Printer stuck in Pending in Ubuntu

note-to-self

Today I found my network printer stuck in “pending” state.
Some notes on how to solve it.

Printing on Linux is done using the CUPS service. The standard settings GUI in Ubuntu tells you only the basics and in my case showed that my print job was in “pending” state. This remained forever…

Apparently the CUPS service has a web interface with much more detail at http://localhost:631. There is a Printers tab which shows the printers available in CUPS.
It showed an error message for my printer which I forgot to capture…

When you click on the printer, you get a “Maintenance” dropdown with next to it an “Administration” dropdown. In the “Administration” dropdown, select “Modify Printer”. The view then shows information about the found printer and the possible connections. Using the driverless internet printing protocol (IPP) solved my printing issues.

January 18, 2025