10.4: Integrate CUPS 1.2.8 with Mac OS X 10.4.8

Mar 02, '07 07:30:03AM

Contributed by: gerritdewitt

The nice folks at cups.org have made a good installer package for the latest version of CUPS, 1.2.8. This version is newer than the version of CUPS included in Mac OS X 10.4.8, and offers features like: The ability to move jobs from queue to queue via the web interface (https://localhost:631); secure access via the web interface; and the ability to set print dialog default selections on a per-queue basis.

You may find it useful, especially if you use a Mac OS X or Mac OS X Server system as a print server. However, the installation isn't perfectly smooth, and it breaks some conventions that the Apple-supplied CUPS uses. Read on to see what breaks, and how I worked around those issues...

Here are some of the things that break with CUPS 1.2.8:

So, here's my method for properly integrating CUPS 1.2.8 with Mac OS X 10.4.8:
  1. Download CUPS 1.2.8 from http://www.cups.org.
  2. Prior to installation, back up these items:
  3. Install CUPS 1.2.8 (the installer does not require a restart).
  4. After installing, quit any cups processes if they have been restarted: sudo killall cupsd
  5. Remove the launchd items that cups.org supplies: sudo rm /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.cups.*
  6. Restore and modify the Apple-supplied PrintingServices StartupItem:
  7. Restore your CUPS configuration: sudo mv /etc/cups-original /etc/cups. Note: If you have made changes to your cupsd.conf file, you may have to alter your syntax a little bit to make CUPS 1.2.8 happy. The Apple-supplied cupsd.conf works fine, but I had trouble with some of my modifications in Limit directives. In particular, I found that CUPS 1.2.8 does not like CIDR notation for subnets. So I had to change several lines like this: Allow from 192.168.1.10/24 to Allow from 192.168.1.*
  8. Repair permissions on your startup volume: sudo diskutil repairPermissions /, or use Disk Utility, then reboot the computer.
I hope you find this tip useful!

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