Virtual Printers Not Working in macOS 14 Sonoma Host (VMware Horizon Client, VMware Fusion)

[tree_frog]

Hello,

I have updated 4 Macs (2 Intel, 2 Apple Silicon) to macOS 14 Sonoma.

Virtual printers are no longer working (they were working fine under macOS 12 & 13); attempting to print from within the virtual machine to a shared printer from the host fails silently.

I have a 5th Mac still on Ventura that does not exhibit the issue.

Has anyone come across this?  It is having a really significant effect on my workflow.

Thank you.

[scott28tt]

Is this about Fusion or about Horizon? It's not clear from what you describe.

[tree_frog]

It's from both.  From what I understand, they share a common virtual printing service.  The Intel Macs have both installed, whereas the Apple Silicon Macs only have the Horizon Client installed.

[RDPetruska]

If you are running the latest version of Fusion (13.5.0), the release notes state that the virtual printing functionality has been removed.

[tree_frog]

Well, that's very interesting!  I hadn't noticed that Fusion 13.5 was available yet.  I was still running Fusion 13.0.2, and the virtual printing was working in Ventura but not in Sonoma.

More concerning to me is Horizon Client, though.  I'm running the latest version (2306), and unlike a local VM there are fewer workarounds for printer redirection.

I know that parts of the printing subsystem of macOS were rewritten for Sonoma, so I'm assuming that's the source of the bug.  I haven't come across anything that suggests that virtual printers have been removed from Horizon Client – my organization relies heavily on virtual printing.

[Mangui]

MacOS Sonama has dropped the support to convert postscript to pdf (https://developer.apple.com/documentation/macos-release-notes/macos-14-release-notes#Printing)

"macOS has removed the functionality for converting PostScript and EPS files to PDF format. As a result, CoreGraphics’ CGPSConverter returns an error when invoked, ImageIO no longer converts EPS files, NSEPSImageRep does not display EPS files, and PMPrinterPrintWithFile does not accept a PostScript file for non-PostScript print queues. (110019863)"

This will affect printing if the printer in your MacOS doesn't support postscript queue. Workarounds can see this kb: https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/94729

[tree_frog]

Thank you for linking that article (note to future users – the link has a trailing comma that must be stripped to be valid; alternatively, click here).  It looks like that's the issue, in which case it doesn't look like a future macOS update will fix anything.

I'm using 3 virtual printers with Horizon Client – two physical HP LaserJet printers, and one print-to-pdf printer driver (RWTS-PDFwriter).  None of them are working in Horizon Client under Sonoma (though they work fine when printing locally).

The workaround in the article involves server-side configuration changes.  I'm just an end-user, and while I'll pass this along to IT at my organization, I can't imagine it'll be a quick (or even realistic?) fix.

Is it correct to say that this issue cannot be resolved with a future update to Horizon Client? 

[Mangui]

We have working on another workaround in the 2312 Horizon product, that requires user to deploy the third-party postscript to pdf convertor (for example, converter from Ghostscript) in MacOS 14 that be a replacement for the tool dropped by Apple.

[tree_frog]

Thanks Mangui – that's fantastic news.

Really looking forward to the update, as I haven't found any feasible alternatives short of running Horizon Client in a macOS 13 virtual machine.

[Nosix]

Any word on when the 2312 Horizon  client will be released? or can it be obtained as a Beta?

[Nosix]

I saw an update today, but it was 2309.1 not 2312.

[akjr21]

Besides installing Ghostscript what configurations did you have to make to get this to work?

[Mangui]

Only with Horizon 2312, install ghostscript and some configurations can make it work. But 2312 is not GA yet, the configurations and how to make it work will be available when 2312 release

[Nosix]

Do you have a preferred method of installing Ghostscript on MacOs Sonoma, Such as Ports, or Homebrew?

[tree_frog]

Hi Mangui,

Version 2312 has been released, but I don't see the PostScript issue mentioned anywhere in the release notes (https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Horizon/8-2312/rn/vmware-horizon-8-2312-release-notes/index.html).

Is it now possible to configure GhostScript so that printing from remote sessions can work again on macOS hosts?

Thank you.

[Nosix]

@Mangui Horizon 2312 has been released but Printing still does not work under Sonoma,  And I don't see anything in the release notes about how to intstall Ghostscript to and enable it for printing - please advise - it there any way to get printing working under 2312?

Thanks

[tree_frog]

Hi Mangui – just following up & hoping for some kind of updated roadmap.  Thank you.

[Nosix]

@Mangui  Any update on when we will be able to make printing work on VMWare Horizon under Sonoma - The current version 2312 does has not corrected the issue. the only workaround has been to keep my main device on OS 13 Ventura which will stop working if the system updates to Sonono, or use Ventura or Windows VMs under that tun slowly. 

[Mangui]

By using Horizon 2312 with the option 3 in this KB: https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/94729, that you can install the third-party ps2pdf tool and configure the settings to workaround the issue.

[Nosix]

@Mangui @I have followed the instructions in the Kb Hebe the homebrew  port of Ghostscript installed and ps2pdf is working in the terminal and have added the required configuration directory and config file - however the redirection is still not working. Has anyone else been able to get printing work?