10.4: Use Printer Setup Utility to restart cupsd

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Wed, Jun 1 2005 at 9:42AM PDT • Contributed by: Anonymous

I don't know if anyone's pointed this out (a search didn't find it), but if you launch the Printer Setup Utility and click on its application menu, there's a "Reset Printing System..." menu item. Choosing it requires you to enter an administrator password, and it then kills the existing cupsd daemon and launches a new instance. This may help clear up printing problems without a reboot.

[robg adds: Generally, menu items aren't published here as hints. However, given that this one is hiding in the application's menu itself, and the number of times that printing problems seem to crop up, I thought it worth the mention.]

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10.4: Use Printer Setup Utility to restart cupsd | 7 comments | Create New Account

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The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.

Removes Printers
Authored by: st3phen on Wed, Jun 1 2005 at 10:48AM PDT

Bear in mind that this menu choice also removes all of your existing configured printers. You'll have to re-add each one of them.

Removes Printers
Authored by: mbenchoff on Wed, Jun 1 2005 at 11:46AM PDT

That it does. I wish I had read your comment or thought for a moment before trying the hint.

Removes Printers
Authored by: st3phen on Wed, Jun 1 2005 at 1:05PM PDT

According to HP's driver website, this may not be a bad thing:

I found this interesting tidbit when looking for an updated printer driver for my LaserJet 1200:

The latest HP printer software for this device is built into Tiger for print only functionality and does not require a download or reinstallation of any HP software to print. *

In order to best take advantage of the latest HP driver and new Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger features, it is recommended that you delete original HP printer queues from Printer Setup Utility and create a new HP printer queue.

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?objectID=c00364457&locale=en_US

*shrug*
Authored by: mholve on Wed, Jun 1 2005 at 2:39PM PDT

Or, like, just type "sudo kill -HUP cupsd" in the Terminal. ;)

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*shrug*
Authored by: lucite on Mon, Jun 27 2005 at 11:09AM PDT

For me (under Tiger) I have to state the PID of the cups daemon instead of 'cupsd' - e.g.:

sudo kill -HUP 250

And BTW: whoever posted the original hint (along with Apple) wasn't so smart to not remark that this will delete your printer from the list - for people with complex configs and non-standard drivers this is a MAJOR pain.

rogb: it would have also been nice if you had noted this as well in your remark.

*shrug*
Authored by: Harold on Fri, Oct 14 2005 at 4:26AM PDT

Thanks, that command did the trick for me. I had problems getting my new Epson D68 recognised as somehow my Printer Sharing in the Sharing preferences wasn't functioning.

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10.4: Use Printer Setup Utility to restart cupsd
Authored by: allanmarcus on Wed, Jun 29 2005 at 4:33PM PDT

don't know if this works in tiger, but it does in Panther:

SystemStarter restart PrintingServices

Also, it seems that reseting the printing system in Print Utility actually revert the cupds.conf file to the oem state! This is not good as we have some lines in there to point the Mac to a specific print server. Anyone know a way to put additions into a users' hole folder? .cupsrc doesn't seem to work.

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