add a printer in CUPS web interface caught in perpetual loop
 

I'm trying to add a printer using the CUPS web interface on a friends laptop. When I press "add a printer" and enter their username and password at the prompt it appears to be accepted. There is no error message, but there is also no prompt to enter information about the printer. A few seconds later the login prompt is displayed again. It appears as if the login didn't fail, but that information was lost, which caused it to be requested again. This goes on forever.

It's a brand new install of a 32-bit version of Linux Mint 16 Petra Cinnamon, using Firefox, CUPS 1.7RC1 and a HP Officejet 6300 All-In-one series printer that I want to connect using WiFi.

I had verified the CUPS server was started, and that Firefox is configured to allow all cookies and that javascript is enabled. What am I doing wrong?

If your friend is set up in group "User" only, there is going to be a plethora of these type of errors. Get your friend to run this command with his username instead of '<username>'
I would recommend joining the groups: disk,lp,wheel,audio,video,uucp,plugdev,scanner

that can be done as root by this command

Thanks. I've never had to deal with groups before so I have no idea what groups they are in. They are the only user for that machine. I'll try what you suggest on my next visit.

Groups are an extra layer of security, and a way of limiting privileges.

For instance not all users can print, or go online, unless they are in the right group.