6 CUPS Troubleshooting

Difficulties with CUPS often lies in permissions. First, double check the devfs(8) permissions as outlined above. Next, check the actual permissions of the devices created in the file system. It is also helpful to make sure your user is a member of the cups group. If the permissions check boxes in the Administration section of the CUPS web interface do not seem to be working, another fix might be to manually backup the main CUPS configuration file located at /usr/local/etc/cups/cupsd.conf and edit the various configuration options and try different combinations of configuration options. One sample /usr/local/etc/cups/cupsd.conf to test is listed below. Please note that this sample cupsd.conf file sacrifices security for easier configuration; once the administrator successfully connects to the CUPS server and configures the clients, it is advisable to revisit this configuration file and begin locking down access.

# Log general information in error_log - change "info" to "debug" for
# troubleshooting...
LogLevel info

# Administrator user group...
SystemGroup wheel

# Listen for connections on Port 631.
Port 631
#Listen localhost:631
Listen /var/run/cups.sock

# Show shared printers on the local network.
Browsing On
BrowseOrder allow,deny
#BrowseAllow @LOCAL
BrowseAllow 192.168.1.* # change to local LAN settings
BrowseAddress 192.168.1.* # change to local LAN settings

# Default authentication type, when authentication is required...
DefaultAuthType Basic
DefaultEncryption Never # comment this line to allow encryption

# Allow access to the server from any machine on the LAN
<Location />
  Order allow,deny
  #Allow localhost
  Allow 192.168.1.* # change to local LAN settings
</Location>

# Allow access to the admin pages from any machine on the LAN
<Location /admin>
  #Encryption Required
  Order allow,deny
  #Allow localhost
  Allow 192.168.1.* # change to local LAN settings
</Location>

# Allow access to configuration files from any machine on the LAN
<Location /admin/conf>
  AuthType Basic
  Require user @SYSTEM
  Order allow,deny
  #Allow localhost
  Allow 192.168.1.* # change to local LAN settings
</Location>

# Set the default printer/job policies...
<Policy default>
  # Job-related operations must be done by the owner or an administrator...
  <Limit Send-Document Send-URI Hold-Job Release-Job Restart-Job Purge-Jobs \
Set-Job-Attributes Create-Job-Subscription Renew-Subscription Cancel-Subscription \
Get-Notifications Reprocess-Job Cancel-Current-Job Suspend-Current-Job Resume-Job \
CUPS-Move-Job>
    Require user @OWNER @SYSTEM
    Order deny,allow
  </Limit>

  # All administration operations require an administrator to authenticate...
  <Limit Pause-Printer Resume-Printer Set-Printer-Attributes Enable-Printer \
Disable-Printer Pause-Printer-After-Current-Job Hold-New-Jobs Release-Held-New-Jobs \
Deactivate-Printer Activate-Printer Restart-Printer Shutdown-Printer Startup-Printer \
Promote-Job Schedule-Job-After CUPS-Add-Printer CUPS-Delete-Printer CUPS-Add-Class \
CUPS-Delete-Class CUPS-Accept-Jobs CUPS-Reject-Jobs CUPS-Set-Default>
    AuthType Basic
    Require user @SYSTEM
    Order deny,allow
  </Limit>

  # Only the owner or an administrator can cancel or authenticate a job...
  <Limit Cancel-Job CUPS-Authenticate-Job>
    Require user @OWNER @SYSTEM
    Order deny,allow
  </Limit>

  <Limit All>
    Order deny,allow
  </Limit>
</Policy>