Tag Archives: cups

Java is unable to print to CUPS printers

If you’re using a CUPS printer on Ubunutu (or other linux distro) you may not print from Java.
There is a quick fix taken from here.
Add an /etc/cups/client.conf file containing:

Enable cupsys Web Admin Interface

Enabling cupsys Web Admin Interface

If you are trying to get your printing system going, and search for tips and docs on the web, you will find most of the documentation referring to http://localhost:631 as your cupsys administration interface. However, on Ubuntu, this browser-based administrative interface for cupsys is disabled by
default. Here’s how to enable it:
Select “System”->”Administration”->”Users and Groups” from the main menu on your desktop.
Select “Show all users” and/or “Show all groups”.
Add the user “cupsys” to the group “shadow” in the “groups” tab.

Restart cupsys by issuing the command:
sudo /etc/init.d/cupsys restart
IMPORTANT: I don’t know why the web admin interface was disabled in the first place – so please know that it is best to reverse all that you did once by
removing the user cupsys from the shadow group, and restarting cupsys, once your work with the interface is done.

If you want, from command line only:

sudo adduser cupsys shadow
sudo passwd cupsys
sudo /etc/init.d/cupsys restart