I could ping my printer but got an error adding it through the printer dialog on CachyOS. CUPS was already installed, and I added the printer with lpadmin, but it initially wouldn't print documents. I saw a broken pipe error in the CUPS log.
After printing a test page from printer settings, the document printed. What might have changed?
Ping only shows that the printer responds on the network. It doesn't verify that the printing service, protocol, or queue is working.
The test page might have triggered a successful connection, but it doesn't prove that it fixed anything. The printer or queue could also have become ready in the meantime. A broken pipe suggests a connection was interrupted, though that alone doesn't tell you which end caused it.
Check the CUPS queue if it happens again. A printer can be present but disabled, which can stop jobs from going through. Look at the queue status and any reason it gives before enabling it again.
There's not enough detail to pin this down after the fact. The exact dialog error and the surrounding CUPS log lines would help, along with the printer model, connection protocol, and CUPS version. A broken pipe message by itself is pretty broad.
There have also been problematic CUPS versions, so a software issue is possible, but there's no way to tell from the symptoms here. The successful test page could have been coincidental.
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