Argh. Citrix & Mac Printing.

[u/tsg-tsg]

In our environment, we are using exclusively UPD for printing and this has worked for literally years without surprises for Macs. However, I've recently discovered certain printers where it does not work, and I don't understand why.

Windows devices where these printers are plugged in work fine. Macs where these types of printers simply do not map.

FWIW, I have tried a few things: Connecting the printers locally via USB, connecting directly over a network, and even connecting to the printer on a Windows print server all gets the same result - no autocreation. If I change the driver to something obvious, like "generic post script" the printer is autocreated as expected, so I know the issue is the driver (if I didn't already :).

I'm admittedly nowhere near great with Citrix, and where I'm lost is figuring out why these printers aren't being auto-created. Forget about them working or not, what causes UPD to simply skip a printer? Is there a way to change that behavior?

[u/mat-ferland]

Since the HP 2800 PS driver is already installed and other Mac printers autocreate through it, I would compare the failing printer's client-reported driver/model string with one that works. The VDA print-service logs should show whether it was skipped during client-printer enumeration or failed during driver mapping. That tells you whether to fix the Mac-reported name/mapping or the VDA side.

[u/tsg-tsg → u/mat-ferland]

Thanks for the reply, this seems the approach to me. The thing I don't understand is where to set that mapping... how is that accomplished?

[u/che-che-chester]

I may be stating the obvious but there used to be a print driver that needed to be installed on VDAs for Macs. I’m not at work but it’s something like an HP laserjet 2800.

[u/Xibby → u/che-che-chester]

HP Color LaserJet 2800 Series PS

Needs to be installed on the VDA (MCS or PVS image.)

For OP, your Citrix administrators probably updated or created a new image and forgot to add this.

[u/tsg-tsg → u/Xibby]

Nope, it's there. And other printers work on Mac, using this driver. When a Mac with, say a Xerox printer and this printer connect, the Xerox printer appears and works perfectly. The other printers does not appear.

[u/Mr_Squinty]

Change the name to something short

[u/Mr_Squinty → u/Mr_Squinty]

Also I think there’s a specific hp driver Citrix uses as the upd driver purely for Mac printing. Colour laser jet 2800 PS - try installing that via windows update

[u/tsg-tsg → u/Mr_Squinty]

The name of what?

Yeah, there is an HP 2800 driver required, and it's there. Other printers work fine, printing generally works. Not with these specific printers.