[RESOLVED] kubuntu to kubuntu printer sharing doesn't seem to work

[cheese2]

Hi folks

I've got two relatively new and clean kubuntu systems that I'm trying to get to share a printer and it's just not working. Both are running identical software: 25.04 with the ppa backports enabled so running KDE Plasma 6.4.5 and various other updated bits & pieces.

The first system is a tower with a Brother HL-2030 monochrome laser printer connected by USB. The Kubuntu installer found this printer and automatically set it up at install. Local printing on the tower works just fine. I went into the CUPS web interface and enabled printer sharing, after which it was discovered by a Windows 11 system and an iPad on the same network. They can both print to it as well, so I am proceeding on the assumption that my issue is not on the tower. Everything there seems to be configured correctly and works.

The second Kubuntu system is a VMware VM on a laptop. Same version as the tower, same patches and updates. The VM is on it's own local virtual network which is NAT'd to the wider network, so auto discovery finds nothing but that isn't a surprise. I can ping the tower from the VM and I can even open the CUPS admin page so I believe NAT is working properly and there don't seem to be any firewall issues.

The problem with the VM starts when I run the Add printer wizard in the System Settings. If I use IPP, or IPPS, or HTTPS and give it the IP of the tower and click the search it finds the printer okay, and if I proceed with Select Printer it even identifies the make & model correctly. However if I proceed past there it sets it up with a Connection url of usb://Brother/HL-2030%20series?serial=J7J670763 which is the same as on the tower i.e. this appears to be setting it up as a local usb printer which it isn't on this system. When I attempt to print a test page to it, unsurprisingly it sits indefinitely with a status of "waiting for printer to become available" though of course it never will.

If I go to the tower and run ippfind --ls I get ipp://[towerIP]:631/printers/HL-2030-series idle accepting-jobs none as the sharing address for the printer. So I change the Connection url on the VM to ipp://[towerIP]:631/printers/HL-2030-series and a new test page job stalls at "Sending data to printer". The job does appear in the CUPS jobs on the tower as State: stopped "filter failed". If I change the ppd file to Generic IPP Everywhere Printer I get no error at all the State remains at "sending data to printer" on both the VM and the tower.

I have removed & reinstalled CUPS on the VM. I have reinstalled ghostscript. I have reinstalled avahi. None of that made any difference. On an older version of the VM I also had difficulty connecting to a Windows-hosted printer. I had to add it through an older version of the KDE printer management interface, which I accessed by running kde-add-printer --add-printer but that old software doesn't seem to exist any more in this release.

Folks I am just about out of ideas here. Can anyone point me in the right direction? I feel like I've missed something obvious, haven't I? Thanks.

[TheSupremeVizier]

cheese2, here's an idea. You could try to install your Brother HL-2030 on a USB to LAN print server, plugging the LAN side into your router and the USB side into your Brother HL-2030. The printer would then have an IP address, and you could set it up as a networked printer on all your devices. Considering that you're trying to get a printer working over the network from your VM to a printer that currently requires a host computer, I realize that this suggestion might not work, but it is what it is...a suggestion...with no guarantee for success.

[cheese2]

Well it's working. I have absolutely no idea what I did differently this time, but I came back after letting it sit for two weeks, deleted and recreated the printer on the VM using CUPS, in the exactly the same way I did at least three dozen times before, and this time it works. I did set the ppd type to IPP Everywhere, which was one of the things I tried previously, but whereas it made no difference, it's working now. Funny thing when I print the test page from the VM it identifies the ppd as "HL-2030 series, using Owl-Maintain/brlaser v6.2.7" which is what it's set to on the tower not the VM. When I print a local test page on the tower it identifies the ppd as "IPP Everywhere (grayscale)" which is the complete opposite of how I've set it, but it works so I'm not going to question it or investigate any further in case I break it again.

Thanks to TheSupremeVizier for your suggestion. Although I wasn't able to try it, doubtless it would have worked. Your reply was what prompted me to have another go at this thing.