Printing service not available

Sorry if this question looks familiar: I tried solutions proposed by google searches but they either are not working or are too technical for me.

I messed with cups a few days ago, I don't recall exactly how and why but I ended up deleting some cups files.

I have un-installed and re-installed cups several time, through the software center and using the terminal and I also reinstalled cups-daemon but nothing changes.

Now, my local printer won't work. I get the message "printing service not available. Start service on this computer or connect to another server". The "start service" button is "greyd out" enter image description here

I tried to restart the service through the terminal with

sudo service cups restart

to which the shell replies:

cups stop/waiting

and then nothing happens, as if the shell was "waiting" for something the happen. I have to do ctrl-c to get the prompt back.

I tried the troubleshoot instructions in the help menu and it says that "The CUPS print spooler does not seem to be running. To correct this, choose "System->Administration->Services from the main menu and look for the "cups" service"

I do not know where is this "System->Administration->Services" is in Ubuntu 14.04 lts

I also tried:

sudo /etc/init.d/cups start

which yielded

cupsd: Child exited with status 1

2 Answers

I had a similar problem (lubuntu 16.04) with 'printing services being unavailable'. This condition prevented the system from listing the local USB printer for selection. This was overcome installing CUPS:

sudo apt-get install cups

Next bounce the service:

sudo /etc/init.d/cups restart

Finally, restart the machine.

I did not need to install CUPS on my instance of Ubuntu 16.04.

I found a solution: I found a virgin content of cupsd.conf on a forum. So I created a new cupsd.conf file by doing:

gksudo gedit /etc/cups/cupsd.conf

and copied the following cupsd.conf virgin content below

#
#
# Sample configuration file for the CUPS scheduler. See "man cupsd.conf" for a
# complete description of this file.
#
# Log general information in error_log - change "warn" to "debug"
# for troubleshooting...
LogLevel warn
# Deactivate CUPS' internal logrotating, as we provide a better one, especially
# LogLevel debug2 gets usable now
MaxLogSize 0
# Administrator user group...
SystemGroup lpadmin
# Only listen for connections from the local machine.
Listen localhost:631
Listen /var/run/cups/cups.sock
# Show shared printers on the local network.
Browsing Off
BrowseOrder allow,deny
BrowseAllow all
BrowseLocalProtocols CUPS dnssd
BrowseAddress @LOCAL
# Default authentication type, when authentication is required...
DefaultAuthType Basic
# Restrict access to the server...
<Location /> Order allow,deny
</Location>
# Restrict access to the admin pages...
<Location /admin> Order allow,deny
</Location>
# Restrict access to configuration files...
<Location /admin/conf> AuthType Default Require user @SYSTEM Order allow,deny
</Location>
# Set the default printer/job policies...
<Policy default> # Job-related operations must be done by the owner or an administrator... <Limit Send-Document Send-URI Hold-Job Release-Job Restart-Job Purge-Jobs Set-Job-Attributes Create-Job-Subscription Renew-Subscription Cancel-Subscription Get-Notifications Reprocess-Job Cancel-Current-Job Suspend-Current-Job Resume-Job CUPS-Move-Job CUPS-Get-Document> Require user @OWNER @SYSTEM Order deny,allow </Limit> # All administration operations require an administrator to authenticate... <Limit CUPS-Add-Modify-Printer CUPS-Delete-Printer CUPS-Add-Modify-Class CUPS-Delete-Class CUPS-Set-Default CUPS-Get-Devices> AuthType Default Require user @SYSTEM Order deny,allow </Limit> # All printer operations require a printer operator to authenticate... <Limit Pause-Printer Resume-Printer Enable-Printer Disable-Printer Pause-Printer-After-Current-Job Hold-New-Jobs Release-Held-New-Jobs Deactivate-Printer Activate-Printer Restart-Printer Shutdown-Printer Startup-Printer Promote-Job Schedule-Job-After CUPS-Accept-Jobs CUPS-Reject-Jobs> AuthType Default Require user @SYSTEM Order deny,allow </Limit> # Only the owner or an administrator can cancel or authenticate a job... <Limit Cancel-Job CUPS-Authenticate-Job> Require user @OWNER @SYSTEM Order deny,allow </Limit> <Limit All> Order deny,allow </Limit>
</Policy>
# Set the authenticated printer/job policies...
<Policy authenticated> # Job-related operations must be done by the owner or an administrator... <Limit Create-Job Print-Job Print-URI> AuthType Default Order deny,allow </Limit> <Limit Send-Document Send-URI Hold-Job Release-Job Restart-Job Purge-Jobs Set-Job-Attributes Create-Job-Subscription Renew-Subscription Cancel-Subscription Get-Notifications Reprocess-Job Cancel-Current-Job Suspend-Current-Job Resume-Job CUPS-Move-Job CUPS-Get-Document> AuthType Default Require user @OWNER @SYSTEM Order deny,allow </Limit> # All administration operations require an administrator to authenticate... <Limit CUPS-Add-Modify-Printer CUPS-Delete-Printer CUPS-Add-Modify-Class CUPS-Delete-Class CUPS-Set-Default> AuthType Default Require user @SYSTEM Order deny,allow </Limit> # All printer operations require a printer operator to authenticate... <Limit Pause-Printer Resume-Printer Enable-Printer Disable-Printer Pause-Printer-After-Current-Job Hold-New-Jobs Release-Held-New-Jobs Deactivate-Printer Activate-Printer Restart-Printer Shutdown-Printer Startup-Printer Promote-Job Schedule-Job-After CUPS-Accept-Jobs CUPS-Reject-Jobs> AuthType Default Require user @SYSTEM Order deny,allow </Limit> # Only the owner or an administrator can cancel or authenticate a job... <Limit Cancel-Job CUPS-Authenticate-Job> AuthType Default Require user @OWNER @SYSTEM Order deny,allow </Limit> <Limit All> Order deny,allow </Limit>
</Policy>
#
#

I saved it and then restarted the service with