Profile Manager | Printers | Set Drivers

Question

Profile Manager | Printers | Set Drivers

In Profile Manager I've set up a profile for a group that has printers allocated to them from our Lion Server. I've succesfully added them to the list and looking at the client machines they've received the profile and the printers list is populated.

However, none of them would print as there had been no drivers assigned to them. I've fixed this by using Apple Remote Desktop to install the appropriate Printer Driver Package on all of the machines and then manually logging in to each machine and setting the printer driver through the Printer System Preference.

I've done this for 11 MacBook Pro's so far but I have 40 more MacBook Air's that will need these changes too. Needless to say I'm looking for a more practical solution.

I've considered using NetInstall to to re-image all of the machines but that seems like overkill and with them being MacBook Air's it's not really an option.

I've also considered using Disk Utility to re-image the machines but I've only got one Thunderbolt cable to images 40 machines.

Is there a solution, simple or otherwise to assign printer drivers to all of the printers on all of the machines?

Posted on Jun 27, 2012 5:23 AM

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Answer 1

Jun 27, 2012 5:41 AM in response to Newham Bridge Administrator

I've come across this exact same issue. I found that adding printers in Profile Manager is essentially useless as the user has no printer driver that will allow them to use the printer.

Various solutions could be pushing out the driver via ARD (I've never really found this to work properly) or including it in your image. I'd love to hear other people's ideas about this. I don't like including print drivers in an image because then you have to make a new master image whenever you buy a new printer.

I've considered using NetInstall to to re-image all of the machines but that seems like overkill and with them being MacBook Air's it's not really an option.

You can image MacBook Airs with NetInstall. I used NetInstall to image all of our company's MBAs. It even works over Wi-Fi, you just have to make sure you've got DHCP running on your network so they can get an address when they netboot. You can also use a USB/FastEthernet or Thunderbolt/Gigabit adaptor to image a little faster, but I honestly found imaging over Wi-Fi to be quite fast.

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Answer 2

Jun 27, 2012 6:58 AM in response to Jonathan Melville

Thanks Jonathan,

Jonathan Melville wrote:

I've come across this exact same issue. I found that adding printers in Profile Manager is essentially useless as the user has no printer driver that will allow them to use the printer.

Various solutions could be pushing out the driver via ARD (I've never really found this to work properly)

Like I say in my above post I've added the drivers to the machine via a Package Install on ARD but that simply loads the drivers onto the machine, what is required is loaded them onto the machine and then associating them with the printers themselves.

You can image MacBook Airs with NetInstall. I used NetInstall to image all of our company's MBAs. It even works over Wi-Fi, you just have to make sure you've got DHCP running on your network so they can get an address when they netboot. You can also use a USB/FastEthernet or Thunderbolt/Gigabit adaptor to image a little faster, but I honestly found imaging over Wi-Fi to be quite fast.

I didn't realise that it could be done via WIFI, I assumed when I saw the ports to enable part of the NetBoot Menu and it only said Ethernet that it was WIFI was a no-go.

Still looking for a better solution to the printer issue that a full re-image. What happens when we add another printer to our network?

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Answer 3

Jun 28, 2012 3:58 AM in response to Newham Bridge Administrator

A side issue, the printer setting in profile manager is not showing all of the options. The pages is rendering to short and is missing off the font size option for printing the footer. Inspecting the div id=sc3358-1 and extending height to 535px high reveals the size option.

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Answer 4

Jul 19, 2012 10:18 AM in response to Newham Bridge Administrator

Okay. I've figured something out but how efficient it is is up for debate.

The drivers have been loaded via the package install in ARD but the previous printer config is still there and so the printers don't work.

The solution I've come up with is to remove the installed printers log out and put an updated profile to the machines. The computer will install the printers again but the drivers are available this time and so will work.

Problem is I have to go around all 40 of these machines and manually do this.

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