"Printer not connected" - but it is

[Kurt Wescoe]

> I'm using Debian Etch. I can't print through CUPS. The status is "Printer not connected; will retry in 30 seconds...". CUPS correctly shows the device URI as usb:/dev/usb/lp0.
>
> But if I generate a gdi file with ghostscript, then su to root, I can do this:
> cat file.gdi >/dev/usb/lp0
> and it prints successfully.
>
> (BTW this little test really brought home to me how little CUPS actually DOES. All the work is being done by ghostscript and the usblp driver. They are working. All CUPS has to do is coordinate the queuing, and maybe accept files from Samba, which does the work of allowing remote printing in case you're printing remotely which I'm not.)
>
> Has anyone else seen and solved this problem?
>
I had this issue and it had to do with the permission on the port. try setting it so root:cups owns it with 660 permissions