I'm running RHEL 6.4 and trying to use Java to lookup print services:

PrinterService[] services = PrinterJob.lookupPrintServices();

This works great in Java 7. It returns the default printer on my system.

When I run the same thing in Java 8, I get null.

I also tried:

PrintService service = PrintServiceLookup.lookupDefaultPrintService();

Again, in Java 7, it returns my default printer. In Java 8, it returns null.

I then tried using the following lookup command:

PrinterService[] services = PrinterServiceLookup.lookupPrintServices(null, null);

Again, in Java 7, this returns my default printer.

In Java 8, it actually returns the same printer (i.e. same printer name), but when I run getSupportedDocFlavors() on the returned PrintService, it's null. Because of this, I get an exception while trying to print:

java.awt.print.PrinterException: Not a 2D print service: IPP Printer : printer

I would really like to know how I can get Java 8 to recognize my printer the same way that Java 7 does.

Another detail: If I ssh to my printer server and open up /etc/cups/client.conf, and change ServerName to "localhost" (instead of the printer server IP), then Java 8 finds it. So it seems like Java 8 is having trouble finding it over the network.

Does anybody have any ideas on how to solve this?

Thanks,

John