Can CUPS be removed from OS X (10.4.11)?

G

gtackett

Registered
A little background: Some time ago, back in the 10.3 "era" I think, I installed CUPS on my system. Then along came 10.4.x and broke the version of CUPS I was using (I think that was the story.) So I backed down to CUPS v1.2.12 which I've been using since then. (The details are a little foggy so I apologize for possibly not having release versions definite.) Since then, like anyone else using CUPS I've had to reinstall CUPS every time I apply an Apple system update.

Are you aware of any means to remove CUPS v1.2.12 and return to using the Apple-supplied printing components?

Thanks,

Galen
 
If you are in 10.4.11 then download the shareware Print Setup Repair to fix the printing CUPS and all printing issues. The application will have a 30 day trial you can use to fix the CUPS issue.
 
Galen,

Are you installing CUPS because you need a particular version? Apple has been using CUPS for printing since 10.2.

If you have a glitchy mess on your hands, you could use the "Archive and Install" option of the system disc. Put your 10.4 system disc in, double click the Install OS X icon (or whatever it's called). After it reboots, during the installation "assistant", there is (if I remember right) a button called "Options" that allows an Upgrade install, an Archive and Install, or an Erase and Install. Archive and Install will preserve your data but reinstall the operating system.

** Backup first to avoid possible data loss. **

Good luck!

Bot
 
ex2bot said:
Galen,

[Y]ou could use the "Archive and Install" option of the system disc. Put your 10.4 system disc in, double click the Install OS X icon (or whatever it's called). After it reboots, [etc.]

** Backup first to avoid possible data loss. **

Good luck!

Bot
Click to expand...

I did exactly as you suggested, and then installed the latest update(s). After reinstalling a handful of control panels and applications that were in the System folder I had the system back to normal, and the old version of CUPS was gone.

Quite a while ago I had originally installed this version of CUPS because, if I remember correctly, at the time it was newer than the Apple-supplied one. Eventually, of course, it wasn't, and not only that, but it broke my print queue every time I installed an OS X update.

So now I'm rid of it and can use either the Canon driver or the one from Gutenprint, at my choice. I just keep a queue set up for each of them.
 
gtackett said:
...

So now I'm rid of it and can use either the Canon driver or the one from Gutenprint, at my choice. I just keep a queue set up for each of them.
Click to expand...
Don't get so proud of yourself. CUPS is the primary print engine in MacOS X. Without it, printing over the network is difficult to impossible. Adobe's Acrobat Distiller print driver is simply a CUPS filter. Apple's PostScript print driver is the CUPS driver needed by more users than any other. However, most manufacturer-supplied print drivers are not CUPS drivers. This is why their printers don't work over the network without Gutenprint or CUPS drivers from another source. You are not rid of CUPS. You used Gutenprint to restore it.

BTW, there is no need to install the downloadable version of CUPS unless you are an experienced Unix-head and want to experiment. To the novice user, the downloadable version of CUPS is a disaster waiting to happen.
 
I gotta agree with MisterMe here -- Apple does NOT keep all UNIX components of Mac OS X up-to-date with the latest versions available. Apple has put together a very stable collection of UNIX programs, some of which are not the latest versions available... we can only speculate as to why, but you can see from your experiences that trying to install the latest and greatest versions does not always work.

Unless there is some dire need for some feature of CUPS that isn't available with the CUPS that comes standard with Mac OS X, then I would suggest just letting Apple do the updating. If there's a CUPS update that needs to be applied, Apple will supply it in the form of a Software Update (and it may or may not read "CUPS" in the update -- it may simply read "Printer Update" or something similar).

Even though the Print & Fax control panel looks nothing like CUPS, it does, indeed, use CUPS as the printing subsystem -- it's just hidden away so that casual users who are not familiar with either UNIX or the command line don't have to worry about complex stuff like that.

Apple has done a fantastic job of hiding the complexity of UNIX from the casual Mac OS X user. While I understand that power users and UNIX gurus would like to get their hands on the UNIX underpinnings of Mac OS X, Mac OS X just wasn't designed with the UNIX tinkerer in mind. If you so choose to dive into the UNIX underpinnings of OS X and start changing things like CUPS, then you will run into headaches along the way, and possibly "break" stuff that may be dependent on what you're changing.

I understand that there is a need, sometimes, to get something to work, and it would require diving into the UNIX underpinnings of Mac OS X. Just be aware that this isn't condoned by Apple (especially replacing the entire CUPS system with a newer version), since, as we all know, software changes over time, and the newer version you're installing may have changes that are not compatible with the other systems in Mac OS X that rely on CUPS.

Sorry about the ramble, just went off for a sec there... whew! ;)
 
If you're familiar with the FreeBSD world, then you'll understand why things are the way they are with Mac OS X. I would consider each release of OS X and the software that comes with it similar to the -RELEASE builds of FreeBSD. From what I can tell, the -RELEASE tree doesn't change versions much. About the only thing that changes are probably security patches and bug fixes, but the versions of the software packages stay the same. This is how I see it.

So don't worry so much about the version you're using. Know that it's what comes with the release of OS X that you're using, just like the respective version comes with the respective -RELEASE tree of a version of FreeBSD. So long as it works and is patched regularly, there's no need to upgrade to the latest and greatest version number.
 
MisterMe, I think you misread gtackett's reply. He did install a newer version of CUPS, and he did have problems. But after an Archive and Install, he got rid of the CUPS version that caused him so many problems.

And he did discover that updating CUPS wasn't as straightforward as he thought.

Bot
 
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