using CUPS to set page limits on Leopard with shared printers

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using CUPS to set page limits on Leopard with shared printers

Hello all,

I'm attempting to share a printer (HP LaserJet 5200) connected via USB with a lab of iMacs. All machines are running Leopard. The version of cups is 1.3.8. I have configured the printer on the "server" machine using the web interface. I have tried two methods of setting page limits, both the command line entry (sudo lpadmin -p printerName -o job-page-limit=100) and editing the /etc/cups/printer.conf file to reflect the limit I want.

When I print, however, the limits are not obeyed. They still appear in the config file, but printing from both the host machine and the client machines on the LAN is not affected by the limits. Does anyone have any idea what is overriding the config files or why they are not affecting the printing process?

Many thanks,

-Scott

iMac G4 1.25 GHz, Mac OS X (10.5.5), Printer is HP LaserJet 5200

Posted on Nov 3, 2008 12:59 PM

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Answer 1

baltwo

Level 9

62,386 points

Nov 3, 2008 1:54 PM in response to scacinto

Paste this into your browser's URL window: * http://127.0.0.1:631/* and select the manage printers button.

BTW, AFAICT, the latest CUPS that ships with Leopard 10.5.5 is 1.3.6. Anything later is unsupported.

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Answer 2

scacinto Author

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Nov 4, 2008 4:04 AM in response to baltwo

The manage printers button does not have the option to set job-page-limits, nor to set the time quota. The version of CUPS that I have (after installer Leopard and its updates) is 1.3.8. I did not install this version myself, so I assume it came from Apple...

Anyone?

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Answer 3

baltwo

Level 9

62,386 points

Nov 4, 2008 10:03 AM in response to scacinto

Ah! You're correct. I misresd the cups documentation blurb. Good luck finding a solution.

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Answer 4

Nov 4, 2008 11:51 AM in response to scacinto

Is there anything logged in the /var/log/cups/page_log file? If not, this sounds like it's an HP driver bug. Do you have another type of printer to test this?

If the info is logged in the page_log file, then please post the log (or a reasonable excerpt) here.

Hope this helps.

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Answer 5

scacinto Author

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Nov 4, 2008 12:45 PM in response to John Blanchard1

hi John, this is what is registered in the log:

printer sp67 9 [03/Nov/2008:09:50:46 -0500] 1 1DEBUG: Read 8192 bytes of print data... - fe80::222:41ff:fe2a:8948%en0
printer sp67 10 [03/Nov/2008:09:51:33 -0500] 1 1DEBUG: Read 8192 bytes of print data... - fe80::222:41ff:fe2a:8948%en0
printer sp67 15 [04/Nov/2008:13:19:34 -0500] 1 1 - 128.36.43.202
printer sp67 16 [04/Nov/2008:13:21:18 -0500] 1 1 - 128.36.43.202

I've recently installed the beta 1.4 version, and I now quotas *sort of* work... that is, I get the "quota exceeded" notification when I run jobs from the command line (using lp), but if I immediately run the same command again, it forgets about the quota and prints anyway.

The same appears to happen from a remote machine; first an error is given, but if i attempt to print again, it goes through...

Many thanks for your assistance.

-S

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Answer 6

Nov 4, 2008 8:57 PM in response to scacinto

scacinto, thank you for posting the log. I am not sure how much help I can be since my suspicion that this is an HP driver problem seems to be wrong. I will see if I can find anything else out…

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Answer 7

scacinto Author

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Nov 6, 2008 6:03 AM in response to John Blanchard1

Thanks John, I appreciate your help. I've been looking at this thing from many different angles, and it just doesn't seem to be a robust system. There are too many entry-exit points of administration, and the GUI-CUPS interaction seems like it is not fully compatible... for example, printing (at least for me) from a GUI program works differently than printing from the command line; the printer list may or may not be different, the quotas and job specs in printers.conf are or are not obeyed. It is difficult to understand why this is.

Anyway, I appreciate your time addressing this matter, and to the forum for its many answers and insights.

-S

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Answer 8

baltwo

Level 9

62,386 points

Nov 7, 2008 5:51 PM in response to scacinto

Just saw this: http://buymelunch.org/printing/usbtb/ maybe it'll help.

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