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Terrance
Asked: 2018-05-07 10:01:54 +0800 CST

"Unauthorized" error when adding printers through CUPS using Google Chrome in Ubuntu 18.04 LTS

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Update 2019-01-09: Please see answer below as there is a way to fix this with CUPS 2.2.8.

Update 2020-10-17: Upgrading from 18.04 LTS to 20.04 LTS will fix it as it upgrades the version of CUPS from 2.2.7 (which contains the bug) to version 2.3.1 which does not have the bug. Since some users may not be able to upgrade to 20.04 LTS right now this is still very valid for the 18.04 LTS users.

I have Ubuntu 18.04 LTS installed clean on this system. When I try to add a printer through CUPS 2.2.7 address of http://localhost:631 in the Chrome browser, I can't add the printer as I keep getting Unauthorized. It never asks for a login. How do I add my printer through CUPS using Google Chrome?

BTW, Firefox, Chromium and other browsers so far seem to work fine for adding a printer in CUPS 2.2.7. It appears to be a bug between CUPS 2.2.7 and Google Chrome.

Unauthorized: Enter your username and password or the root username and password to access this page. If you are using Kerberos…

configuration printing google-chrome 18.04

4 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    Update 2019-01-09: I have found that CUPS 2.2.8 works without a problem with Google Chrome in Ubuntu 18.04. I downloaded and installed it from https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/cups/2.2.8-5ubuntu1.2

    Please note that the bug for CUPS 2.2.7 is filed at: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/cups/+bug/1769893

    CUPS 2.2.8 installation steps

    Run all the following from a terminal window.

    Install the prerequisites:

    sudo apt install autoconf build-essential libavahi-client-dev \
    libgnutls28-dev libkrb5-dev libnss-mdns libpam-dev \
    libsystemd-dev libusb-1.0-0-dev zlib1g-dev

    Download CUPS 2.2.8 and extract it and enter the new directory created:

    cd /tmp
wget -c https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+archive/primary/+sourcefiles/cups/2.2.8-5ubuntu1.2/cups_2.2.8.orig.tar.gz
tar zxvf cups_2.2.8.orig.tar.gz
cd cups-2.2.8

    Run the configure, make and make install:

    ./configure
make
sudo make install

    You might want to put a hold on CUPS so it doesn't update back to 2.2.7 which still has the issue with unauthorized:

    sudo apt-mark hold cups

    Then all you should have to do is restart the cups.service:

    systemctl restart cups.service

    Check if the service is running:

    systemctl status cups.service

    If CUPS fails to restart, reinstall the daemon then restart the service again:

    sudo apt install --reinstall cups-daemon
systemctl restart cups.service

    Then access in Google Chrome http://localhost:631

    The CUPS homepage might show 2.2.7 still, but try clicking on Administration and it should show 2.2.8.

    enter image description here

    Hope this helps!

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  2. I came across this solution when I was having the problem "in general" (not a browser specific issue) and the thing that ended up working for me was to add my user to the lpadmin group:

    sudo usermod -aG lpadmin <USERNAME>

    and then reboot.

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  3. Update to latest Ubuntu.

    For me,this issue was solved when I updated Ubuntu from 18.04 LTS to 20.04 LTS.

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  4. You may try Chromium which open-source version of Chrome:

    sudo apt install chromium-browser

    It worked like a charm in my case.

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