CUPS User Name/Password...nothing works

[mountainsam]

I'm trying to add a Mac to my network, and set it up to print using my network printer. My printer is connected to my primary desktop, running PCLOS. Everything goes well until the MAC CUPS page asks for a user name and password. Nothing I entered worked, not even my root username and root password. As an experiment I opened the CUPS page on my Linux box and tried to change the printer setting "Make Network Default" so it would ask for my user name and password, which it did, with a dialog box as thus:

A username and password are being requested by http://localhost:631. The site says: "CUPS"

but again, nothing worked. I have google-searched a boatload of forums and I have found that this is not an uncommon problem, but apparently it has no common solution. I have found a lot of forums where people have been told "Use your root username and password" and I guess that worked for those that hadn't already tried it. But I've tried it. Some of these forums go back as far as 2004, so it seems unconscionable that all these years later this problem still hasn't been fixed.

Does anyone have a good solution that I can trust and implement relatively easy? Thanks in advance.

[djohnston]

Just a thought. You may already have this covered. In the CUPS Administration tab on the PCLOS machine, do you have Share printers connected to this system and Allow remote administration checked? If Use Kerberos authentication is checked, turn it off. Check Save debugging information for troubleshooting so you'll have a log to look at.

[mountainsam]

Both "share printers connected to this system" and "allow remote administration" are checked. Use kerberos authentication is not checked. Under the line about sharing printers is a sub-item, "Allow printing from the internet." It is not checked. Should I try checking it? Would that allow the Mac to print without me having to type in the user name and password? I'd be happy if that enabled the printing to begin, although I'd still like to have this mystery of why "root" and my root password won't work solved.

[djohnston]

Under the line about sharing printers is a sub-item, "Allow printing from the internet." It is not checked. Should I try checking it? Would that allow the Mac to print without me having to type in the user name and password?

I've never tried it. Wouldn't hurt to try. I believe it will still require a password. And root user and root's password is what should work.

I'd be happy if that enabled the printing to begin, although I'd still like to have this mystery of why "root" and my root password won't work solved.

Others have failed at that. I'm afraid I'm in that group. You'd think that since CUPS was developed by Apple, there'd be better or more thorough documentation/interoperability, right?

[mountainsam]

Unfortunately, checking the box to allow printing from the internet is one of those administrative chores that requires the user name and password, so that option is not available either. You'd think Apple would work this kink out of their software, but that's Apple. If one doesn't recognize the obvious superiority of their counter-intuitive logic, he re-enforces their notion that he simply isn't sophisticated enough to use their product.

[AS]

Hello mountainsam,

a guess: try to check /etc/cups/cups.conf: DefaultAuthType Basic
(and if you change it, restart cups service.)

AS

[mountainsam]

Here's a couple of sections from my /etc/cups/cupsd.conf file that seem to be relevant. I don't understand what they mean, but I'm just betting someone here does:

LogLevel warn
SystemGroup lpadmin root
Group sys
User lp
Listen *:631
Listen /var/run/cups/cups.sock
Browsing On
BrowseAddress @LOCAL
BrowseOrder allow,deny
BrowseAllow all
BrowseLocalProtocols CUPS dnssd
DefaultAuthType Basic


Then farther down, there's this:

 </Limit>
  <Limit CUPS-Add-Modify-Printer CUPS-Delete-Printer CUPS-Add-Modify-Class CUPS-Delete-Class CUPS-Set-Default CUPS-Get-Devices>
    AuthType Default
    Require user @SYSTEM
    Order deny,allow

To my simple brain, reading this it seems that the only thing I should need is my own user name and password to add or modify a printer, or at worst, "root" as the user and my root password. I am mystified.

[djohnston]

Unfortunately, checking the box to allow printing from the internet is one of those administrative chores that requires the user name and password, so that option is not available either.

I guess I should have specified. You need to do all those steps from the PCLinuxOS box, not the Mac. I just tried setting the allow printing from the internet option, and root user with the corresponding password is the correct combination.

[mountainsam]

Unfortunately, checking the box to allow printing from the internet is one of those administrative chores that requires the user name and password, so that option is not available either.

I guess I should have specified. You need to do all those steps from the PCLinuxOS box, not the Mac. I just tried setting the allow printing from the internet option, and root user with the corresponding password is the correct combination.

I'm doing those steps from the PCLOS box. That's the problem. Root user with the corresponding password is not working ON THE LINUX BOX. Nothing is working. No matter what I try, the dialog box demanding a user name and password keeps popping back up.

[AS]

Here's a couple of sections from my /etc/cups/cupsd.conf file that seem to be relevant. I don't understand what they mean, but I'm just betting someone here does:

LogLevel warn
SystemGroup lpadmin root
Group sys
User lp
Listen *:631
Listen /var/run/cups/cups.sock
Browsing On
BrowseAddress @LOCAL
BrowseOrder allow,deny
BrowseAllow all
BrowseLocalProtocols CUPS dnssd
DefaultAuthType Basic


Then farther down, there's this:

 </Limit>
  <Limit CUPS-Add-Modify-Printer CUPS-Delete-Printer CUPS-Add-Modify-Class CUPS-Delete-Class CUPS-Set-Default CUPS-Get-Devices>
    AuthType Default
    Require user @SYSTEM
    Order deny,allow

To my simple brain, reading this it seems that the only thing I should need is my own user name and password to add or modify a printer, or at worst, "root" as the user and my root password. I am mystified.

that's look correct, the overall meaning:
 user@SYSTEM  -> users included in SystemGroup (i.e user belonging to groups lpadmin and root)
AuthType Default -> DefaultAuthType Basic -> set use of standard Unix/Linux system authorization.
definitely accessing the interface as 'root' should work, (it work on my system).

try to look in log files, /var/log/cups/*_log for some hint about auth failure (note that date and time of failure are logged too).

AS