I've noticed a behavior quite similar to this, on Ubuntu, as a result of
the below-linked bug:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1069671
In a nutshell: Running the CUPS 1.6.1 client locally, talking to a
remote CUPS 1.5.x (or older) server. The client cannot communicate with
the server, due to
Package: cups-client
Version: 1.6.2-3
The CUPS client recently gained new configuration logic to allow the IPP
version of a CUPS server to be specified, whether on the command line
(-h option), in the CUPS_SERVER environment variable, or in the
/etc/cups/client.conf config file. Some examples of t
