Printers via self service not working

[ImAMacGuy]

We have a handful of printer models in our environment. When we were putting them in I went through and created printer entries for every printer in our complex, however it seems random ones don't want to come down via self service.

While they do install, when you go to use them they complain that the driver isn't correct and I have to delete the printer and re-install manually to get it to work. The whats weirder is that some of the printers may actually work.

We are using a unified print driver package, the same one that is used if we manually reload it.

rather than going back through each and every printer and testing - is there an easier way to know if the definition is not working?

[MrBingham917]

I have had the same issue. I have tried to run the pkg on login, I have tried to capture the drivers along with the print queue, and still no dice. The queue shows up, but it complains about drivers.

[gregp]

Are you deploying the printers to the same OS that they were created on?

Can't remember which OS we tried this on, I think creating them on Leopard and re-deploying them onto Snow Leopard didn't work out so well. Once we re-made them on a Snow Leopard machine, all was well. The machines already had the correct drivers for their platform.

[ImAMacGuy]

we rolled out nearly 400 printers. doing dual or tripple configs (10.6, 10.7, 10.8) is not feasible...

[Shoesmithlc]

@jwojda did you ever find away to resolve this?? As I working with the same problem.

For me
We had Casper 8. 2008 MBP with OS X 10.6.8

We have moved to Casper 9.6 and running OS X 10.9.5.

I'd downloaded the printer from Casper8 to the MBP10.6.8 then Casper Admin to Casper 9 everything seemed fine. but like you stated above. My Customers have come back to me. That the printer does nothing or it prints a 1,000 pages of well... nothing close to the English Language.

So, I then image MBP with 10.9.5 by this time. I have deleted the printer from Self Services and manually had to install the printer. I am using Protocal: HP Jetdirect - socket. Some work just fine then others I have to download the printer drivers onto the Customer's Mac and manually install the printer. Then it would work.

[stevewood]

@KDE82 are these all HP printers printing via IP printing? If so, you can use a script to add the printers instead of capturing the printer via Casper Admin.

#!/bin/sh

lpadmin -p <name-of-printer> -L "<location>" -E -o printer-is-shared=false -v lpd://1.1.1.1 -P <path to driver>

Replace <name-of-printer> with the printer name you want the printer to be on the machine, replace <location> with where the printer is, and <path to driver> with the driver for the printer. You can also set other options, like duplex printing, default tray, etc, by using the lpadmin command again:

lpadmin -p <name-of-printer> -o <options>

You can get a list of options for the printer with the following:

lpoptions -p <name-of-printer> -l

That will list the options.

As far as drivers, I would just deploy the HP drivers that come from Apple. That's the easiest way to make sure you have the correct drivers on the systems.

[RobertHammen]

I'll make the counter-argument that for HP (and a lot of other vendors that support JetDirect) that you should use JetDirect, not LPD. Advantage of JetDirect/socket:// is that it's bidirectional - lpd is computer to device only communication. If you set up a printer via System Preferences->Print & Scan->Add Printer, try JetDirect, and note that (assuming the printer model supports JetDirect, i.e. more than HP typically do), it will likely auto-configure itself with trays, duplex options, etc. Not so much with LPD.

[stevewood]

Touché @RobertHammen ! You should be able to replace LPD in the lpadmin command with socket instead. So the command would look like this:

lpadmin -p <name-of-printer> -L "<location>" -E -o printer-is-shared=false -v socket://1.1.1.1 -P <path to driver>

Test this, obviously.

[Shoesmithlc]

to not state the duh factor here. as being a newbie to the command line

how would one find the protocal of that printer? If you only had the windows box to match/search for the ipaddresses and the types of printers

[stevewood]

@RobertHammen i set up a printer via the GUI using the JetDirect protocol and then went to the terminal and listed the contents of /etc/cups/printers.conf. You want to locate the URI for the printer in question.

[bpavlov]

setup printer via gui
type in Terminal "lpstat -v" which gives you the printer name and URI

[Shoesmithlc]

@stevewood it Dells and HPs and Canons printers

[stevewood]

@KDE82 unless you are adverse to having all of the drivers on your machines, I would just deploy the driver packages for those three brands and be done with it. Then you can use a script to actually add the printers to each machine.

[Shoesmithlc]

@stevewood thank you. I guess I have my work cut out for me.

[rhooper]

We are having the same issues at one building. we have El Cap 10.11.5/6, Toshiba e-studio 555SE printer. I load it manually on my device, create the package in Casper Admin, push it to the JSS to deploy printers in Self Service. I load it on my devices with no issues, I am an admin. The standard users however get he message in the print queue, " You need to install software to u..... the manufacturer of your printer."

I have done the Toshiba download, tried several print drivers to make sure it was not something odd... like wrong print driver, Toshiba is not very intuitive what driver they use... MFP-X7, X7 USA, x& Mono, etc.

Any help is appreciated