PaperCut recipe (macOS)

Description

Needing to deploy the PaperCut Print Deploy client to a macOS client managed by FileWave. WeFileWave havehas you covered!

Ingredients

• FW Central

• PaperCut PKG installer

• MDM managed macOS clients 

Directions

Converting the DMG to a PKG installer

You will need access to your PaperCut NG/MG server configurations. 

1. Log in to your PaperCut NG/MF server, for example, https://print-server.example.net:9192/admin.
2. Click Enable Printing > Print Deploy. The Print Deploy page is displayed.
3. At the bottom of the page, next to Download clients click the macOS button.
4. Save the .dmg file to your Documents folder.
5. Look at the filename and check that the hostname between the square brackets is correct, for example, pc-print-deploy-client[print-server.company.lan].dmg.
6. Double-click the .dmg file and copy PaperCut Print Deploy Client.pkg to the Desktop.

Creating .plist file to configure your MDM macOS clients

The PaperCut Print Deploy Client can use a .plist file to set its server address. You can share and deploy these files in many different ways, such as with a .mobileconfig file, a file-copy command, or a scripted file creation on the client. 

Note: The .plist file needs to be in proper format. If this is not saved in the correct formate, PaperCut client will not function with your desired configurations.

To create the .plist file:

1. Open a terminal and issue the following command: 
   defaults write ~/Documents/com.papercut.printdeploy.client server_host hostname

2. Replace the word ‘hostname’ with the FQDN from the ‘.dmg’, for example, print-server.company.lan

3. Convert the .plist file with the following command:
   /usr/bin/plutil -convert xml1 ~/Documents/com.papercut.printdeploy.client.plist
   This will ensure that the file can be read correctly.

4. Verify the contents of the new .plist with the following command:
   defaults read ~/Documents/com.papercut.printdeploy.client.plist
   The output should be:

   macOS:Documents localadmin$ defaults read ~/Documents/com.papercut.printdeploy.client.plist
   {
   "server\_host" = "print-server.company.lan";
   }
   macOS:Documents localadmin$

Creating the Fileset

1. Open FileWave Central
2. Upload the PKG installer
3. Select the PKG installer Fileset
4. Open Fileset Contents and uncheck 'Hide unused folders'
5. Navigate to Library > Preferences
6. Upload the .plist file for your configurations
7. Close to save the Fileset

Note: if no directory for /Library/Preferences/ is found, you may create the directory and upload the .plist file as shown above.

Be sure the .plist file has the proper formatting. In addition, the .plist file is in the correct directory, if the .plist file is found, the PaperCut Print Deploy client will honor the settings the file provides.

Always, test deployment to a few test machines. This ensures your configurations for PaperCut are correct and ready for your macOS production fleet.

Related Content

• Generic steps for how to deploy PaperCut