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Can't add printer - option to add greyed out


gwyn
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Hi,

I am trying to add a printer on mandriva - latest release. At our school, where I am trying to run this computer (I am in charge of seeing whether we can have a suite of Mandriva computers!!!!!!) we have a networked Epson Aculaser 1000 printer. From Control Center i went to add printers. It gave me notice that I had no printer installed, I entered the IP address of our network printer. It then took me to the printers control panel - but it has nothing listed, and the 'Add Printer' is greyed out. In fact everything is greyed out except Refresh and Configure Cups. I have since tried attaching a USB printer, but I can't seem to be able to add this printer either. Any help appreciated - thanks.

 

G.

 

 

[moved from Installing Mandriva by spinynorman]

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I think from memory (I'm not on my system), when you go to System/Configuration/Configure Your Desktop/Peripherals and Printers, down the bottom there is an administration mode button. You need to click this, enter the root password when prompted, and you should then be able to add your printers.

 

Alternatively, make sure cups is installed first, by:

 

rpm -qa | grep cups

 

you should have cups and cups-common. If not, then just do:

 

urpmi cups

 

to install cups, and then go back to the Printer section, and choose administration mode.

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I think from memory (I'm not on my system), when you go to System/Configuration/Configure Your Desktop/Peripherals and Printers, down the bottom there is an administration mode button.

...

Hi Thanks for your reply. I cannot seem to find any Administrator mode button on the Printer Control Panel. There is an expert mode under Options at the top file menu, but this does not make any difference.

 

I tried both other suggestions -

rpm -qa | grep cups worked ok, but when I entered urpmi cups it returned an error "command not found". I would be grateful if you could suggest anything else or maybe think where I get to Administartor mode.

 

Thanks again

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Thanks, I ran from the root console and it went okay. The options to Add Printer are still greyed out though. Should I do anything else? I just can't seem to find the Administrator Mode. Thanks again for your answer!

 

G.

 

"urpmi cups" should be run from a ROOT console.

If it still says "command not found" then you either are not using Mandriva, or something is seriously wrong with your system.

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That's probably because you're looking in the wrong place. Sounds like you chose Configure Your Computer and not Configure Your Desktop as I originally posted.

 

System/Configuration/Configure Your Desktop

 

Peripherals and then Printers. Then down the bottom is Administration Mode. If not, you're not using the correct option I've told you about because it does exist - I use it.

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A subtle but important difference!! Thanks - now I do get the administrator button etc. But I also get an error message

 

"Unable to retrieve the printer list. Error message received from manager:

Connection to CUPS server failed. Check that the CUPS server is correctly installed and running. Error: the IPP request failed for an unknown reason."

 

I have read (carefully this time) all your instructions. As it is a school, we do use a proxy server, but I think this has been entered correctly as I have (as far as I can see) full internet access in other areas.

 

Sorry to be a pain

 

G.

 

The "networked Epson Aculaser 1000 printer" has its own IP/network interface, or it's connected to a windoze machine?

Hi, It has its own network card connected directly to the school network, It does not go through any other computer,

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OK, if not rebooted, the cups service probably hasn't started. Try:

 

chkconfig --list cups

 

and see if it has "on" against runlevels 3 and 5. If it does, then it means it will start when you reboot. But to save a reboot, just do:

 

service cups start

 

of course, type "su" and enter root password first to be able to do this. If it says "off" against runlevels 3 and 5, then do this:

 

chkconfig cups on

 

and it will be enabled for subsequent reboots.

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Hi,

Ok! When I enter

 

chkconfig --list cups

 

1 through 6 are off

 

I then enter

 

chkconfig cups on

 

I rebooted the computer. I got the error message as before. I went back to the console and tried

 

chkconfig --list cups

 

1 through 6 are still off. Did I do everything ok?

 

Thanks

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Hi,

It is not connected to any other machine, but rather directly to the school network.

 

If your printer is a not a "pure" network one, but connected to a remote windows machine, you must also install samba/smbclient to access it.
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Make sure you did "su" first. Normally the:

 

chkconfig cups on

 

will just turn on for runlevels 2345 by default. Alternatively go into Configure Your Computer, then System and Services, you can enable in a GUI which might work easier for you.

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Thanks everyone for trying to help me understand my problem.

 

I have tried everything. I have been a root user, and entered

chkconfig cups on

I have then checked them immediately afterwards and 2-5 are on. I have started the cups service with

service cups start

and then I go to configure my desktop, Peripherals, Printers. When here the error message -

Unable to retrieve the printer list. Error message received from manager:

Connection to CUPS server failed. Check that the CUPS server is correctly installed and running. Error: the IPP request failed for an unknown reason.

I have rebooted, and still the error message

I went to the GUI, checked my service, Cups is running on boot.

 

Sorry, but I am unsure what part (and there must be a part) I am getting wrong.

 

G.

 

 

Make sure you did "su" first. Normally the:

 

chkconfig cups on

 

will just turn on for runlevels 2345 by default. Alternatively go into Configure Your Computer, then System and Services, you can enable in a GUI which might work easier for you.

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