Troubleshooting large-scale import of printers into PaperCut Mobility Print on Linux

This article addresses issues encountered during the large-scale import of print queues (printers) into PaperCut Mobility Print servers on Apple Mac or Linux hosts. It covers symptoms, recommendations, and advanced troubleshooting steps for environments with thousands of print queues.

Issue summary

Mobility Print fails to import high quantities of printers using the default `lpstat -a`, resulting in the command failing.

Symptoms

• The import process is terminated with a signal (`killed`), as seen in Mobility Print logs, when you run lpstat -a.
• Mobility Print cannot detect or update queues when this occurs.
• CUPS startup might be interrupted by systemd due to service timeouts when handling thousands of queues.

Solution

Update Mobility Print to use the IPP protocol for printer capability discovery, which is typically more reliable in large or complex environments.

If you encounter issues with the default LP method for printer capability discovery in Mobility Print, you can configure the service to use the IPP method instead. This can help resolve problems where the LP method fails to enumerate or import print queues.

1. Open a terminal and edit the Mobility Print Service. Run:
   

   sudo systemctl edit pc-mobility-print
   

2. When the editor opens, add the following lines:
   

   [Service]
   Environment="PC_PRINTER_CAPS_DISCOVERY=IPP"
   

3. Save and close the editor.

4. Restart the editor to apply the changes.

If the issue persists after making this change, collect and review the Mobility Print Server logs for further diagnosis.