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My upgrade to Monterey (MacOS 12.x) broke my Canon D530 printer driver. Re-installing the driver didn't help. Now I have to print to a PDF, copy that to an ol

by prirun 3y ago

My upgrade to Monterey (MacOS 12.x) broke my Canon D530 printer driver. Re-installing the driver didn't help. Now I have to print to a PDF, copy that to an old Snow Leopard 10.6 machine, and print from there. FYI, Snow Leopard is 11 major OS revisions behind Monterey. Printing worked fine in Mohave, 3 major revisions ago. I also can't write any files to /, even with SIP disabled, and during the Monterey upgrade, Apple deleted all files and directories in / that they didn't recognize, including my system backup. I had to recover that from Backblaze. Can't say I'm a fan of recent MacOS. If you think you are in control of your Apple machine, think again.

markneub 3y ago
Doesn’t Snow Leopard have printer sharing? i.e. you can skip the generate PDF and copy steps, assuming both machines are on your LAN
- kayodelycaon 3y ago
  Snow Leopard has printer sharing. Even better, it has CUPS if you want to get your hands dirty. :)
anthk 3y ago
If the printer it's shared over a wifi network, you can just use netcat: nc your_printer_ip 9100 < /path/to/your/pdf/file
- RedShift1 3y ago
  Doesn't that require your printer to support Postscript? Not many printers for mere mortals support such advanced technology.
  - trailbits 3y ago
    It was magical when apple released the LaserWriter printer in 1985 that took postscript files. No need for custom drivers. You would think these days all printers would be driverless.
  - iforgotpassword 3y ago
    If there's cups running on the remote machine there's a chance it will take care of conversion.
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
  - creshal 3y ago
    PDF support is reasonably widespread these days.
  - wolrah 3y ago
    > Doesn't that require your printer to support Postscript? Not many printers for mere mortals support such advanced technology. Most networked printers support Postscript, it's not a special feature like it used to be. Sure, cheap USB inkjets usually don't, but with how cheap entry level networked lasers have been for the last decade or two there's no good reason to buy one of those things. They may be cheaper up front but within a few years the ink alone will make the difference.
- guappa 3y ago
  Assuming your printer supports pdf files… Maybe .ps would be better, but even that isn't universally accepted.
- emchammer 3y ago
  This does not always work for me. Sometimes it makes my printer print out dozens of pages of garbled commands. It varies between sources and tries, so I don't know.
VWWHFSfQ 3y ago
I just saw an update come through on my Ubuntu 22.04 machine for CUPS. I know that Apple is the steward/owner of CUPS now, so I wonder if it's a related update.
- guappa 3y ago
  Apple hasn't been paying for CUPS for a number of years now.
  - prmoustache 3y ago
    Apple is not employing Michael R Sweet anymore, that doesn't mean MacOS is not using cups.
    - guappa 3y ago
      I said "paying", not "using".
- LeFantome 3y ago
  I don’t think that Apple uses CUPS anymore.
  - djkoolaide 3y ago
    I believe it's still used. Whenever I print anything (Sonoma 14.4) I have to allow connections for 'cupsd'.
cqqxo4zV46cp 3y ago
Speaking in terms of having “control” over your machine is alarmist and thought-terminating. Your computer didn’t do what you expected it to. Hell, you’re very justified to go beyond that and say that it behaved in a way that it shouldn’t. Removing files from / without notification or backup is bad. Not being able to have files in / is a completely superficial and meaningless indication of “control”. Again, your machine isn’t behaving in a way that you’re expecting it to, or even that you’re used to. macOS is an operating system. Its job is to…be an operating system. It’s going to handle some things for you. That’s why it’s there.
- thesuperbigfrog 3y ago
  >> Your computer didn’t do what you expected it to. Hell, you’re very justified to go beyond that and say that it behaved in a way that it shouldn’t. It did exactly what it was programmed to do. It was not a malfunction, it was intentional: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ag1AKIl_2GM&t=57s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ag1AKIl_2GM&t=57s
- dylan604 3y ago
  WTF is this nonsense? The OS updated deleted files that it had no business deleting. It's my computer. If I want to put files in the Apple approved locations or if I want to put files in / or even if I wanted to put files in C:\, it's none of Apple's damn business. If placing files in / is a security threat, then I'd suggest your not doing security right.
  - SAI_Peregrinus 3y ago
    SIP is Apple's documented way of reserving certain paths to be under OS control. You can disable it to modify reserved paths, but they make no guarantees about such modifications continuing to work across OS updates. If you want files the OS won't touch, keep them out of OS-reserved paths. If you want full control of all files on your machine, a managed OS like MacOS is not for you.
- wutwutwat 3y ago
  Install little snitch and put it into alert mode and watch as you are overwhelmed with the tens of dozens of outbound connections going out to Apple or iCloud (despite not being signed into iServices) from dozens of system processes. Why does my MacBook which isn’t enrolled in an mdm ping Apple for mdm config and policies? Why is accountsd phoning home when I’m not signed into an Apple account? Why does the Mac generate absurd amounts of app analytics which you can view in the console app yet can’t delete despite the fact that you turned off all analytics when setting up the machine? Why regardless of if I have WiFi logging enabled or disabled is it still spitting out WiFi velocity reports. The OS used to be damn near perfect and it’s gone down hill since the first version to introduce iCloud signin. Every new feature they add is something I’ll never be interested in using. Disabling services you don’t want running so they stop phoning home or consuming resources is almost impossible anymore, requiring a dance of booting into recovery mode, disabling every single system protection mechanism, and then booting completely vulnerable into normal mode to then pray that the launchagent gods actually let you turn off mediaanalysisd or if nothing else that sudo has permission (sudo!!) to delete the plist file, and often you get permission denied errors or the process comes back after a reboot. It’s a shit show. The frustrating part is sip and all those things that prevent us from tuning our machines don’t even stop rootkits or the numerous zero days in the wild since it came out
nebula8804 3y ago
Sounds like Canon is really bad in supporting driver changes in subsequent OS releases. I recall diagnosing the same issue with a colleagues Mac over 10 years ago. She updated the OS and the printer she bought with the computer 3 OS'es ago stopped working. Turns out something with how Printers were handled changed and Canon refused to release updated drivers for a discontinued machine. I recall that some third party hobbyist had developed a method to make the printer work but it took hours to try and get it working until we just gave up....also her dog accidentally yanked on the printer cord and it went flying off the table. That was also motivation to stop trying. I am more inclined to blame Canon than Apple here.
- EricE 3y ago
  Can confirm - Canon is horrible at updating their drivers; one of the reasons I no longer own, use or recommend any of their printers. Which is a shame since I really liked their laser printers :/
- prmoustache 3y ago
  Regardless of Canon, there is no reason to change drivers between macOSX OS releases. Aren't all releases using cups?
- Rinzler89 3y ago
  Why? Windows has been the one updating itself making sure to not break backwards printer support, not the other way around. You can still use printers from the 90's on modern Windows, meanwhile MacOS seems to break support for recent printers between minor updates. It's not like they're a cash-strapped start-up, if Microsoft can afford to invest in maintaining backwards compatibility, so can Apple. Sounds like Apple is just lazy and doesn't care what it breaks treating their desktop OS like their mobile OS where app devs need to keep pace with them, and fans will die on the hill defending them.
  - papruapap 3y ago
    tbf MS is not the "normal" in the aspect. They are pretty much the backwwrds-compatibility kings.
ArchOversight 3y ago
The root (/) is a disk image/APFS snapshot. Apple didn't delete anything... their update replaced that image that you are booting from, which is supposed to be read-only. /dev/disk3s3s1 on / (apfs, sealed, local, read-only, journaled) devfs on /dev (devfs, local, nobrowse) /dev/disk3s6 on /System/Volumes/VM (apfs, local, noexec, journaled, noatime, nobrowse) /dev/disk3s4 on /System/Volumes/Preboot (apfs, local, journaled, nobrowse) /dev/disk3s2 on /System/Volumes/Update (apfs, local, journaled, nobrowse) /dev/disk1s2 on /System/Volumes/xarts (apfs, local, noexec, journaled, noatime, nobrowse) /dev/disk1s1 on /System/Volumes/iSCPreboot (apfs, local, journaled, nobrowse) /dev/disk1s3 on /System/Volumes/Hardware (apfs, local, journaled, nobrowse) /dev/disk3s1 on /System/Volumes/Data (apfs, local, journaled, nobrowse, protect, root data) map auto_home on /System/Volumes/Data/home (autofs, automounted, nobrowse) Stuff that is located on /System/Volumes/Data is on a non-readonly disk and will not be touched by any updates. You can see folders in /System/Volumes/Data that are also in / and there is some magic overlay that maps certain folders to /System/Volumes/Data automatically. So that files in /usr/local/ are actually stored in /System/Volumes/Data/usr/local.
- prirun 3y ago
  Thanks very much! I had no idea about this, but doing a find command as root did indeed find my backup. It was at: /System/Volumes/Data/Users/Shared/Previously Relocated Items/Security/hbbackup I don't know how people are supposed to know this. Plus it is taking up 50GB of space!
  - Aloisius 3y ago
    IIRC, it should create an alias on your Desktop called Relocated Items or something similar to them after the upgrade that pointed at it.
    - prirun 3y ago
      Thanks! I never look at my Desktop and so never noticed it. I deleted the original, moved backup today, and there is nothing on my Desktop about Relocated Items. That could be because I removed it, like an Apple smart link thing, or maybe it was never there - dunno. IMO, if they're going to do something this drastic, they should at least have a one-time large pop-up box after the upgrade explaining that they moved things that were formerly in root, and wait for a user to confirm that they read the notice.

by prirun 3y ago

markneub 3y ago

Doesn’t Snow Leopard have printer sharing? i.e. you can skip the generate PDF and copy steps, assuming both machines are on your LAN

kayodelycaon 3y ago
Snow Leopard has printer sharing. Even better, it has CUPS if you want to get your hands dirty. :)

anthk 3y ago

If the printer it's shared over a wifi network, you can just use netcat: nc your_printer_ip 9100 < /path/to/your/pdf/file

RedShift1 3y ago
Doesn't that require your printer to support Postscript? Not many printers for mere mortals support such advanced technology.
- trailbits 3y ago
  It was magical when apple released the LaserWriter printer in 1985 that took postscript files. No need for custom drivers. You would think these days all printers would be driverless.
- iforgotpassword 3y ago
  If there's cups running on the remote machine there's a chance it will take care of conversion.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
- creshal 3y ago
  PDF support is reasonably widespread these days.
- wolrah 3y ago
  > Doesn't that require your printer to support Postscript? Not many printers for mere mortals support such advanced technology. Most networked printers support Postscript, it's not a special feature like it used to be. Sure, cheap USB inkjets usually don't, but with how cheap entry level networked lasers have been for the last decade or two there's no good reason to buy one of those things. They may be cheaper up front but within a few years the ink alone will make the difference.
guappa 3y ago
Assuming your printer supports pdf files… Maybe .ps would be better, but even that isn't universally accepted.
emchammer 3y ago
This does not always work for me. Sometimes it makes my printer print out dozens of pages of garbled commands. It varies between sources and tries, so I don't know.

VWWHFSfQ 3y ago

I just saw an update come through on my Ubuntu 22.04 machine for CUPS. I know that Apple is the steward/owner of CUPS now, so I wonder if it's a related update.

guappa 3y ago
Apple hasn't been paying for CUPS for a number of years now.
- prmoustache 3y ago
  Apple is not employing Michael R Sweet anymore, that doesn't mean MacOS is not using cups.
  - guappa 3y ago
    I said "paying", not "using".
LeFantome 3y ago
I don’t think that Apple uses CUPS anymore.
- djkoolaide 3y ago
  I believe it's still used. Whenever I print anything (Sonoma 14.4) I have to allow connections for 'cupsd'.

cqqxo4zV46cp 3y ago

Speaking in terms of having “control” over your machine is alarmist and thought-terminating. Your computer didn’t do what you expected it to. Hell, you’re very justified to go beyond that and say that it behaved in a way that it shouldn’t. Removing files from / without notification or backup is bad. Not being able to have files in / is a completely superficial and meaningless indication of “control”. Again, your machine isn’t behaving in a way that you’re expecting it to, or even that you’re used to. macOS is an operating system. Its job is to…be an operating system. It’s going to handle some things for you. That’s why it’s there.

thesuperbigfrog 3y ago
>> Your computer didn’t do what you expected it to. Hell, you’re very justified to go beyond that and say that it behaved in a way that it shouldn’t. It did exactly what it was programmed to do. It was not a malfunction, it was intentional: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ag1AKIl_2GM&t=57s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ag1AKIl_2GM&t=57s
dylan604 3y ago
WTF is this nonsense? The OS updated deleted files that it had no business deleting. It's my computer. If I want to put files in the Apple approved locations or if I want to put files in / or even if I wanted to put files in C:\, it's none of Apple's damn business. If placing files in / is a security threat, then I'd suggest your not doing security right.
- SAI_Peregrinus 3y ago
  SIP is Apple's documented way of reserving certain paths to be under OS control. You can disable it to modify reserved paths, but they make no guarantees about such modifications continuing to work across OS updates. If you want files the OS won't touch, keep them out of OS-reserved paths. If you want full control of all files on your machine, a managed OS like MacOS is not for you.
wutwutwat 3y ago
Install little snitch and put it into alert mode and watch as you are overwhelmed with the tens of dozens of outbound connections going out to Apple or iCloud (despite not being signed into iServices) from dozens of system processes. Why does my MacBook which isn’t enrolled in an mdm ping Apple for mdm config and policies? Why is accountsd phoning home when I’m not signed into an Apple account? Why does the Mac generate absurd amounts of app analytics which you can view in the console app yet can’t delete despite the fact that you turned off all analytics when setting up the machine? Why regardless of if I have WiFi logging enabled or disabled is it still spitting out WiFi velocity reports. The OS used to be damn near perfect and it’s gone down hill since the first version to introduce iCloud signin. Every new feature they add is something I’ll never be interested in using. Disabling services you don’t want running so they stop phoning home or consuming resources is almost impossible anymore, requiring a dance of booting into recovery mode, disabling every single system protection mechanism, and then booting completely vulnerable into normal mode to then pray that the launchagent gods actually let you turn off mediaanalysisd or if nothing else that sudo has permission (sudo!!) to delete the plist file, and often you get permission denied errors or the process comes back after a reboot. It’s a shit show. The frustrating part is sip and all those things that prevent us from tuning our machines don’t even stop rootkits or the numerous zero days in the wild since it came out

nebula8804 3y ago

Sounds like Canon is really bad in supporting driver changes in subsequent OS releases. I recall diagnosing the same issue with a colleagues Mac over 10 years ago. She updated the OS and the printer she bought with the computer 3 OS'es ago stopped working. Turns out something with how Printers were handled changed and Canon refused to release updated drivers for a discontinued machine. I recall that some third party hobbyist had developed a method to make the printer work but it took hours to try and get it working until we just gave up....also her dog accidentally yanked on the printer cord and it went flying off the table. That was also motivation to stop trying. I am more inclined to blame Canon than Apple here.

EricE 3y ago
Can confirm - Canon is horrible at updating their drivers; one of the reasons I no longer own, use or recommend any of their printers. Which is a shame since I really liked their laser printers :/
prmoustache 3y ago
Regardless of Canon, there is no reason to change drivers between macOSX OS releases. Aren't all releases using cups?
Rinzler89 3y ago
Why? Windows has been the one updating itself making sure to not break backwards printer support, not the other way around. You can still use printers from the 90's on modern Windows, meanwhile MacOS seems to break support for recent printers between minor updates. It's not like they're a cash-strapped start-up, if Microsoft can afford to invest in maintaining backwards compatibility, so can Apple. Sounds like Apple is just lazy and doesn't care what it breaks treating their desktop OS like their mobile OS where app devs need to keep pace with them, and fans will die on the hill defending them.
- papruapap 3y ago
  tbf MS is not the "normal" in the aspect. They are pretty much the backwwrds-compatibility kings.

ArchOversight 3y ago

The root (/) is a disk image/APFS snapshot. Apple didn't delete anything... their update replaced that image that you are booting from, which is supposed to be read-only. /dev/disk3s3s1 on / (apfs, sealed, local, read-only, journaled) devfs on /dev (devfs, local, nobrowse) /dev/disk3s6 on /System/Volumes/VM (apfs, local, noexec, journaled, noatime, nobrowse) /dev/disk3s4 on /System/Volumes/Preboot (apfs, local, journaled, nobrowse) /dev/disk3s2 on /System/Volumes/Update (apfs, local, journaled, nobrowse) /dev/disk1s2 on /System/Volumes/xarts (apfs, local, noexec, journaled, noatime, nobrowse) /dev/disk1s1 on /System/Volumes/iSCPreboot (apfs, local, journaled, nobrowse) /dev/disk1s3 on /System/Volumes/Hardware (apfs, local, journaled, nobrowse) /dev/disk3s1 on /System/Volumes/Data (apfs, local, journaled, nobrowse, protect, root data) map auto_home on /System/Volumes/Data/home (autofs, automounted, nobrowse) Stuff that is located on /System/Volumes/Data is on a non-readonly disk and will not be touched by any updates. You can see folders in /System/Volumes/Data that are also in / and there is some magic overlay that maps certain folders to /System/Volumes/Data automatically. So that files in /usr/local/ are actually stored in /System/Volumes/Data/usr/local.

prirun 3y ago
Thanks very much! I had no idea about this, but doing a find command as root did indeed find my backup. It was at: /System/Volumes/Data/Users/Shared/Previously Relocated Items/Security/hbbackup I don't know how people are supposed to know this. Plus it is taking up 50GB of space!
- Aloisius 3y ago
  IIRC, it should create an alias on your Desktop called Relocated Items or something similar to them after the upgrade that pointed at it.
  - prirun 3y ago
    Thanks! I never look at my Desktop and so never noticed it. I deleted the original, moved backup today, and there is nothing on my Desktop about Relocated Items. That could be because I removed it, like an Apple smart link thing, or maybe it was never there - dunno. IMO, if they're going to do something this drastic, they should at least have a one-time large pop-up box after the upgrade explaining that they moved things that were formerly in root, and wait for a user to confirm that they read the notice.