cups.service: Failed with result 'start-limit-hit'

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP6

Upon checking the status of the CUPS service on SLES 15 SP6, I observed the following output.

# systemctl status cups
× cups.service - CUPS Scheduler
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/cups.service; enabled; preset: disabled)
Active: failed (Result: start-limit-hit) since Wed 2025-02-12 15:00:52 CET; 21h ago
Duration: 25ms
TriggeredBy: × cups.socket
× cups.path
Docs: man:cupsd(8)
Process: 8470 ExecStart=/usr/sbin/cupsd -l (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Main PID: 8470 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
CPU: 26ms

Feb 12 15:00:52 susedemo01 systemd[1]: cups.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 5.
Feb 12 15:00:52 susedemo01 systemd[1]: cups.service: Start request repeated too quickly.
Feb 12 15:00:52 susedemo01 systemd[1]: cups.service: Failed with result 'start-limit-hit'.
Feb 12 15:00:52 susedemo01 systemd[1]: Failed to start CUPS Scheduler.

Execute the following command to compare the installed files against the metadata stored in the RPM database

# rpm -V cups libcups2 cups-client

If you get no output, it means there are no discrepancies found. If there are changes, the output will show flags like S, M, 5, etc., indicating what changed.

Ensure the cups, libcups2 & cups-client package is correctly installed, force a reinstallation of the package.

 # zypper in -f --oldpackage cups libcups2 cups-client

This will reinstall the cups, libcups2 and cups-client package without removing other dependencies.

Certain CUPS-related files deviated from the expected RPM metadata, and these altered binaries were the root cause of the issue.

First, backup the existing printer configurations to avoid any loss of printer data.

The file /etc/cups/printers.conf is a configuration file in the Common Unix Printing System, that stores printer settings. If you take the backup of this file, you are essentially saving all the printer configuration details. This backup can be used to restore printer settings later if needed.

# cp -pv /etc/cups/printers.conf /path/to/backup/

Once the VM snapshot is taken, follow these steps to cleanly reinstall CUPS.

Stop & disable the CUPS Service, ensure no active processes are running.

# systemctl stop cups
# systemctl disable cups

Verify that all old files are removed.

# find /etc/cups /var/spool/cups /var/cache/cups -type f

If any unexpected files remain, manually delete them

# rm -rf /etc/cups /var/spool/cups /var/cache/cups

After reinstalling cups, libcups2 & cups-client. Rrestore your saved printer configurations, copy the backup file back to its original location and then enable & start the cups service.

 # systemctl enable cups.socket
 # systemctl enable cups.service
 # systemctl start cups.socket
 # systemctl start cups.service
 # systemctl status cups.socket
 # systemctl status cups.service