Problem printing

[Thomas Cole]

trying to add a printer or running an lpstat I get the following error: can't open printer status file.
Any ideas?

[Sean OB_1]

Do you get this only when you try to run commands against one particular printer?

Check and make sure that /var/spool/lp has the following files:


prw------- 1 lp lp 0 Oct 16 11:46 CLD_FIFO
prw------- 1 lp lp 0 Oct 16 11:46 FIFO
-rw-r----- 1 lp lp 0 Oct 16 11:46 SCHEDLOCK

-rw-r--r-- 1 lp lp 376488 Oct 16 10:02 pstatus
-rw-r--r-- 1 lp lp 93436 Oct 16 10:02 qstatus



If they are there and correct issue lpshut and make sure the UPPERCASE files go away, then issue lpsched to restart the schedular.

[S.K. Chan · Accepted solution]

Some obvious things to check ..
1) /var/spool/lp/pstatus file (ie the printer status file) should be owned by lp:bin and permission should be 644.
2) /var/spool/lp/qstatus file (ie queue status file), same ownership and permission as 1)

[Helen French]

This happens due to a permission/owner/group change in files under /var/spool/lp. Check the directory and find if the files owner has been changed from lp:bin. Another best way to get back the original permissions is to use SAM and "Save/Restore" printer configurations.