A Tale of 3 MBAs and a Printer

Question

Buadhai Author

Level 1

90 points

A Tale of 3 MBAs and a Printer

The MBAs

• M2 MBA 15"

• M3 MBA 15"

• M4 MBA 13" (brand new this week)

All three are running Tahoe and have the latest printer drivers installed

The printer

• Epson L360 Series (USB inkjet)

The M2 and M3 MBAs can print to the Epson printer.

The M4 MBA cannot print to the Epson printer.

All three MBAs can print to Canon and Brother Wireless printers

The M4 seems to start to print to the Epson, but gets stuck forever on "Sending data to printer"

What we've tried:

• Reset the printing system

• Remove and reinstall the printer

• Reboot the M4

• Turn off and unplug the printer, wait a bit, start up again

Nothing has worked. Any ideas?

MacBook Air (M4, 2025)

Posted on Oct 21, 2025 2:25 PM

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Answer 1

dwb

Level 7

33,214 points

Nov 12, 2025 5:06 PM in response to Buadhai

I just came upon this thread today - I found it fascinating reading because it is the type of thing I ran into all too frequently being the Mac guy in an establishment that kept every bit of hardware until it died. I’m amazed at your tenacity really. In the end you’ve come to the best solution. I have an old old iMac running Sierra just because it is the most modern OS able to drive my venerable HP laser printer - the last HP printer that was decently made and had a reliable printer driver. I just hope I can keep getting toner for it.

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Answer 2

Buadhai Author

Level 1

90 points

Nov 12, 2025 5:31 PM in response to dwb

I'm afraid there's a fine line between tenacity and stubbornness. I think that in this case my tenacity (?) is driven more by curiosity than anything else. I just want to know. As another contributor pointed out, it would have been a lot simpler to just buy another printer.

As far as old printers go, we still have a Canon LBP6000 that we bought when we first moved to Thailand in 2005. It's still going strong with outstanding print quality and mostly trouble free. The only problem we've had was a print feed roller that hardened with age. We easily ordered a new one and replaced it ourselves. Canon still updates drivers and there is a local company that sells good quality toner cartridges at about 1/3 the cost. It's USB only, has no complicated controls and no LCD screen. It just works. Every time.

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Answer 3

Nov 12, 2025 5:33 PM in response to dwb

dwb wrote:

…I have an old old iMac running Sierra just because it is the most modern OS able to drive my venerable HP laser printer - the last HP printer that was decently made and had a reliable printer driver. I just hope I can keep getting toner for it…

If you want a classic HP printer with more current printing features, buy most any Brother MFC.

Between AirPrint support on most, and with IPP/IPPS, no drivers are needed, too.

The last HP printer in local use, a LaserJet 4250, was wheeled out of here a few years ago, after the rollers and the plastic bumpers and other plastic bits throughput, all reverted to its original primordial goo.

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Answer 4

Buadhai Author

Level 1

90 points

Nov 12, 2025 5:37 PM in response to John Galt

It certainly is possible that Epson is at fault, but I'd like to read an explanation as to why; other than that they didn't provide Apple with necessary "drivers".

"Raspberry Pi's Debian OS incorporates drivers for every printer known to exist"

And, it seems, for almost every scanner known to exist. I was thrilled when I discovered that I could keep using my 20+ year old Canon scanner.

Which is another reason why curiosity and tenacity can bee good things. The spare Pi is in a different location. I'll pick it up next week and work on it when I get back home.

I'll post the results here.

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Answer 5

Buadhai Author

Level 1

90 points

Nov 14, 2025 3:04 PM in response to John Galt

Time to give up. I did find the L310 driver, but it didn't work.

I rebooted the Pi and now I can no longer connect to the CUPS web interface. Cups is running:

pi@piprint:~ $ sudo systemctl status  cups
<snip>

Nov 15 05:48:40 piprint systemd[1]: Starting cups.service - CUPS Scheduler...

Nov 15 05:48:40 piprint systemd[1]: Started cups.service - CUPS Scheduler.

But, when I checked /etc/cups/cupsd.conf I find that many of the settings have changed from when I first set it up. I don't know how this happened. But, it made the CUPS web server inaccessible; at least by me.

My wife also seems to have lost interest. As have I.

Thanks for all your help.

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Answer 6

John Galt

Level 10

155,060 points

Nov 14, 2025 4:05 PM in response to Buadhai

I've broken and rebuilt more Linux systems than I care to remember. Rebuilding a Pi from the ground up is not difficult, especially for one minimally configured for the sole purpose of being a print server, but using its built-in SD Card Copier is even easier. Power down, swap the cards, boot, copy. Keep an inexpensive USB / SD card dongle on hand.

If you want to reinstall CUPS, should you find it necessary,

sudo apt install cups

If your interest should become rekindled I'll be here. Enjoy the beers.

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Answer 7

John Galt

Level 10

155,060 points

Nov 14, 2025 4:02 PM in response to Buadhai

But, when I checked /etc/cups/cupsd.conf I find that many of the settings have changed from when I first set it up.

For what it's worth (almost certainly nothing):

john@RPi00:~ $ sudo cat /etc/cups/cupsd.conf
LogLevel warn
PageLogFormat
MaxLogSize 0
ErrorPolicy retry-job
# Allow remote access
Port 631
Listen /run/cups/cups.sock
Browsing Yes
BrowseLocalProtocols dnssd
DefaultAuthType Basic
WebInterface Yes
IdleExitTimeout 60
<Location />
  # Allow remote access...
  Order allow,deny
  Allow all
</Location>
<Location /admin>
</Location>
<Location /admin/conf>
  AuthType Default
  Require user @SYSTEM
</Location>
<Location /admin/log>
  AuthType Default
  Require user @SYSTEM
</Location>
<Policy default>
  JobPrivateAccess default
  JobPrivateValues default
  SubscriptionPrivateAccess default
  SubscriptionPrivateValues default
  <Limit Create-Job Print-Job Print-URI Validate-Job>
    Order deny,allow
  </Limit>
  <Limit Send-Document Send-URI Hold-Job Release-Job Restart-Job Purge-Jobs Set-Job-Attributes Create-Job-Subscription Renew-Subscription Cancel-Subscription Get-Notifications Reprocess-Job Cancel-Current-Job Suspend-Current-Job Resume-Job Cancel-My-Jobs Close-Job CUPS-Move-Job>
    Require user @OWNER @SYSTEM
    Order deny,allow
  </Limit>
  <Limit CUPS-Get-Document>
    AuthType Default
    Require user @OWNER @SYSTEM
    Order deny,allow
  </Limit>
  <Limit CUPS-Add-Modify-Printer CUPS-Delete-Printer CUPS-Add-Modify-Class CUPS-Delete-Class CUPS-Set-Default CUPS-Get-Devices>
    AuthType Default
    Require user @SYSTEM
    Order deny,allow
  </Limit>
  <Limit Pause-Printer Resume-Printer Enable-Printer Disable-Printer Pause-Printer-After-Current-Job Hold-New-Jobs Release-Held-New-Jobs Deactivate-Printer Activate-Printer Restart-Printer Shutdown-Printer Startup-Printer Promote-Job Schedule-Job-After Cancel-Jobs CUPS-Accept-Jobs CUPS-Reject-Jobs>
    AuthType Default
    Require user @SYSTEM
    Order deny,allow
  </Limit>
  <Limit Cancel-Job CUPS-Authenticate-Job>
    Require user @OWNER @SYSTEM
    Order deny,allow
  </Limit>
  <Limit All>
    Order deny,allow
  </Limit>
</Policy>
<Policy authenticated>
  JobPrivateAccess default
  JobPrivateValues default
  SubscriptionPrivateAccess default
  SubscriptionPrivateValues default
  <Limit Create-Job Print-Job Print-URI Validate-Job>
    AuthType Default
    Order deny,allow
  </Limit>
  <Limit Send-Document Send-URI Hold-Job Release-Job Restart-Job Purge-Jobs Set-Job-Attributes Create-Job-Subscription Renew-Subscription Cancel-Subscription Get-Notifications Reprocess-Job Cancel-Current-Job Suspend-Current-Job Resume-Job Cancel-My-Jobs Close-Job CUPS-Move-Job CUPS-Get-Document>
    AuthType Default
    Require user @OWNER @SYSTEM
    Order deny,allow
  </Limit>
  <Limit CUPS-Add-Modify-Printer CUPS-Delete-Printer CUPS-Add-Modify-Class CUPS-Delete-Class CUPS-Set-Default>
    AuthType Default
    Require user @SYSTEM
    Order deny,allow
  </Limit>
  <Limit Pause-Printer Resume-Printer Enable-Printer Disable-Printer Pause-Printer-After-Current-Job Hold-New-Jobs Release-Held-New-Jobs Deactivate-Printer Activate-Printer Restart-Printer Shutdown-Printer Startup-Printer Promote-Job Schedule-Job-After Cancel-Jobs CUPS-Accept-Jobs CUPS-Reject-Jobs>
    AuthType Default
    Require user @SYSTEM
    Order deny,allow
  </Limit>
  <Limit Cancel-Job CUPS-Authenticate-Job>
    AuthType Default
    Require user @OWNER @SYSTEM
    Order deny,allow
  </Limit>
  <Limit All>
    Order deny,allow
  </Limit>
</Policy>
<Policy kerberos>
  JobPrivateAccess default
  JobPrivateValues default
  SubscriptionPrivateAccess default
  SubscriptionPrivateValues default
  <Limit Create-Job Print-Job Print-URI Validate-Job>
    AuthType Negotiate
    Order deny,allow
  </Limit>
  <Limit Send-Document Send-URI Hold-Job Release-Job Restart-Job Purge-Jobs Set-Job-Attributes Create-Job-Subscription Renew-Subscription Cancel-Subscription Get-Notifications Reprocess-Job Cancel-Current-Job Suspend-Current-Job Resume-Job Cancel-My-Jobs Close-Job CUPS-Move-Job CUPS-Get-Document>
    AuthType Negotiate
    Require user @OWNER @SYSTEM
    Order deny,allow
  </Limit>
  <Limit CUPS-Add-Modify-Printer CUPS-Delete-Printer CUPS-Add-Modify-Class CUPS-Delete-Class CUPS-Set-Default>
    AuthType Default
    Require user @SYSTEM
    Order deny,allow
  </Limit>
  <Limit Pause-Printer Resume-Printer Enable-Printer Disable-Printer Pause-Printer-After-Current-Job Hold-New-Jobs Release-Held-New-Jobs Deactivate-Printer Activate-Printer Restart-Printer Shutdown-Printer Startup-Printer Promote-Job Schedule-Job-After Cancel-Jobs CUPS-Accept-Jobs CUPS-Reject-Jobs>
    AuthType Default
    Require user @SYSTEM
    Order deny,allow
  </Limit>
  <Limit Cancel-Job CUPS-Authenticate-Job>
    AuthType Negotiate
    Require user @OWNER @SYSTEM
    Order deny,allow
  </Limit>
  <Limit All>
    Order deny,allow
  </Limit>
</Policy>
john@RPi00:~ $

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Answer 8

Buadhai Author

Level 1

90 points

Nov 14, 2025 4:31 PM in response to Buadhai

Here's the answer I got from the Raspberry Pi Forum:

Epson L360 isn't supported on a Raspberry Pi. The driver that's supposed to work with it, epson-201401w, isn't available for ARM Linux. Try digging about on the Linux Support for Epson Products site, but you'll probably come up with nothing.

Also, if you're running 32-bit Trixie, Gutenprint isn't available there. So if that driver was reported to work with the L360, it's not going to with a 32-bit distro.

You'll need to share it from a Windows box, I'm afraid.

I am running the 64 bit OS, but I guess that doesn't matter.

So, giving up was the right thing to do.

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Answer 9

John Galt

Level 10

155,060 points

Nov 14, 2025 4:49 PM in response to Buadhai

There are workarounds, there are ugly workarounds, and then there's installing Wine on Linux.

I don't give up easily but that would definitely be pushing the envelope.

Works "perfectly" but not found... 😕

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Answer 10

Buadhai Author

Level 1

90 points

Nov 14, 2025 5:33 PM in response to John Galt

I've actually got five Pies running now. I repurposed one to run CUPS. It was using an external SSD so returning to the original purpose is just a matter of removing the SD I built for CUPS and rebooting with the SSD. All of them are headless so I use rpi-clone to make backups of the SD cards. They come in handy.

I know that in the CUPS config just Port 631 should be enough, but to access the web interface I always had to add a line like this: listen 192.168.0.55.local:631. That line was "sticky" yesterday, but today it got removed every time I opened the Admin page on the CUPS web interface.

Anyway, it's over now. Time to move on.

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Answer 11

John Galt

Level 10

155,060 points

Nov 14, 2025 5:47 PM in response to Buadhai

localhost:631 resolves on its own to http://localhost:631/

I've never had to use anything else. No special configuration; that's right out of the box.

For that matter, I think they all run CUPS out of the box too. I may have installed it; I don't recall. I could be confusing it with Linux Mint.

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Answer 12

John Galt

Level 10

155,060 points

Nov 14, 2025 6:36 PM in response to Buadhai

Thanks, I understand.

I conclude no one is sufficiently interested in implementing an open source Linux driver for that particular printer. But it seems Epson isn't interested in their own macOS Tahoe driver either...!

Lacking any development on that front that is my conclusion: Epson's driver is broken.

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Answer 13

Buadhai Author

Level 1

90 points

Oct 22, 2025 1:10 AM in response to Buadhai

So, after two hours on the phone and another hour reinstalling Tahoe, it still doesn't print. And, with all that I forgot to put my bread in the oven. Not a great day.

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