Internet printing in OS X

[Jim Syler]

> Please cc replies to <calion at mac.com>.
>
> Alright, I realize that this is a technical forum and that I'm a UNIX novice and a CUPS idiot, but I'm going nuts and need some help. There doesn't seem to be any user-readable CUPS documentation on the 'net, so I'm turning here.
>
> I'm trying to do something that should be very, very simple: set up my Powerbook to print to my home printer (a USB HP DeskJet 840C hooked to an iMac. Both computers are running OS X 10.3.9 Panther) while I'm on the road.
>
> This should be exceptionally easy. The iMac has a stable DNS name, so I pull up Printer Setup Utility, choose IP Printing, choose Internet Printing Protocol, type the DNS name into Printer Address, and type the queue name garnered from Show Info on the wired printer. When I try to print, CUPS returns "Destination printer does not exist!" The URI is <URL:631/ipp/PRINTER_NAME>. This should work. It doesn't. So, apparently, printers are kept at /printers rather than /ipp. (Why Panther doesn't know this is beyond me. But actually, CUPS doesn't seem to know it either, as the suggested URIs in the web interface use /ipp.) So I change /ipp to /printers, and lo and behold! The Powerbook apparently sees the remote printer. It spools, and....nothing happens. Ever. The print job vanishes into thin air. Well, not quite; the Completed Jobs log on the iMac does indeed list the print job as Completed. But completed to where I have no idea as my printer never so much as coughed.
>
> Now, before you go thinking there's something wrong with my printer, when I log into the iMac remotely using <http://hostname:631> and print a test page, everything works swimmingly.

Well, what do you know; I fixed it. After I wrote this, a horrible feeling came over me, as I remembered something I had seen when logged into CUPS on the iMac: The Device URI of the printer. It was "file:///dev/null". "What if," I thought, "THAT was where the print jobs were being spooled to? That would certainly explain why they seemed to vanish into nothingness...they DID." So I created a new printer on the iMac, using GIMP drivers this time, hooked up to THAT one from the PowerBook...and wonder of wonders, it worked.

So...thanks for the help.

*#$% counterintuitive @^&&! un-mac-like !^$@&&* rotten user-hostile UNIX @$^!$ grumble grumble...