Troubleshooting Mac OS X Print
Services
Printing is a fundamental task in any networked
office environment, and every support professional is called on to
perform printer support at some point. These exercises address the
logical structure of troubleshooting, the tools you use to set up
printers and troubleshoot problems, and the location of files used
by the printing system.
You will view file locations used by the
printing system in Terminal, then use Printer Setup Utility to
reset the printing system. After resetting the printing system, you
will review the CUPS log to see the results of your actions.
In Mac OS X, fax services are designed for
robustness and require very little attention. With
background-receive features and print-to-fax functionality built
into the operating system, most fax troubleshooting will involve
phone line issues. Printing issues will take significantly more of
your troubleshooting time, so this material focuses on that
subject.
Identifying File Locations
In Mac OS X, CUPS is the printing engine that
manages and executes print jobs. CUPS stores its configuration
files in several locations. You will use Terminal to view some of
the essential configuration files.
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1.
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In the Finder, choose Go > Go to Folder
(Shift-Command-G).
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2.
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Enter /etc/cups
and press Return.
This shows you a list of the CUPS configuration files. In the
/etc/cups folder, you will see several important configuration
files that you can use for advanced troubleshooting, such as
printers.conf and cupsd.conf. For now, it is sufficient to know
that these files exist.
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3.
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Double-click printers.conf.
You will see a message that there is no default application
specified to open printers.conf.
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4.
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Click Choose Application, and navigate to
TextEdit (/Applications) to open the file.
You will see an error message that you do not have sufficient
privileges to view the file. Many configuration files are protected
with administrator-only editing permissions. As an administrator,
however, you might need to edit those files on a user's
computer.
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5.
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Open Terminal (/Applications/Utilities).
Terminal automatically opens a terminal session with the active
user account. You will use the su (switch user) command to
change your terminal session login from your Chris Johnson user
account to the Apple Admin administrator account.
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6.
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At the prompt, enter su apple and press Return.
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7.
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Enter the Apple Admin password and press
Return.
Now you can use sudo to view the contents of a
configuration file.
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8.
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At the prompt, enter sudo more /etc/cups/printers.conf and press
Return.
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9.
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Enter the password for Apple Admin when
prompted.
You will see your configured printers.
Due to the restrictive permissions on these files, you must use
sudo to view their contents, even when you log in as an
administrator. Many files in the printing system are
protected from direct manipulation, because you can use Printer
Setup Utility to do the maintenance tasks with less chance of
errors that might result in printing system problems.
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10.
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Enter exit,
and press Return.
This command logs you out of your administrator terminal session.
Whenever you use su to perform administrative tasks on a
user's computer, you should always use exit to log out the
administrator user when you are done.
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11.
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Quit Terminal.
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Reviewing Activity in the CUPS
Log
Your actions in Printer Setup Utility are logged
in the CUPS log in Console. This log can be invaluable in
identifying the actions that led to any problem you
encountered.
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1.
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Open Console (/Applications/Utilities).
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2.
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Click the Logs button in the toolbar to show
the list of logs.
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3.
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Click the disclosure triangle next to
/var/log.
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4.
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Click the disclosure triangle for CUPS.
You will also see the fax log in the /var/log list. This is where
you can perform fax system troubleshooting if needed.
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5.
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Select error_log in the CUPS list. You can see
all of your printer setup work in the log contents at the right. To
show only the pertinent entries, use the Filter field to limit the
log display.
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6.
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Enter queued
in the Filter field.
The log display is truncated to show only the log entries for
queued print jobs.
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7.
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Quit Console.
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Resetting the Print System in Printer
Setup Utility
You use Printer Setup Utility for most of your
initial printer troubleshooting, because it can easily resolve many
basic printing problems. If a problem is especially troublesome or
persistent, you might find that it's easier to reset the printing
system entirely.
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1.
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Open Printer Setup Utility
(/Applications/Utilities).
Printer Setup Utility opens and displays the printer list.
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2.
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Choose Printer Setup Utility > Reset
Printing System.
Printer Setup Utility will display a warning dialog that you are
deleting all of your printers and print jobs. This command removes
all setup files, configuration files, and pending or completed
spool jobs. It does not remove print drivers or PPDs, so you can
use this without needing to reinstall drivers for printers that
require them.
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3.
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Click Cancel to leave your computer
unchanged.
If you click Reset, you must authenticate as an
administrator.
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4.
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Quit Printer Setup Utility.
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Using Strategies for Print
Troubleshooting
Here are some strategies for identifying and
fixing problems with printing:
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If there are problems with the format of the
printed documents, make sure that you formatted the page for the
correct printer in Page Setup. Also, attempt to print to a
different printer, if one is available, to see if the problem is
with the printer. Try printing from a different application to see
if there is an application setting that is interfering with the
print formatting.
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Try removing and then re-adding the printer in
Printer Setup Utility.
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For USB printers, try adding them manually. If
you are unable to locate the printer in Printer Setup Utility, use
the troubleshooting techniques suggested in Lesson 11, "Peripherals," to identify if
you have a hardware or software issue.
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For network printers,
use the networking troubleshooting techniques you learned in
Lesson 8, "Networking
Configuration and Troubleshooting," to make sure that your network
settings are correct and your connection to the network is
functioning properly.
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If you've verified that it isn't a hardware
problem, but you can't see the printer listed in Printer Setup
Utility, reinstall the printer's driver. Since the installation of
printer drivers is optional while installing Mac OS X, it could be
that the drivers were never installed. Also, check the
manufacturer's website to get the latest version of the printer
driver. Even if your printer came with Mac OS X printer drivers,
they may be out-of-date.
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Use Console to read the log files related to
printing. They are access_log, error_log, and page_log, all located
in /var/log/cups. They serve as the best source of information for
any problems you may encounter.
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A new feature in Mac OS X allows you to reset
the printing system. You can reset the printing system if you
suspect that there are problems with a number of different printer
queues or printing components. This deletes all print queues and
custom drivers. In Printer Setup Utility, choose Printer Setup
Utility > Reset Printing System.
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Keep in mind that you might not have control
over problems that occur with network printers and print servers.
You should coordinate with the administrators of those computers
and printers to resolve problems.
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Occasionally, you might have to call the printer
vendor to resolve a problem.
MORE INFO
Refer to Knowledge Base document 25407, "Mac OS
X: About Third-Party Printer Compatibility."
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