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Stupid lpadmin tricks with Apple Remote Desktop

Lately at work, I'd been working on getting people off of LPD and PAP onto IPP. IPP provides pap-like functionality, only over TCP/IP, which makes my network traffic simpler. Simpler is good, makes troubleshooting easier.

The potential annoying part was the process I was looking at:

Delete "old" printer via lpadmin -x

Add IPP printer via lpadmin

Admittedly, a two-step process is not hard but I still had to get the existing printer names from CUPS on each machine, blah blah.

Then, rather accidently, on my test machine, (read: John's MacBook Pro), I added a printer via lpadmin with the same name as the existing one, but IPP instead of LPD. Took a look at printers.conf, and realized that I'd just changed the queue type. So now, I had a one step process: Add new printer with same name as existing printer as IPP. So, I set up the command templates in ARD:

lpadmin -p "printername" -v "printer ipp uri" -D "description which is human friendly and used as the 'name' by Mac OS X" -E -P "path to ppd" -o printer-is-shared=false

For some reason, when I add a printer in Mac OS X 10.5 via lpadmin, it likes to set it up as a shared printer, regardless of Printer Sharing state. To prevent that, I use the -o printer-is-shared=false switch.

I realize this is not some earthshattering discovery, but, it gets it into the great Google Tech Support Database, and maybe helps someone save time.

Remember folks, a good sysadmin is a relentlessly lazy sysadmin.

Technorati Tags:
Apple Remote Desktop, Mac IT, Stupid lpadmin Tricks, Stupid Apple Remote Desktop Tricks

Categories: Mac Matters, Network Notes

Posted by John C. Welch at 12:47 | Permalink

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Delete \"old\" printer via lpadmin -x
Add IPP printer via lpadmin

Admittedly, a two-step process is not hard but I still had to get the existing printer names from CUPS on each machine, blah blah. \n\nThen, rather accidently, on my test machine, (read: John's MacBook Pro), I added a printer via lpadmin with the same name as the existing one, but IPP instead of LPD. Took a look at printers.conf, and realized that I'd just changed the queue type. So now, I had a one step process: Add new printer with same name as existing printer as IPP. So, I set up the command templates in ARD:\n\n

lpadmin -p \"printername\" -v \"printer ipp uri\" -D \"description which is human friendly and used as the 'name' by Mac OS X\" -E -P \"path to ppd\"  -o printer-is-shared=false

\n\nFor some reason, when I add a printer in Mac OS X 10.5 via lpadmin, it likes to set it up as a shared printer, regardless of Printer Sharing state. To prevent that, I use the -o printer-is-shared=false switch. \n\nI realize this is not some earthshattering discovery, but, it gets it into the great Google Tech Support Database, and maybe helps someone save time.\n\nRemember folks, a good sysadmin is a relentlessly lazy sysadmin.\n\n\n

Technorati Tags:\nApple Remote Desktop, Mac IT, Stupid lpadmin Tricks, Stupid Apple Remote Desktop Tricks\n