Weirdness with adding printers via Casper policy...

[RobertHammen]

JSS is running on Windows (2K8R2, MySQL 5.6.10 with strict checking disabled)
Mac clients are running 10.8.4

Printers are all HP, the Apple-hosted HP drivers (current version: 2.14) are baked into the imaging workflow, but I've independently confirmed that all of the clients have the current version of the drivers/PPDs.

I recently added 35 printers to the JSS (and created Self Service policies for their deployment), and had one user complain that the printer, as installed by Casper policy, does not show all of the options it should. I confirmed this (by deleting the printer and adding it manually). Sure enough.

I started looking at /etc/cups/printers.conf - there were some subtle/slight differences to the actual keys, and the order, between adding it manually vs. adding via Casper policy. I also discovered, if I enabled the web interface to CUPS, modified the printer (which required me to authenticate), and re-selected the PPD, it would rewrite the printers.conf file and all of the printer options would show up correctly. There was no difference between the /etc/cups/ppd/printer.ppd file between manually setting up the printer, vs Casper deployment, vs editing the Casper-deployed printer through the web interface.

I did run this past support and we did verify/check a number of things; ultimately I figured out the correct lpoptions so I can use lpadmin to create the printer. Of course, I now need to check the other 34 printers to make sure that they don't have configuration issues as well...

Wondering if anyone has seen anything similar to this.

[boardtahoe]

Here is what I am seeing. I can run lpoptions in 10.7.5 and the GUI in Systems Preferences Printers actually changes the default printer, in real time, in the GUI, when I run the command in the terminal.

When I attempt the same in 10.8.4, the GUI does not move, AND, my Automator Actions are crippled by this absence of 10.7-like behavior. Has anyone reported any bugs or problems with printing or cups in 10.8.x?

[RobertHammen]

I know that you can no longer make changes to the printer config in the GUI in 10.8 - have to delete and re-add the printer. This is actually mentioned in the 10.8 Support Essentials class (disclaimer: I'm an ACT for client and server).

Some more details here: http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20120313110411984

"If you use lpadmin and specify options with "-o", the PPD is altered and OS X will recognize the options for the printer. However, if you setup the printer using lpadmin without any options, and later use lptoptions to set the options, they are not written to the PPD and the GUI is unaware of the printer's options."