usb printer not detected to add printer

[Collins Richey]

Feisty Fawn: When trying to add a new printer (xubuntu printing dialog or cupsys web interface), my usb printer (powered on and recognized by the kernel per /var/log/messages) does not appear as a choice. A user on forums suggested to add cupsys to the plugdev group, and with this workaround I was able to see the printer (epson cx4200).

However, even with the workaround, I got a dialog box saying that I needed to add the foomatic-gutenprint package. I could find no package by this name, but I added several foomatic and gutenprint db packages. Not sure which one did the trick.

Now printer is working.

My feisty system is completely up to date except for held packages. I have cupsys-1.2.7-1ubuntu2 installed. Running kernel 2.6.20-2-generic with workaround for the initramfs-tools problem.

[DavidH (davidjdh)]

I had the same problem - it wouldn't detect my printer after upgrading to feisty. Doing the add user to group thing fixed the problem. I didn't, however, need to do the foomatic thing. Perhaps it was already installed...

[Jonah (jonah)]

i've got the same problem with my epson 2100

i removed all my printer entries from the ubuntu Printers Dialog and then pressed to add a printer, only despite it being switched ona and plugged in it says No Printers Detected!! Not sure what to do. My system also all upto-date. by the way i'm on amd64 feisty...

[Jonah (jonah)]

ok i did the commad:
   sudo usermod -aG plugdev cupsys

and then:
   sudo /etc/init.d/cupsys restart

and then the printers show up, but on restart of the computer they're not there again and you have to run the command again. what's this all about? surely easy to fix?? i hope...

[Jonah (jonah)]

there's also something similar going on with usb scanners - my usb scanner won't work on my amd64 or 32bit box.

i filed Bug #78205 about this and the printer thing cos i didn't know if they belonged together or not and also didn't know where to file a bug for scanner issue. it's annoying though cos i wanna scan some photos in!! and i can't...

[Olaf Lüke (borg)]

same problem here with a brother hl1430 printer.

sudo chmod o=rw /dev/usblp0
sudo /etc/init.d/cupsys restart

fixed it for me.

[Jonah (jonah)]

since last gnome updates my printers are working perfectly again now so this bug is no longer there, i think it's been fixed...

[Matteo Settenvini (tchernobog)]

I still experience this problem with a Brother HL-1430 printer. However, I noticed that the device (usblp0) is assigned to the plugdev group.

The file /etc/udev/rules.d/40-permissions.rules is okay for me (line 37):

       SUBSYSTEM=="usb", KERNEL=="lp[0-9]*", GROUP="lp"

I tried to reload the udev rules using udevcontrol, but the group didn't change to "lp".
Any ideas? This is udev's log:

-------

UDEV [1171105773.643218] add@/class/usb/lp0
UDEV_LOG=3
ACTION=add
DEVPATH=/class/usb/lp0
SUBSYSTEM=usb
SEQNUM=2413
PHYSDEVPATH=/devices/pci0001:00/0001:00:02.0/0001:01:0b.1/usb2/2-1/2-1:1.0
PHYSDEVBUS=usb
PHYSDEVDRIVER=usblp
MAJOR=180
MINOR=0
UDEVD_EVENT=1
DEVNAME=/dev/usblp0

-------

As reported above,

   root@Dahlia:/etc/udev# chgrp lp /dev/usblp0
   root@Dahlia:/etc/udev# /etc/init.d/cupsys restart

fixes the problem until next reboot.

[Patrice Vetsel (vetsel-patrice)]

There is a workaround in bug #82187.

sudo addgroup cupsys plugdev
sudo /etc/init.d/cupsys restart