Mac OS X Error 1281 When Adding a Printer

Problem

• Print Center or Printer Setup Utility print queues disappear.
• When you try to add a printer in, you see an alert box with one of the following messages:
  • (Mac OS X 10.2) “An error occurred while trying to add the selected printers. Error 1282”
  • (Mac OS X 10.3) “Server-error-service not available. Error 1282”

Solution

1. Log out (Apple menu > Log Out) and then log in as Help Desk with the usual password.
2. Open the Terminal application, located at /Applications/Utilites/Terminal.
3. At the prompt type the following commands (each line followed by Return):

cd /var/spool
sudo rm -r cups
enter the Help Desk password if prompted
sudo mkdir cups
sudo chown daemon:admin cups
sudo chmod 700 cups

4. Quit Terminal.
5. Restart the computer (Apple menu > Restart). It will not work unless you restart.
6. Log in as Student.
7. Go to the Print Center ( /Applications/Utilities/Print Center) and add the printer as per normal.