How to avoid CUPS disabling USB printer

[plmuon at gmail.com]

Michael Sweet wrote:
> Marcelo wrote:
> > In our system users often turn printer off to avoid non authorized
> > printing.
> > When CUPS tries to print and finds the printer off, it disables the
> > printer.
> > That happens with USB printers but not with parallel printers.
> > lpstat tells me:
> >
> >   # lpstat -t
> >   scheduler is running
> >   system default destination: Lexmark
> >   device for Lexmark: USB:/dev/usb/lp0
> >   Lexmark accepting requests since Jan 01 00:00
> >   printer Lexmark disabled since Jan 01 00:00 -
> >           Unable to open USB device "usb:/dev/usb/lp0": No such device
> >   Lexmark-2108            walter         9521152   Sat 24 Jul 2004
> > 15:06:06 BRT
> >
> > To solve this problem I just enable the printer.
> >
> >   # /usr/bin/enable Lexmark
> >
> > Is there any way to configure CUPS *not to stop* the printer in case of
> > error ? so we don't have to keep enabling it every time users forget
> > printer off.
>
> Sure, don't use the absolute filename, but instead use the
> generic name (usb://Make/Model?serial=NNNN) reported by
> "lpinfo -v".

Hello,

I have the same problem, using devfs (in gentoo linux). Whenever I turn off my printer /dev/usb/* dissapear of course. The printer keeps running. Then, as soon as I try to print something, this results in the following:

 Printer State: stopped, accepting jobs.
"Unable to open USB device "usb://Lexmark/Optra%20E312": No such device"
Device URI: usb://Lexmark/Optra E312

This is quite irritating, since I have first to walk to the printer (in another room) to turn it on, then go back to my screen to enable the printer, then walk again to get the output.

lpd did not have such problem.