Canon iR C5185i and Lion - Dept ID Management

Question

I've been doing a lot of digging around and I can't find too much relating to Lion, but if this question has been answered for the most recent version of OSX then I would greatly appreciate a link.  Most of the answers I find are for Snow Leopard and applying the same tricks just don't seem to work.  I've got a Macbook Pro with all software updates.
We have a Canon ImageRunner C5185i here in our office.  We have Department ID Management enabled for color printing.  I've tried every available combination of drivers from Canon's site and I just can't seem to get our department ID's to pass through to the printer, even though I've stored them in the printer settings.
Most of the time, if I can even get the print job to make it to the printer, the status says "On hold (Authentication required)".  Even if I get into the printer settings and enter my department ID, it won't let me verify the ID against the copier.  It almost always fails.  I've enabled the "Job Accounting" in the driver settings and put my department ID in the driver utility.  My current status, which is the closest to success I've gotten, is that the job makes it to the printer and simply says "Printer is in use.  Waiting for the print job to finish."  There are no other print jobs in memory on the device.  I'm using the Canon iR C5185 UFR II (US) driver at this time and it seems to get me closer than any other driver from Canon.
I was hoping that someone could walk me through finding what drivers I'd need and any tips for making sure my department ID passes through to the device for authentication.  I'm fully capable of following the most technical directions you have, but explain it to me like I'm 5 to make sure I don't miss anything.

Answer 1

MConcar wrote:
I probably should have mentioned that this device is primarily shared out on our Windows server, but I've also tried printing to IP.  Ideally, we would like to use the Windows queue, but I'll take what I can get.
If you want to use Dept ID from the Mac then you won't be able to print via the Windows server. To support Dept ID the Mac driver needs bidirectional communication with the printer, and it does not get this when printing via a Windows queue - even if you enable LPD. Also, with printing via Windows, your Mac should use the Canon PPD due to issues with the PS and UFR2 drivers via shared queues and the PPD does not support Dept ID''s.
I disabled Department ID Management and got the following results:
Print to IP with UFR driver - "Printer in user. Waiting for the print job to finish".  (Printer was not in use at the time)
Print to IP with PS driver - Job hangs in queue  (Job sent to printer 100%)
Print to IP with PPD - Job hangs in queue ("The printer is busy")
With the PS and UFR2 drivers failing, it would suggest that the LPR in the iR C5185 is turned off, as this is the default protocol both of these drivers use - regardless of what IP protocol you select when adding the queue. As for the PPD, this will use whatever IP protocol you select. So if you did select LPD then this would confirm the matter.
So using the Remote UI (that's the name of the internal web page of the copier) you can select Additional Functions > Custom Settings > Network Settings > TCP/IP and check that LPD is enabled. Note that the path I just wrote could be missing a parameter - I just typed it from memory.
Print to Windows share with UFR driver - "The printed output may be incorrect because the printer information has not been acquired.  Start Printer Utility to get the printer information"
               -An error occurred.: -50
               -Starting Printer Utility does not gather printer information
Print to Windows share with PS driver - Job sent to printer, error NG #853
Print to Windows share with PPD - 21 pages printed out, mostly blank, first page has error ""%!PS-Adobe-3.0, %APL_DSC_Encoding: UTF8, %APLProducer: (Version 10.7.4 (Build 11E53)
For the first two, not surprised with those results because as mentioned above, the UFR2 and PS drivers don't work that well - or at all - when configured to print via a Windows print queue. They must be configured on the Mac to print directly to the imageRUNNER.
The last one is a concern, because it would normally be a sign that the printer does not support Postscript. Do you know which printer driver the Windows computers are using? If they are using the UFR2 driver then maybe your iR C5185 does not have Postscript, which will stop you using the PS and PPD on the Mac. If no one is sure what printer language the iR C5185 supports you can check via the Remote UI. Again via Additional Functions > Custom Settings you should see Printer Settings. And under this heading will be the printer languages supported. If you see UFR2 and maybe PCL (which Windows could also be using) but no PS then this will limit you to using the UFR2 driver on the Mac.
MConcar wrote:
Would this work better if we were to access the server through OSX Server?  Right now, our Macbooks are bound to our Windows domain.
No. Like Windows server, OS X server does not support Dept ID for clients either. And until you determine what protocol the iR C5185 supports, the server queue will give the same errors as you got on the Mac client.
So in summary, three things to check;
Does the iR C5185 support Postscript (PS)
Is the LPR protocol enabled in the TCP/IP settings
Which printer driver are the Windows computers using