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TICKET ARCHIVE -> Printing Problems Under Mac Osx 10.3.9

musicopen - Oct 14, 2005 - 2:13 pm

Dear Sirs,

When trying to connect the printer I always receive the message:server-error-service-unavailable, but the driver is there as far as I can see, at least it appears in the list but can't be loaded.

There is no way to make the driver recognized. I have just downloaded the latest one from Epson but it does not work either. By the way is a Stylus Photo 1200.

I would be very grateful if you could help me to solve this.

Thanks very much

Yours

gsahli - Oct 14, 2005 - 3:23 pm

Hi, Ernesto,
That error means there is something wrong with CUPS, the background program that controls printing.

I suggest you do this:
Download the 10.3.9 Combination Updater from Apple and re-Update with that.
Then repair permissions (Disk Utility).
Then restart the Mac (if you already did because of the update, that's good enough).
Now try adding the printer and printing.

musicopen - Oct 15, 2005 - 10:44 am

Dear Gsahli,

I've done every step you suggested but still nothing. Desperation took me everywhere and finally I got something which works, the link is:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107054

Just in case the whole thing reads:

This document explains how to resolve a "server-error-service-unavailable" or an "Error 1282" alert in Print Center (Mac OS X 10.2) or Printer Setup Utility (Mac OS X 10.3 and 10.4).

Symptom

Print Center or Printer Setup Utility print queues disappear.
When you try to add a printer, you see an alert box with this message:
(Mac OS X 10.2) "An error occurred while trying to add the selected printers. Error 1282"
(Mac OS X 10.3, 10.4) "server-error-service-unavailable."

Products affected
Mac OS X 10.2 or later

Solution

Mac OS X 10.4

Reset the printing system.

Mac OS X 10.2 through 10.3.9

You must be logged in as an Admin user. Follow these steps:

1. Open Terminal (/Applications/Utilities/).
2. At the prompt type: cd /var/spool/
3. Press Return.
4. Type: sudo mkdir cups
5. Press Return.
6. Type your Admin user password when prompted, then press Return.
7. Type: sudo chown daemon:admin cups
8. Press Return.
9. Type: sudo chmod 700 cups
10. Press Return.
11. Quit Terminal.
12. Restart the computer.

All of the previously created print queues will reappear after the computer restarts.

If you cannot print after following these steps, you may have a missing /tmp symbolic link. Refer to technical document 107396, "Mac OS X: Cannot Print, Use Classic, Start File Sharing, Burn Discs, or Update Software If /tmp Missing".


Additional information
This may occur under certain circumstances after upgrading to a later version of Mac OS X, if the CUPS daemon is not running or responding.

Thanks again and hope this will be useful (it did work!!)

gsahli - Oct 15, 2005 - 10:52 am

I'm glad you found that and were successful. (The repair permissions step I gave you is supposed to accomplish the same thing, according to Apple - but we live and learn :-) )