Cannot delete automatically detected printer (after driver install two entries are present in result)

[DanyGee]

My printer Brother DCP-T510W, connected via WiFi, got automatically detected by eOS, but it was shown as disabled although it was printing stuff. The scanning however didn't work.
Decided to install manufacturer's dedicated linux driver - that resulted in additional printer entry in eOS's Settings/Printers section, this time marked as enabled, and with all functions working.

Tried to delete the disabled entry, but it comes back right after deletion 😲
How can I get rid of the disabled entry then?

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[DanyGee]

Well, it looks like this problem is related to avahi-daemon.
Both CUPS and avahi service create printer entries.
For test purposes, I decided to remove avahi completely with sudo apt purge avahi-daemon.
That resulted in proper (just one) printer being showed...

...but also it removed some dependencies like sharing module...(which I never used BTW)

Can anyone explain to me what else is lost when avahi is not present in the system? 🤔
I'm still open for any less brutal fix for doubled printer entries 👀

[ryonakano]

Can anyone explain to me what else is lost when avahi is not present in the system? 🤔

If someone can reproduce this behavior bellow, one of the effect of removing avahi is: network printers won't detected.

I have Brother DCP-J973N, which is connected to the same wireless LAN with my laptop (but it's not added to my laptop yet). When I removed avahi from my system, the Printers Plug doesn't detect that printer automatically.

Before removing avahi, there is "Available Network Printers" category, and my printer is listed:

However, after removing it, my printer is not listed:

[DanyGee]

This is exactly what avahi service does - it simply auto detects everything shared in the LAN.
It's downside is, you cannot conveniently control what is and what is not detected - either it detects everything or nothing (check /etc/avahi/avahi-daemon.conf for details).
When you add your printer manually by installing correct drivers (for full functionality), the entry gets doubled, cause one gets auto discovered by avahi, one got added manually.
I can't find any good fix for this for now...
Either you get crappy auto discovery with avahi onboard, or you add everything you need in the LAN manually.
For now, I don't miss avahi that much.

[ryonakano]

This is exactly what avahi service does

Sorry, I don't have any knowledge about avahi and was so silly…:sweat_smile:

[DanyGee]

Me too, just learned about it when looking for a fix. Avahi sucks. A simple IP Address blacklisting mechanism could make it much more usable... 😞

[Blast-City]

Isn't this the new 18.04 driveless printer feature?

I have the same issue with an Epson printer. There always a printer who shows as disabled and can't get removed, switches doesn't work, can't be set as default printer, etc...

[jeremypw]

Getting a similar problem with elementaryos 6 Early Access

[4jNsY6fCVqZv]

Is it technically possible that automatically detected network printers can be reliably activated/deactivated or removed/added again at any time?