The current manual page for cupsd.conf seems to require that the JobPrivateAccessdirective appear only within <Policy>; sections. The conf file I have, created automatically by Ubuntu some versions back, has it outside the <Policy> sections. What I suspect happened is that the CUPS cupsd.conf format changed at some point, or enforcement became more strict.
Ubuntu may have pushed out a version of CUPS incompatible with older cupsd.conf files.
If there are a lot of users screaming “I can’t print” on Monday, this is probably the problem.
Happy Thanksgiving.
What I’ve Tried:
This can probably be bypassed by hacking on the cupsd.conf file, but that might mess up future updates. So I’m printing off another machine for a few days.
This bug is being discussed here, on the CUPS Github, and on Stack Exchange, as linked above.
At least four people have hit it so far, and we’re still in the Thankgiving weekend.
Removing the offending lines from the conf file is reported to get printing going again, but the side effects are unknown. What in Ubuntu writes that file? Settings?
Hi there, just to confirm that commenting out JobPrivateAccess out of sections restore the printer functionality.
I hope no unknown side effects hit me because of this.
Thanks anyway i’ve spent a lot of time googling around with no luck, and then found this post that solve my printing problem.
I have 6 instances of those lines including JobPrivateAccess in my version of the cupsd.conf file in lines 63 & 64, 118 & 119 and finally 164 & 165.
Is it normal to have those repeated lines as it seems very unusual to me though I’ve never actually looked at that cupsd.conf file before?
I haven’t actually printed anything yet to see if my HP Envy 5427 is working but it certainly is still found by the system when I hit Ctrl+p or look in localhost:631.
I use Xubuntu-24.04, fully updated today, so I was concerned when I read about this potential printing failure.
scheduler is running
system default destination: Canon-MF3010
members of class HomePrinters:
Canon-MF3010
device for Canon-MF3010: usb://Canon/MF3010?serial=0144P000013D&interface=1
device for CUPS-PDF: cups-pdf:/
device for HomePrinters: ///dev/null
Canon-MF3010 accepting requests since Tue 25 Nov 2025 05:34:22 PM
CUPS-PDF accepting requests since Thu 23 May 2024 07:11:56 PM
HomePrinters accepting requests since Thu 29 Jul 2021 07:11:57 PM
printer Canon-MF3010 disabled since Tue 25 Nov 2025 05:34:22 PM -
Unplugged or turned off
printer CUPS-PDF is idle. enabled since Thu 23 May 2024 07:11:56 PM
printer HomePrinters is idle. enabled since Thu 29 Jul 2021 07:11:57 PM
That may be a different problem. CUPS is up but can’t find the printer.
This is what I get while CUPS is not running.
> lpstat -t
scheduler is not running
no system default destination
lpstat: Bad file descriptor
lpstat: Bad file descriptor
lpstat: Bad file descriptor
lpstat: Bad file descriptor
lpstat: Bad file descriptor
All is normal after doing the trick.
As @ericmarceau said lpstat -t gives you all the info you need.
For me after removing (commented out for now) that lines all is restored, cups is up, http://localhost:631 is working too, i think that as @ajgreeny said there are other JobPrivateAccess (and others) calls between tags, so seems to be not a bug but only an oversight error by the ubuntu team. Ah, Linux Mint 22.2 here.
Just done a full upgrade of my desktop machine running Xubuntu-24.04, including allowing all the cups packages to upgrade4 as normal and my printer is still working, and cups webmin at localhost:631 is also finding the printer.
Running lpstat -t gives full output as normal.
Is the problem reported by others related to the DE used, Xfce in my case not exhibiting a problem?
I’m using Ubuntu Mate 24.04.3 and when I went to print a document today I got a notice thru CUPS that Printing Service not available. Start the service on this computer, or connect to another server.Starting the service yielded nothing and connecting to the server (Local Host) yielded nothing.The only notice I got is that there was no printer available when I tried to re-add my printer(HP).
After some research I found this on the Mint forums and post #2 is what worked for me.Not sure your problem is the same as mine but the timing seems a little coincidental particularly because it involves this file /etc/cups/cupsd.conf.
I’ll admit to having no idea: my main reason for posting was to provide a potential work-around for those other users having ‘dead’ printers and stumbled on this thread. I’ll agree with you something modifies the configuration file, in this instance not quite correctly. (Please do not take this as being sarcastic – I’m just an end-user trying to help out others.)