macOS Sonoma 14.4 broke CUPS

[Foulger]

Does anyone know how to restore CUPS operation as it existed until macOS 14.3? I know 14.4.1 and 14.5ß1 have not resolved this. Having CUPS operational as before is an essential part of PaperCut which many schools and businesses use to police printing.
At the moment, there is a fix from Papercut but it involves altering a CUPS file to suit and therefore making 14.4 non-standard.
Obviously, the correct fix is for Apple to fix it but due to climate change, hell is not yet freezing over.

Does anyone have a fix, say, with Terminal, to restore CUPS as it was? As the IT go-to person at two schools, both of whom use PapercutMF, I would dearly like to hear from anyone who has a fix. Thanks: foulger@macservice.co.nz

 

[bogdanw]

If you have Microsoft Defender
"Apparently a problem with Microsoft Defender. Uninstalling it or giving it full disk access should fix the problem"
https://github.com/apple/cups/issues/6189

 

[Foulger]

If you have Microsoft Defender
"Apparently a problem with Microsoft Defender. Uninstalling it or giving it full disk access should fix the problem"
https://github.com/apple/cups/issues/6189

Thank you for your fast response and attention. I did check but no one uses Defender in our environment so the hunt must go on. Its funny that Apple has remained silent on this very important issue. Maybe some junior has quietly swept it under the rug? Thanks again for taking the time to respond.

 

[dmccloud]

Does anyone know how to restore CUPS operation as it existed until macOS 14.3? I know 14.4.1 and 14.5ß1 have not resolved this. Having CUPS operational as before is an essential part of PaperCut which many schools and businesses use to police printing.
At the moment, there is a fix from Papercut but it involves altering a CUPS file to suit and therefore making 14.4 non-standard.
Obviously, the correct fix is for Apple to fix it but due to climate change, hell is not yet freezing over.

Does anyone have a fix, say, with Terminal, to restore CUPS as it was? As the IT go-to person at two schools, both of whom use PapercutMF, I would dearly like to hear from anyone who has a fix. Thanks: foulger@macservice.co.nz

In all honesty, the responsibility would fall on the PapercutMF developers to update their apps to be fully compatible with the changes Apple made to the printing subsystem. Altering a CUPS file sounds like a temporary fix and would likely be overwritten when the next Mac OS update is installed.

 

[Foulger]

In all honesty, the responsibility would fall on the PapercutMF developers to update their apps to be fully compatible with the changes Apple made to the printing subsystem. Altering a CUPS file sounds like a temporary fix and would likely be overwritten when the next Mac OS update is installed.

It may be that you have missed the point. Apple has introduced a bug which broke CUPS, not an intentional change in CUPS

 

[chrfr]

Does anyone know how to restore CUPS operation as it existed until macOS 14.3? I know 14.4.1 and 14.5ß1 have not resolved this. Having CUPS operational as before is an essential part of PaperCut which many schools and businesses use to police printing.
At the moment, there is a fix from Papercut but it involves altering a CUPS file to suit and therefore making 14.4 non-standard.
Obviously, the correct fix is for Apple to fix it but due to climate change, hell is not yet freezing over.

Does anyone have a fix, say, with Terminal, to restore CUPS as it was? As the IT go-to person at two schools, both of whom use PapercutMF, I would dearly like to hear from anyone who has a fix. Thanks: foulger@macservice.co.nz

Is this the issue you're talking about? https://www.papercut.com/kb/Main/FixPrintTrackingInMacSonoma14-4

 

[Foulger]

Is this the issue you're talking about? https://www.papercut.com/kb/Main/FixPrintTrackingInMacSonoma14-4

Thank you very much for taking the time to respond. This is indeed the issue. In regard to rectification, perhaps you could see, from my concerns, the matter is whether the change to CUPS was deliberate or a bug. If it was deliberate, then the fix is in. However, if it was a bug, then at some stage in the future, the above changes to the CUPS files will have to be reversed. It would be great to get a nod from Apple as to whether it was one thing or the other. For my current problem, after a week without printing my concerned school has a temporary fix in that we are using Mobility print in the short term. The school will be changing printers to another brand in August, so the dust will hopefully have settled by then. In the meantime, if any contributory has a 100% knowledge base answer as to whether this is a bug or not, that would be very helpful. Thanks for your time

 

[jcscol]

At the moment, there is a fix from Papercut but it involves altering a CUPS file to suit and therefore making 14.4 non-standard.

From the Papercut website, it appears that the problem arises because you can no longer stop and restart any system processes using 'launchctl stop' since Sonoma 14.4 (even using root privileges via 'sudo'). I have experienced this issue with my own, non-cups related, scripts.

Whether it's a bug or intentional is not clear. Your best source of information is probably Papercut Support, as they may have received a reply to their feedback report.

A quick glance at Papercut's script to fix the issue suggests that they are not modifying the macOs Cups files in any particular way, they are just using 'kill all' and then restarting Cups as a workaround.

I don't know what other Cups files Papercut may be altering (if any), but I have found from experience that any changes I make to the Cups configuration file (cupsd.conf) or other 'hidden' configuration files in the macOs /private/etc folder (asl.conf, newsyslog.conf etc) can be restored to their original state by re-running the macOs Installer on top of your existing install. Also, macOs updates overwrite any changes to these files that I have made.

 

[bogdanw]

it appears that the problem arises because you can no longer stop and restart any system processes using 'launchctl stop' since Sonoma 14.4 (even using root privileges via 'sudo').

As far as I know, stopping system processes with launchctl works only when SIP is disabled.

 

[jcscol]

As far as I know, stopping system processes with launchctl works only when SIP is disabled.

That never used to be the case pre 14.4. It's a change that has been recently implemented

 

[jcscol]

I don't know what it shows under macOs 14.4, but the man page for launchctl in macOs 14.5 b1 now lists 'launchctl start | stop' as legacy commands. Furthermore, it adds:

DEPRECATED AND REMOVED FUNCTIONALITY
launchctl no longer has an interactive mode, nor does it accept commands from stdin. The /etc/launchd.conf file is no longer consulted for subcommands to run during early boot time; this functionality was removed for security considerations. ...

So going back to the OP's issue, it doesn't look like a macOs 14.4 bug, but an intentional change. The PaperCut fix will have to be used with 14.4 onwards.

 

[bogdanw]

I don't know what it shows under macOs 14.4, but the man page for launchctl in macOs 14.5 b1 now lists 'launchctl start | stop' as legacy commands. Furthermore, it adds:

Those are not recent changes, I think they were introduced in Big Sur.
In Sonoma 14.4, cupsd can be started with

sudo launchctl kickstart -kp system/org.cups.cupsd

and stopped with

sudo launchctl bootout system/org.cups.cupsd

 

[jcscol]

But the point here is that 'launchctl start' and 'launchctl stop' as used by PaperCut and other scripts worked prior to macOs 14.4, but they don't now (and as they have been deprecated won't in future releases).

sudo launchctl kickstart -kp system/org.cups.cupsd

Are you sure this works with 14.4? It doesn't with 14.5 b1. It also says in the 14.4 release notes :

Core Audio​

Known Issues​

• To improve security and stability, using launchctl kickstart -k is no longer permitted for critical system processes. If a process must be forcefully terminated, it is recommended to use kill instead. (123028502)

 

[bogdanw]

But the point here is that 'launchctl start' and 'launchctl stop' as used by PaperCut and other scripts worked prior to macOs 14.4, but they don't now (and as they have been deprecated won't in future releases).

They should use kickstart/ bootout

Are you sure this works with 14.4? It doesn't with 14.5 b1. It also says in the 14.4 release notes :

Yes, cupsd is not a critical system process. It works with SIP enabled.

 

[Foulger]

Those are not recent changes, I think they were introduced in Big Sur.
In Sonoma 14.4, cupsd can be started with

sudo launchctl kickstart -kp system/org.cups.cupsd

and stopped with

sudo launchctl bootout system/org.cups.cupsd

Thank you very much

 

[Foulger]

They should use kickstart/ bootout


Yes, cupsd is not a critical system process. It works with SIP enabled.
View attachment 2368603

Thank you very much - very helpful

 

[Foulger]

But the point here is that 'launchctl start' and 'launchctl stop' as used by PaperCut and other scripts worked prior to macOs 14.4, but they don't now (and as they have been deprecated won't in future releases).



Are you sure this works with 14.4? It doesn't with 14.5 b1. It also says in the 14.4 release notes :

Thank you very much. Most helpful

 

[Foulger]

Those are not recent changes, I think they were introduced in Big Sur.
In Sonoma 14.4, cupsd can be started with

sudo launchctl kickstart -kp system/org.cups.cupsd

and stopped with

sudo launchctl bootout system/org.cups.cupsd

Thats most helpful. Thank You

 

[Foulger]

But the point here is that 'launchctl start' and 'launchctl stop' as used by PaperCut and other scripts worked prior to macOs 14.4, but they don't now (and as they have been deprecated won't in future releases).



Are you sure this works with 14.4? It doesn't with 14.5 b1. It also says in the 14.4 release notes :

Thank you very much - that's really helpful.