Fix for greyed out add printer button in Ubuntu 10.10
Replaced the ancient Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid) with 10.10 (Maverick) on my home desktop, went to "System" > "Administration" > "Printing" to add my network printer and found that the "Add" button is greyed out. Huh? Turns out CUPS wasn't installed. Let's get it:
$ sudo apt-get install cups
Voila. Now I can add the printer. While I was trying to remember the IP or hostname I'd used for the printer when I set it up eons ago, it magically appeared in the list of available printers. Something auto discovered it. Sweet.
I do wonder why CUPS is not installed by default. Printing is still a common function.
Overall though, I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised by Ubuntu 10.10 as it seems more polished and refined that 9.10 on my work desktop. It seems with every release, it gets better and better. I think I get open source, but I'm still constantly amazed that something this good is free. Even more surprising is that more people aren't using it. I believe Linux just passed the 1% market share compared with 6% for Mac or something along those lines. I have to occasionally support Mac users at work and I'm constantly surprised at how buggy and undocumented Mac OS X is. Anyway, back to work.
1 Comment
1. chris judge replies at 1st February 2012, 5:17 pm :
I had a grayed out `add printer’ but CUPS was installed. So I uninstalled CUPS and then reinstalled it, and it worked.
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