[SOLVED] (for now) Removing old auto-detected CUPS network printers

Intrepid · 2009-08-28 02:05:46

I am a university student, thus there were plenty of network printers via CUPS (probably Mac OSX printers). CUPS seemed to pick up on them and added them to its system automatically. Now I absolutely CANNOT remove them from my list, even though they simply do not exist on my network anymore (I'm at home)! How can I clean this list up? I will provide any needed details.

Last edited by Intrepid (2009-09-08 01:37:46)

fukawi2 · 2009-08-28 02:33:29

You should be able to remove them from /etc/cups/printers.conf

It's an XML file, so just remove the entire section related to each printer between the <printer> and </printer> tags. For example, by printer at work has this section:

<Printer HP-Laserjet>
Info HP Laserjet 4600 Colour Laser Printer
Location Work
DeviceURI hp:/net/hp_color_LaserJet_4600?ip=10.x.x.x
State Idle
StateTime 1228089603
Accepting Yes
Shared Yes
JobSheets none none
QuotaPeriod 0
PageLimit 0
KLimit 0
OpPolicy default
ErrorPolicy retry-job
</Printer>

To remove it, I'd need to delete all of it.

Last edited by fukawi2 (2009-08-28 02:33:42)

Intrepid · 2009-08-28 02:36:41

The only problem with that solution is that the only printer in /etc/cups/printers.conf is my own printer, the Deskjet_F4400. Thanks for the help though!

I'm getting a lot of entries like this: HP_Photosmart_C4400_series_1

Description: HP Photosmart C4400 series-1
Location: Kierstin Elliott's Computer (2)
Printer Driver: {printer_make_and_model}
Printer State: idle, accepting jobs, not published.
Device URI: file:/dev/null

When managing CUPS, and a bunch of extraneous printers show up when I press File->Print in any application. I don't understand why I cannot remove them and why they still show up...

[UPDATE] Running grep -Ri kierstin in /etc/cups shows nothing!

Last edited by Intrepid (2009-08-28 02:45:52)

parintachin · 2009-08-28 04:24:05

maybe it's an avahi thing (cups uses avahi since some time for finding printers).
take a look at /etc/avahi/avahi-damon.conf and comment out the line with browse-domains .
i hope this helps

bds · 2009-08-28 14:52:38

List all your printers using lpstat -p.

Then delete the extraneous ones using lpadmin -x printer_name

If necessary, run the above as root.

I think you can also achieve the same results via the cups web interface http://localhost:631

Intrepid · 2009-08-29 02:40:44

The lpstat thing worked, thank you! Unfortunately logging in the cups interface had no effect on removing the printers, which is why I asked this question here!

Only thing is how can I disable it in the future? Will commenting out the line with browse-domains stop it from autodetecting printers? Frankly, I'm going back to school soon and I don't CARE if so and so has a Macbook printer!

skottish · 2009-08-29 03:40:34

parintachin wrote:

maybe it's an avahi thing (cups uses avahi since some time for finding printers).
take a look at /etc/avahi/avahi-damon.conf and comment out the line with browse-domains .
i hope this helps

This is exactly what's happing. If recompiling CUPS every now and then isn't a problem for you, I believe that you can disable it by adding --disable-dnssd to the configure line.

Intrepid · 2009-08-29 20:51:06

is there any way to disable it by editing a zeroconf config file or avahi config file? recompiling is POSSIBLE but not ideal, I'd rather use the stock program or MAYBE ban ALL printers on the university's network! any way to do the latter?

Last edited by Intrepid (2009-09-08 01:35:50)

Intrepid · 2009-09-08 01:36:28

So I haven't had any problems so far, but I will make sure to update this post if I do. Thanks for the help!

Last edited by Intrepid (2009-09-08 01:37:16)

Arch Linux

#1 2009-08-28 02:05:46

[SOLVED] (for now) Removing old auto-detected CUPS network printers

#2 2009-08-28 02:33:29

Re: [SOLVED] (for now) Removing old auto-detected CUPS network printers

#3 2009-08-28 02:36:41

Re: [SOLVED] (for now) Removing old auto-detected CUPS network printers

#4 2009-08-28 04:24:05

Re: [SOLVED] (for now) Removing old auto-detected CUPS network printers

#5 2009-08-28 14:52:38

Re: [SOLVED] (for now) Removing old auto-detected CUPS network printers

#6 2009-08-29 02:40:44

Re: [SOLVED] (for now) Removing old auto-detected CUPS network printers

#7 2009-08-29 03:40:34

Re: [SOLVED] (for now) Removing old auto-detected CUPS network printers

#8 2009-08-29 20:51:06

Re: [SOLVED] (for now) Removing old auto-detected CUPS network printers

#9 2009-09-08 01:36:28

Re: [SOLVED] (for now) Removing old auto-detected CUPS network printers

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