4.10 all Common UNIX Printing System(tm) - common files
ii cups-core-drivers 2.4.1op1-1ubuntu4.10 amd64 Common UNIX Printing System(tm) - driverless printing
ii cups-daemon 2.4.1op1-1ubuntu4.10 amd64 Common UNIX Printing System(tm) - daemon
ii cups-filters 1.28.15-0ubuntu1.2 amd64 OpenPrinting CUPS Filters - Main Package
ii cups-filters-core-drivers 1.28.15-0ubuntu1.2 amd64 OpenPrinting CUPS Filters - Driverless printing
ii cups-ipp-utils 2.4.1op1-1ubuntu4.10 amd64 Common UNIX Printing System(tm) - IPP developer/admin utilities
ii cups-pk-helper 0.2.6-1ubuntu5 amd64 PolicyKit helper to configure cups with fine-grained privileges
ii cups-ppdc 2.4.1op1-1ubuntu4.10 amd64 Common UNIX Printing System(tm) - PPD manipulation utilities
ii cups-server-common 2.4.1op1-1ubuntu4.10 all Common UNIX Printing System(tm) - server common files
ii libcups2:amd64 2.4.1op1-1ubuntu4.10 amd64 Common UNIX Printing System(tm) - Core library
ii libcupsfilters1:amd64 1.28.15-0ubuntu1.2 amd64 OpenPrinting CUPS Filters - Shared library
ii libcupsimage2:amd64 2.4.1op1-1ubuntu4.10 amd64 Common UNIX Printing System(tm) - Raster image library
ii printer-driver-hpcups 3.21.12+dfsg0-1 amd64 HP Linux Printing and Imaging - CUPS Raster driver (hpcups)
ii python3-cups:amd64 2.0.1-5build1 amd64 Python3 bindings for CUPS
ii python3-cupshelpers 1.5.16-0ubuntu3 all Python utility modules around the CUPS printing system
larry@larry-MS-7693:~$ sudo apt update
[sudo] password for larry:
Hit:1 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy InRelease
Hit:2 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-updates InRelease
Hit:3 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-backports InRelease
Hit:4 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-security InRelease
Hit:5 https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu jammy InRelease
Hit:6 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-security InRelease
Hit:7 https://packages.mozilla.org/apt mozilla InRelease
Get:8 https://dl.packager.io/srv/deb/inven.../stable/ubuntu 20.04 InRelease [1,863 B]
Err:8 https://dl.packager.io/srv/deb/inven.../stable/ubuntu 20.04 InRelease
The following signatures couldn't be verified because the public key is not available: NO_PUBKEY B6D583CCBD33EEB8
Reading package lists... Done
W: GPG error: https://dl.packager.io/srv/deb/inven.../stable/ubuntu 20.04 InRelease: The following signatures couldn't be verified because the public key is not available: NO_PUBKEY B6D583CCBD33EEB8
E: The repository 'https://dl.packager.io/srv/deb/inventree/InvenTree/stable/ubuntu 20.04 InRelease' is not signed.
N: Updating from such a repository can't be done securely, and is therefore disabled by default.
N: See apt-secure(8) manpage for repository creation and user configuration details.
larry@larry-MS-7693:~$ sudo apt install cups
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
cups is already the newest version (2.4.1op1-1ubuntu4.10).
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 23 not upgraded.
larry@larry-MS-7693:~$ sudo systemctl start cups
Job for cups.service failed because a fatal signal was delivered causing the control process to dump core.
See "systemctl status cups.service" and "journalctl -xeu cups.service" for details.
larry@larry-MS-7693:~$ sudo systemctl enable cups
Synchronizing state of cups.service with SysV service script with /lib/systemd/systemd-sysv-install.
Executing: /lib/systemd/systemd-sysv-install enable cups

Note that there are some errors and at least one failure.
I did a restart, my printer is on, and when I go to Settings > Printers the system still says Sorry! The system printing service doesn't seem to be available.
I checked http://localhost:631 and get "Unable to connect".
Where do I go from here?

[lawrence-joy]

It looks like there are two ways to get CUPS, one way is the "normal" way and the other is through SNAP. I have deleted the CUPS service that I downloaded from SNAP and ran "sudo apt install cups". The OS says the CUPS (server?) is already there. I went to the manual "man cupsd.conf". According to the instructions from
Install and configure a CUPS print server

After installing CUPS then:
The CUPS server’s behavior is configured through directives found in the /etc/cups/cupsd.conf configuration file. This CUPS configuration file follows the same syntax as the main configuration file for the Apache HTTP server.--That's nice, but I haven't worked with the Apache HTTP server, so I don't know!
Some examples of commonly-configured settings will be presented here. First thing is to make a copy of the configuration file, which I did.
To configure the email address of the designated CUPS server administrator, edit the /etc/cups/cupsd.conf configuration file with your preferred text editor, and add or modify the ServerAdmin line accordingly. For example, if you are the administrator for the CUPS server, and your e-mail address is bjoy@somebigco.com, then you would modify the ServerAdmin line to appear as follows:
ServerAdmin bjoy@somebigco.com

There is no ServerAdmin line so I guess I could add my email address, but I am a little confused by the info from the manual that says the ServerAdmin default value is "root@ServerName". And the ServerName default is the value
reported by the "hostname(1)" command. Neither of which is in the config file.
What should I put in the config file to get this running?
--Thanks.