Cannot access CUPS utilities after upgrade to Lion

Enter the following at a Terminal command prompt:

cupsctl WebInterface=Yes

You will be able to access the CUPS web interface thereafter.

I have this problem too on all Lion machines. Somehow Apple did not set up the cups system correctly. In /var/log/system.log you will find error messages like "xpchelper[6719]: Could not get real path of user account (uid: 26) home directory: /var/spool/cups; error: The operation couldn’t be completed. Permission denied. Using home directory." uid 26 is user _lp.

It helps to become root ("sudo bash") and kill the running cupsd ("killall cupsd") and restart it ("cupsd"). Afterwards cups admin works in the browser.

I know that this is a temporary fix only which will be gone with the next reboot.

If you want to do this without using Terminal, you can open AppleScript Editor, and create an AppleSript with the following content:

 do shell script "/usr/bin/killall cupsd; /usr/sbin/cupsd" with administrator privileges

Save the AppleScript as an Application. When you double-click the application, it will prompt you for your password (using a standard MacOS X dialog box), then restart the print daemon. If you find yourself having to do this often, having an icon to double-click to do it can make the job easier and less intimidating (and no Terminal needed!).