Apache with iPrint won’t start even if CUPS is disabled with VMware Tools
A while ago I wrote a post about that the installation of the VMware tools enable the start of Cups at boot time. The was easy to fix by disabling the start of Cups at boot time with the insserv -r /etc/init.d/cups or chkconfig cups off command.
While upgrading a vSphere ESX4.0 to 4.1 site I ran into the same problem. So I thought: “No problem, I dealt with this before”. But after disabling the start of Cups at boot time and a restart of the Virtual Machine Cups still was started. The problem is that in the init script of the VMware tools check if Cups isn’t started and if not it will start Cups. This causes that Apache with iPrint won’t start because iPrint and Cups use the same port (TCP 631).
To make sure Cups won’t start at boot time we have to alter the init script in /etc/init.d. To do this:
- Open with vi (or another text editor) the /etc/init.d/vmware-tools file
- Go to the section where it say’s
# If we found CUPS, start it, wait, then start tpvmlpd
if [ $cupsscript ]; then
$cupsscript start
sleep 2 - Put a # before $cupsscript start
- Save the file and make sure Cups won’t start with the command chkconfig cups off
I know this ain’t the best way to deal with this problem. Probably running iPrint on a separate IP address is better but when your upgrading it’s not easy to change the ip address of your iPrint environment.
Michael Wilmsen is a experienced VMware Architect with more than 20 years in the IT industry. Main focus is VMware vSphere, Horizon View and Hyper Converged with a deep interest into performance and architecture.
Michael is VCDX 210 certified, has been rewarded with the vExpert title from 2011, Nutanix Tech Champion and a Nutanix Platform Professional.
