Linux Mint cannot print on Samba shared printer after password change (apparmor and authentication errors)

By looking at the relevant apparmor ruleset, it shows that cupsd only has read permissions for tbd files within /var/cache/samba, but no write permissions:

admck@mint:~$ cat /etc/apparmor.d/usr.sbin.cupsd | grep samba
  deny /{,var/}run/samba/ rw,
  /{,var/}run/samba/** rw,
  /var/cache/samba/*.tdb r,
  /var/{cache,lib}/samba/printing/printers.tdb r,

To fix this, the cupsd apparmor profile can be extended with a "local" apparmor rule:

admck@WM2856L:~$ sudo su -
root@WM2856L:~# echo "/var/cache/samba/*.tdb rw," >> /etc/apparmor.d/local/usr.sbin.cupsd

After this, apparmor needs to be told to re-read the cupsd profile:

admck@mint:~$ sudo apparmor_parser -r /etc/apparmor.d/usr.sbin.cupsd

Printing should now work, right?

Another apparmor error (net_admin capability)

After releasing the held document in the print queue, the following log entries were logged:

admck@mint:~$ tail -f /var/log/kern.log /var/log/cups/error_log /var/log/cups/access_log
==> kern.log <==
Sep 15 08:22:21 WM2856L kernel: [ 7022.885726] audit: type=1400 audit(1600150941.018:145): apparmor="DENIED" operation="capable" profile="/usr/sbin/cupsd" pid=2745 comm="cupsd" capability=12  capname="net_admin"

==> cups/access_log <==
localhost - - [15/Sep/2020:08:22:21 +0200] "POST /jobs/ HTTP/1.1" 200 167 Set-Job-Attributes successful-ok

==> cups/error_log <==
E [15/Sep/2020:08:22:21 +0200] [Job 20] Session setup failed: NT_STATUS_LOGON_FAILURE
E [15/Sep/2020:08:22:21 +0200] [Job 20] Session setup failed: NT_STATUS_INTERNAL_ERROR
E [15/Sep/2020:08:22:21 +0200] [Job 20] Session setup failed: NT_STATUS_LOGON_FAILURE
E [15/Sep/2020:08:22:21 +0200] [Job 20] Session setup failed: NT_STATUS_ACCESS_DENIED

==> kern.log <==
Sep 15 08:22:21 WM2856L kernel: [ 7023.466958] audit: type=1400 audit(1600150941.598:146): apparmor="DENIED" operation="capable" profile="/usr/sbin/cupsd" pid=2745 comm="cupsd" capability=12  capname="net_admin"
Sep 15 08:22:21 WM2856L kernel: [ 7023.501060] audit: type=1400 audit(1600150941.634:147): apparmor="DENIED" operation="capable" profile="/usr/sbin/cupsd" pid=2745 comm="cupsd" capability=12  capname="net_admin"
Sep 15 08:22:21 WM2856L kernel: [ 7023.510201] audit: type=1400 audit(1600150941.642:148): apparmor="DENIED" operation="capable" profile="/usr/sbin/cupsd" pid=2745 comm="cupsd" capability=12  capname="net_admin"

This time apparmor asked for the net_admin capability for cupsd. And yet again, this is nothing new. Launchpad/Canonical bug 1660316 mentions this error and is still open.

To fix this, the same local apparmor file from before can be used again. The net_admin capabilities are simply appended to this file:

admck@mint:~$ sudo su -
root@mint:~# echo "capability net_admin," >> /etc/apparmor.d/local/usr.sbin.cupsd

Followed by another apparmor reload of the cupsd profile:

admck@mint:~$ sudo apparmor_parser -r /etc/apparmor.d/usr.sbin.cupsd

Next try! Release the held documents again and enter credentials:

But unfortunately printing still failed, however there were no apparmor errors anymore!

Credentials are not updated in printers.conf

Now with the apparmor errors gone, there must definitely be a problem with the credentials. Or is there? The entered credentials were triple-checked - they were correct. Yet cups clearly logged authentication errors on the NT domain:

==> cups/access_log <==
localhost - - [15/Sep/2020:08:28:36 +0200] "POST /jobs/ HTTP/1.1" 200 167 Set-Job-Attributes successful-ok

==> cups/error_log <==
E [15/Sep/2020:08:28:36 +0200] [Job 20] Session setup failed: NT_STATUS_LOGON_FAILURE
E [15/Sep/2020:08:28:36 +0200] [Job 20] Session setup failed: NT_STATUS_INTERNAL_ERROR
E [15/Sep/2020:08:28:36 +0200] [Job 20] Session setup failed: NT_STATUS_LOGON_FAILURE
E [15/Sep/2020:08:28:36 +0200] [Job 20] Session setup failed: NT_STATUS_ACCESS_DENIED

The reason is actually quite simple: The credentials were hard-coded into the printer settings (DeviceURI):

admck@mint:~$ sudo cat /etc/cups/printers.conf
# Printer configuration file for CUPS v2.2.7
# Written by cupsd
# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE WHEN CUPSD IS RUNNING

UUID urn:uuid:3012893d-2ef4-354b-43f5-7ade55976c9b
AuthInfoRequired username,password
Info Generic PCL 6
MakeModel Generic PCL 6 Printer wide margin - CUPS+Gutenprint v5.2.13
DeviceURI smb://domain%5Cuser:password@printserver.local/PullPrint_PCL
State Idle
StateTime 1600151711
ConfigTime 1588083087
Type 4116
Accepting Yes
Shared Yes
JobSheets none none
QuotaPeriod 0
PageLimit 0
KLimit 0
OpPolicy default
ErrorPolicy retry-job

After the credentials were adjusted in /etc/cups/printers.conf (as root), cups was restarted and another release of the held document was attempted.

admck@mint:~$ sudo vi /etc/cups/printers.conf (adjust password)
admck@mint:~$ sudo systemctl restart cups

This time it finally worked: The document was sent to the printer!

All cups logged in this case was a successful POST on the jobs:

localhost - - [15/Sep/2020:08:42:56 +0200] "POST /jobs/ HTTP/1.1" 200 167 Set-Job-Attributes successful-ok

Finally success, although it is not cool that all these relevant cups bugs are still open in Ubuntu.

Unable to change Printer Properties

I got another error from CUPS when I tried to change the printer properties.

After a click on "Apply", a user/password prompt was shown and asked for credentials. Neither the credentials of my own user nor the root user worked.

To find out more, the logs need to be analyzed:

ckmint /etc/cups $ sudo tail -f /var/log/cups/error_log
==> /var/log/cups/error_log <==
E [13/Apr/2024:09:45:15 +0200] [Client 177] Returning HTTP Forbidden for CUPS-Add-Modify-Printer (ipp://localhost/printers/MFC9330CDW) from localhost
E [13/Apr/2024:09:45:22 +0200] [Client 182] Returning HTTP Forbidden for CUPS-Add-Modify-Printer (ipp://localhost/printers/MFC9330CDW) from localhost
E [13/Apr/2024:09:45:24 +0200] [Client 186] pam_authenticate() returned 7 (Authentication failure)
E [13/Apr/2024:09:45:26 +0200] [Client 189] pam_authenticate() returned 7 (Authentication failure)
E [13/Apr/2024:09:45:32 +0200] [Client 193] pam_authenticate() returned 7 (Authentication failure)
E [13/Apr/2024:09:45:34 +0200] [Client 196] pam_authenticate() returned 7 (Authentication failure)
E [13/Apr/2024:09:46:54 +0200] [Client 206] Returning HTTP Forbidden for CUPS-Add-Modify-Printer (ipp://localhost/printers/MFC9330CDW) from localhost
E [13/Apr/2024:09:46:56 +0200] [Client 210] pam_authenticate() returned 7 (Authentication failure)
E [13/Apr/2024:09:46:58 +0200] [Client 213] pam_authenticate() returned 7 (Authentication failure)
E [13/Apr/2024:09:47:38 +0200] [Client 218] Returning HTTP Forbidden for CUPS-Add-Modify-Printer (ipp://localhost/printers/MFC9330CDW) from localhost

The settings are stored in /etc/cups/printers.conf and only root can write that file:

ck@mint /etc/cups $ ls -la
total 108
drwxr-xr-x   5 root lp    4096 Apr 13 09:45 .
drwxr-xr-x 209 root root 12288 Apr 12 06:58 ..
-rw-------   1 root lp     108 Feb  8  2020 classes.conf
-rw-------   1 root lp     108 Sep 18  2019 classes.conf.O
-rw-r--r--   1 root root 30850 May 15  2023 cups-browsed.conf
-rw-r--r--   1 root root  4630 Nov 24  2017 cupsd.conf
-rw-r--r--   1 root root  2860 Sep 15  2023 cups-files.conf
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root  4096 Aug 23  2017 interfaces
drwxr-xr-x   2 root lp    4096 Apr 13 09:44 ppd
-rw-------   1 root lp     966 Apr 13 09:45 printers.conf
-rw-------   1 root lp     966 Apr 13 09:43 printers.conf.O
-rw-r--r--   1 root root   240 Nov 24  2017 raw.convs
-rw-r--r--   1 root root   211 Nov 24  2017 raw.types
-rw-r--r--   1 root root   142 Aug 23  2017 snmp.conf
drwx------   2 root lp    4096 Nov 24  2017 ssl
-rw-r-----   1 root lp    1276 Apr 13 09:45 subscriptions.conf
-rw-r-----   1 root lp    1030 Apr 13 09:43 subscriptions.conf.O

After changing the permissions with chmod and additionally adding my own local user to the lpadmin group, I was able to change (and save) the printer properties.

ck@mint /etc/cups $ sudo chmod 666 printers.conf*
ck@mint /etc/cups $ sudo usermod -a -G lpadmin ckadm

Anti Spam Question: On which planet do you live? (no capital letters)