Problems printing with OS X Lion and 4.1.18 ***SOLVED***

After spending hours and hours reading these forums, the 'net in general, Canon's Web site, PrintFAB's website, and who knows whos, maybe even Steve Job's web site, I finally got my Canon MP530 USB printer to print on my smb network using my NV+'s spooler under OS X Lion 10.7.1 and ReadyNAS NV+ 4.1.8 firmware. I'm writing this down for 2 reasons - 1) to help everyone else in my position (i.e. people with ReadyNAS devices who are using their spooling services under OS X Lion, and 2) because if I didn't write all this down, I'd never be able to do it again :D

After trying over and over again to set up the MP530 using the normal Printer/Fax System Preference, the only way I could configure it correctly was by using CUPS. So the first step in this process is to create the printer using CUPS.

Go to http://localhost:631/ . That's where the printer configuration utility for OS X lives. It's pretty straightforward with loads of documentation, so take a few minutes to read it over; it's not very hard to understand. Then, when you're ready, go to the Administration tab, and Add A Printer. Now, this is not a normal printer definition by any means. That's why I needed CUPS to create the printer profile. There may be a way to use the normal OS X interfaces to do this, but as the sun set I just got tired of creating/deleting printer profiles. So CUPS it is!

The first thing you need to do is choose the type of network printer. Now, as I was reading somewhere that someone got their printer working under Lion by using smb shares. But since I've exhausted my normal AFP/Bonjour stuff, I gave it a shot with smb. To do this select "Windows printer via spoolss". With the way I have my system configured, smb needs login credentials, and I need to add them into the printer definition. So my definition starts with smb://username:password , the normal way to pass credentials to an external host. Since my credentials are just formatted in the default manner, the username is my shortname (firstnamelastname) and the password is my OS X one, making it easy to format this part.

Next would be the server - my ReadyNAS NV+ (or just readynas in my parlance). But for some reason I couldn't get ReadyNAS or readynas or whatever to work. Eventually I realized that there has to be some DNS somewhere to resolve my server name. But since I didn't have (know) one, I just used its IP address, which hasn't changed for my NV+ since I put it in my network a few years ago. My printer definition now becomes smb://username:password/192.168.#.#/ . Replace with your NAS's IP, of course :)

The last part of this stage uses the spooler name from the ReadyNAS. Use the one without spaces in the name (or FAX too, if you have one like that). Since my spooler name is Canon_MP530, my entire printer network path name is:

smb://username:password/192.168.#.#/Canon_MP530

There's some other configurations you have to do in CUPS, like setting up the printer driver and the default print configurations, but most of that is using the CUPS menus and pulldowns, making it real easy to build a complete printer profile....or so it seemed when I sent a test page to it. I waited and waited, but nothing came out. The printer status dialog said that it was sending the print, but it never moved from that status.

Oh boy. I thought I had it all figured out :(

Then, I remembered that I've been using PrintFAB's print driver since 2007 or so, since Canon's Mac driver's really stunk at the time, and didn't work at all if you shared the printer on a network. I bought the PrintFAB printer driver to get excellent network quality printing from my MP530. Unfortunately, I couldn't figure out how to tell CUPS the PrintFAB's driver name. But then a light bulb turned on - I went back into the normal Printer/FAX System Preference panel, chose my newly-built CUPS printer driver, and chose my PrintFAB driver name from the drop-down dialog box built into the printer's configuration panel. After saving the changes, I sent another test page, and I got a keychain dialog box asking me my password. I was almost there. A few minutes after saving the the logon in the keychain, I heard the familiar cranking of my good old Canon MP530. I ran to the computer room and practically cried on the test sheet that the MP530 so fabulously printed :) My last task (before writing this diatribe) is to click the little padlock on the bottom left corner of the Printer/FAX setup box. I'm not risking someone unwittingly deleting my precious printer definition.

Well, finally a good end to a seemingly disaster of an OS upgrade. But thinking back on all of this, I really need to get a nice network print spooler that works with hundreds of printers/faxes and plays nice with other OS's. I think I'm too exposed to changes coming from all sides for a service (printing) that is essential to me. Getting a dedicated print spooler should (in theory) insulate me from OS changes, driver changes, and definitely CUPS changes. I love my NV+, but it could be much better in the printer spooler arena. Well, life's a win-lose situation, and I think I won a little battle in life today.

Mike