installing MFD canon IR 5840 and 4080 printers using only one queue

So we have a print management system, and Canon Multi Function devices installed everywhere. When we send a print, it goes to only one queue, and will print on whatever MFD you log on to. TRouble is there are multiple models, i.e.

Canon IR C4080
Canon iR C4580
Canon 5840

When we send a print to the 4080 using the 4080 PCL drivers from a Mac, it prints fine. If we send them to the 5840 it prints gobble-de-goop.

So now I'm testing the 5840 drivers on both to see what happens. I'm not sure which to try, the PS drivers or the UFR II (whatever that means) drivers.

Trying the Mac CUPS UFRII/UFRII LT Printer Driver (v10.2.1)  driver:
4080 - blank A3 page

Canon PS Printer Driver for MacOSX v4.00 (v4.00)  driver:
4080 - blank A3 page

Deleting all print queues on OS X using Command Line

So, here's a little script which deletes all the print queues on OS X. I run it through Apple Remote Desktop's "Send Unix Command" as root:


for printer in `lpstat -a | awk '{print $1}'`
do
echo Deleting $printer
lpadmin -x $printer
done

We're moving our print server to a UniFLOW system and so I need to get rid of all the print queues and add new ones (adding them through Workgroup Manager).

Thought I'd make a little pkg file which I can send to all machines through ARD Task Server. I did it through Iceberg. Here's a few screen shots of it with notes:

Adding a preflight script to run

This is the script which runs on preflight

Simple really, but works.

OS X 10.6.6 Printer Queues won't open

After trialing the UniFlow MacClient popup (not currently working though) I noticed that when a print job was sent to a queue the little printer icon would not appear on the dock. I did notice it on local logins but my login is from Active Directory.

After a little investigation it was noticed that the printers in my ~/Library/Printers I was getting a large list of duplicate printer names:

This was a permissions issue. I made a symlink to a local folder:
ln -s /Users/Shared/localPrinterFolder ~/Library/

I logged out and back in and printers were opening like a dream.

Changing the printing defaults to print in Black and White - CUPS vs plist mcx

I need to change the defaults for all printers to print to black and white unless the user wants to change it. I found this post which describes editing presets and using the last preset.


It also describes using CUPS  which does have a command line utility. I do love the http://localhost:631/ interface though! To change the defaults of the printer using this, simply:

1. Go to http://localhost:631/ in a web browser
2. Click "Printers" tab at the top left
3. Click the printer you want to change the preferences for
4. Change:

1.  "Administration" to "Set Default Options"
5. For the Dell Colour Laserjet 3110:

1. Click "Print Quality Colour"
2. Under "Output Colour" change "Colour" to "Black"

To change the Default to Black for the Dell Colour Laser 3110 you could alternatively:

1. Go to folder /etc/cups/ppd/
2. edit the nameofprinter.ppd
3. edit the line:
1. *DefaultDLColorMode: Color
4. change to
1. *DefaultDLColorMode: Black

Done. You just have to find the right line and syntax for all the other types of printers you manage

For not using CUPS, and changing things through plist files and Workgroup Manager, you have to :

1. Set a preset up in the GUI. I called mine "Black and White"
2. Load up Workgroup manager and import the file com.apple.print.cusompresets
3. I deleted all the other presets I had in this file
4. I changed the com.apple.print.lastPresetPref section to "Black and White"
5. Also to change the com.apple.print.lastPresetPrefType section and change a number so it uses the new preset you've just made. (note - I couldn't find this in the plist file!)

Printing on the Epson Stylus Pro 7600

It is best to work from a ready-made local login on this machine:

Username: Print
Password: print

Load your picture up into Photoshop. You need to make sure it is the right size so in the menu's, slelect Image > Image Size. You can change the height or width to what you want.

Photoshop's "Image Size" dialogue box

Now you can go to - File > Print

1. Select the printer named: N239 - Epson Stylus Pro 7600
2. Click on the Page setup and select the right page size (for roll select Super A1) or create a Custom Paper Size (see next image)
3. Click on the orientation of the page
4. Change the size of the picture by dragging the corners or using the numbers
5. Click on Print to get to the next dialogue box

Photoshop's "Print" dialogue box

1. Select the printer named: N239 - Epson Stylus Pro 7600
2. Select the right Paper Size. If it is not in the list create a custom paper size (see next image)
3. Change the "Copies and Pages" option to "Print Settings"
4. Change the "Media Type" to the appropriate setting
5. Change Print Quality to "Superfine - 1440"
6. Click "Save" to print, BUT check the printer is OK first (next image)

Epson Stylus Pro 7600 print dialogue box

1. To make a new custom paper size click the "+"
2. If you're printing on the A1+ roll paper make sure the width is 61.55 cm
3. Name it something appropriate
4. Click OK once the Paper Size is right 

OS X "Custom Paper Sizes" dialogue box

1. Switch it on
2. Check it is on either "Roll with Autocut" or "Sheet" depending upon what you are printing on
3. Release the handle and fee paper in
4. Make sure it is straight and then close the handle
5. Press the Pause button if asked

It should now feed the paper through and check out if its straight. If you get an error message, feed the sheet in again , double checking if it's straight.

Epson Stylus Pro 7600 panel instructions

Now, if it starts printing something and you haven't sent anything to print it is probably someone else's print, in which case hold the Pause button for 3 seconds that should cancel the job. Also check the print queue by clicking on the print shortcut at the bottom of the screen.

When you're sure everything is good, on the computer - press PRINT

HP Colour Laserjet 5550 Fuser Jam - stuck to rollers

We've had this problem on and off for a couple of years. Basically I'll come to the printer and it'll be jammed in the top compartment in the fuser unit, sometimes slightly concertina'd, but always with messed up black toner melted on the back of the paper.

Once we took the paper out, the printer would try printing the same print again and jam again! After a while the fuser unit gets more and more clogged with melted toner.

To get out of this loop, I disconnected the network cable (so no more jobs would be accepted) and kept pressing the stop button to cancel the jobs in memory.

To get the 'gunk' off the rollers I went into the 'diagnose' option, and did a paper path thing. This prints off a small bit of text, but is good for getting the toner off the rollers. After a few of these there was no more residue left on the rollers.

Normal print jobs after this worked fine. After a lot of a trials I finally worked out that the print jobs that jam in the fuser unit tend to be mainly black. I tested this theory by printing out a pure black sheet in Photoshop. Blocked it.

It looks as though if the first portion of the print job is very black, the front end of the paper sticks to the rollers and misses the point where it is meant to continue on the paper path and instead, continues to go around the roller.

I've done a few searches to see if anyone else has had the same problems, but alas they have not. My only thoughts are that the fuser unit is not getting hot enough (or too hot) and making the toner stick to it?

I've found one setting for the fuser to switch it from "fast" to "normal" for warmup? This hasn't helped though. I shall update this when I find more information. If anyone has the same trouble I'd be happy to hear it.

Managed Preferences not working on a few Apple Macs

I look after about 140 Apple Macs, now with OS X 10.6.6. It was noticed that at least two, in one classroom, were not picking up printers and autologin items specified in Workgroup Manager as a managed preference.

It took a while but I found this forum which gave a good insight into troubleshooting managed preference on the Apple Macs. Here are a few tools:

• Go to About This Mac > System Profiler > Managed Preferences. It will show you what preference are managed, if any.
• From terminal use the command: mcxrefresh
• Also from terminal use: mcxquery - much better then the refresh for troubleshooting

After trying all of these it was apparent that the machine was not picking up anything! Nothing appeared in any of these tools, so I finally referred to Workgroup Manager.

The computer was in the list, with the right MAC address. I finally had a look in the All Computers list and sorted in order of MAC Address. I found that this MAC address was listed twice! I deleted the other instance and what do you know, it worked.

Note: Always check for duplicate entries in workgroup manager!!

Sorted.


To properly refresh the MCX preferences from the client machine logged in as a user you can:

1. Open Terminal
2. Make sure you're a SUDO user
3. type:
1. sudo mcxrefresh -n USERNAME_HERE -a
2. Password:
4. It came up with this error though:
1. 07] CFURLCreateWithString was passed this invalid URL string: '/Applications/Safari.app' (a file system path instead of an URL string). The URL created will not work with most file URL functions. CFURLCreateWithFileSystemPath or CFURLCreateWithFileSystemPathRelativeToBase should be used instead.
5. but it did refresh all information and install the right printers!

Installing Canon Multi Function Devices iR C4080/C4580 on OS X 10.6.6

We've got a print server set up which controls the print queues for the new(ish) Canon MFD devices around college with the potential for charging. I think it uses some Canon type software to keep a track of it all. So, on speaking to the guy managing all this he has tried and tested it. Pretty simple really, not sure why I'm writing this down. I guess just in case I have acute amnesia.

So:

1. Install the PPD's from the downloaded PKG file (not sure where it's from but I did find something similar here on the Canon Website under PPD drivers. Same name and size.) called - CanonPPD300.pkg.
2. Load up System Preferences and go to Print & Fax
3. Add printer (the little plus sign in the bottom left)
4. Setup an IP printer
1. Line Printer Daemon - LPD
2. put the DNS address of the server (no "LPD://" at the beginning)
3. put in the queue name - CanonCOLOUR - for our printer
4. whatever name you want
5. whereever
6. Click "select printer software"
1. do a quick search for "4080" and click on "Canon iR C4080/C4580"

Done. Tested and works a treat. 

To print black and white, in the File > Print dialogue box:

Click:

1. Printer Features option in the main drop-down just below "Orientation options"
2. Change Feature Sets to "Color 1"
3. Change Color Mode to "Black and White"

Done.

Mac OS X Default Paper Size plist file

For some reason in one room in particular when someone prints to the Dell Colour Laser 3110 the default paper size is Letter. I thought I'd set it up a long time ago not to be. So I've found this thread which mentions the file location for default paper size:

~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.print.PrintingPrefs.plist

It contains:

DefaultPaperID
iso-a4

Add this to a plist file to the "details" tab in a computer list group in workgroup manager and see what happens.

Copying printers from one computer to another - windows

I've currently got a PC running windows server 2000 acting as a print server. It's essentially just sharing it's printers, but all computers in the department use the shared printers on this computer. It runs very well even though the computer is about 8 years old. We've also got PaperCut NG install with unlimited user license which gives each user £2 credit each week and deletes any jobs costing more then what the user has in credit. It's saved a lot of money down to wasted prints!

Just one problem we have now is that if this old computer fails, no one can print in the department. My plan is to copy the printers from this computer to another and if the server fails, simply rename the new computer to the old computers name and everything should go quite smoothly. The only thing which won't work is the print quotas, but this wouldn't take too long to fix.

So, after reading up on how other people do it (and also trying your simple copy and paste and other menu's on the computer) I found this where they talk about Print Migration Utility. Works like a dream. Load it up on the original computer, backup the printers to a cab file. Load the program on the new computer and restore it from the cab file. Takes a while as it installs all the correct printer drivers, but what amazed me was that it was from windows server 2000 to windows xp. Perfect.