CUPS shared printer troubleshooting

Sometimes due to communication errors, the shared printer at 192.168.1/2.11 get paused.

This is simple issue that a simple resume command can bring the printer back to work.

Here are simple steps to do that. [All using SSH] :(

Using Browser

This is the hard option. First you need to do something called “Port Forwarding”.

From Shell:

ssh -L 6310:localhost:631 root@git-server

From Putty: Search Google how to configure Putty to do that. Use the local port: 6310 and remote port:631

Now keep the terminal running and go to browser and use the following URL: http://localhost:6310

This is the graphical interface for CUPS, the printer management server. From top navigation menu choose “Administration” (If asked for credentials, use the root username and password.)

Choose Manage Printers button, to access a list of available printers. Choose shared_printer (This should be the only available printer)

From Maintenance drop down, select Resume Printer. If you can’t find this option, then there is another problem with the printer. You can check that the printer is actually “On”, connected to the server via USB, with paper in the tray and no paper is jammed inside the printer.

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Server Logs

If you already have a terminal and want to check if there are any printer errors, use the following commands:

tac /var/log/cups/error.log | less

This command will list the latest error logs from today. Hit q to stop this command and exit back to terminal.

For listing older logs use the following commands:

zcat /var/log/cups/error_log.* | tac | less

This will aggregate all error logs available order that today.

Using the past two commands will list logs in a reverse chronological order - latest logs first.