Canon Printer and Multifunction Drivers

[m_pav]

Typically, Canon have been very unpopular with Linux users for their printers and multifunction devices due to lack of usable drivers, but there is light at the end of the tunnel, at least for some models.
http://support-asia.canon-asia.com/

Now you can get drivers for some of their latest offerings from the site listed above. The drivers are provided in 2 parts, the first is a common (gpl) package and the actual driver (proprietary). They do provide source code for the common files for both the printer and the scanner.

Not all models are supported, but for those that are, Canons are a good choice for certain models having separate cartridges rather than a 3 colors in 1 casing.

Mike P

[pangeran]

i have Canon Pixma IP6000D and works great (B/W, color and photo) with TurboPrint drivers (http://www.turboprint.de/english.html). Unfortunately, turboprint not free :(

[m_pav]

I too use Turboprint because nothing else was available at the time I purchased my existing unit, but turboprint shamelessly has zero support for the scanner component of multifunction units, so having a manufacturer provided driver with a functioning scanner component is a BIG step towards a better overall environment for Linux and transition from windows desktops worldwide, even if the vendors only provide half GPL and half proprietary drivers.

If you had the option of paying nothing for a driver, given you'd already paid for the hardware and the accompanying drivers, would you have paid for turboprint? I know for sure I would not have.

Mike P

[ko]

Originally Posted by pangeran

i have Canon Pixma IP6000D and works great (B/W, color and photo) with TurboPrint drivers (http://www.turboprint.de/english.html). Unfortunately, turboprint not free :(

That url doesn't work here. However, http://www.turboprint.info/ does.

Unfortunately my old color-A3 printer Canon BJC5100 (which worked fine in Win98SE) is not supported.
Anyone wants to pick up a free printer? (No, I'm not shipping it....:-) )

Regards, Ko

[simple simon]

Originally Posted by m_pav

Now you can get drivers for some of their latest offerings from the site listed above. The drivers are provided in 2 parts, the first is a common (gpl) package and the actual driver (proprietary). They do provide source code for the common files for both the printer and the scanner.

Mike P

any chance of a simple/short guide to installing these for newbies? Do we use synaptic?

Thanks,

Simple.

[m_pav]

Using the url I provided, check to see if your printer or mfc has Linux drivers. If it has, you will need to download the 2 files with the .deb extension fro your device.

Lets say you created a folder in your home called Downloads and saved them your /home/yourname/Downloads folder.

Using Konqueror, open the Downloads folder so you can see the 2 files you downloaded. While there are a few ways to actually install the packages, my preferred is through the Konsole because it is by far the fastest and believe it or not, I think it is the least confusing.

Press the F4 key on the top row of your keyboard to open a konsole window and you should see something like the following .... then su to root. (type "su" then press Enter on your keyboard)

michael@mikepav:~/Downloads$

Type in your root password (no characters will be displayed as you type) and press Enter again. Now the last character in the konsole window will be a # not a $ , indicating you are operating as the root user.

michael@mikepav:~/Downloads$ su
Password:
root@mikepav:/home/michael/Downloads#

Type the letters

dpkg -i *.deb

and press your enter key. In a few moments, all of the .deb files in the /home/yourname/Downloads folder will be installed, which means your printer drivers will be fully installed in 2 easy steps.

That's not the end of it, you still have to tell your Linux system what printer to use. For Mepis 7
K-Menu > Print System > Add Printer > Next - Select Local and follow the prompts, you should be able to work out the rest.

For the Scanner, Canon do not appear to provide a Debian Menu listing for their ScanGear Toolbox, so for the interim, typing scangearmp into a konsole window should get the program up and running. Another issue that needs to be addressed is adding the scangearmp program to the K-Menu > Graphics submenu.

I just checked the Mepis wiki for assistance on this subject, but there appeared to be nothing in there specific to Mepis7 (I may be wrong) so I might try to get something in there as I find time.

Synaptic will not have the printer drivers available for installation because the Canon download site is not a Debain repository, but they can be removed using Synaptic if you installed the wrong ones or if you update your printer. Click on the Status button (lower left) then on "Installed (local or obsolete)" and you should see your locally installed packages.

Hope this helps

Mike P

[Pastor Ron]

Adding a program to the menu is quite easy.
1. Right-click on the K-Menu and select Menu Editor
2. Highlight the place where you would like the new entry
3. Right-click there and choose "New Item". Now, name your new item, such as "Scangearmp". Now, hit enter, and you're taken to another menu where you will enter pertinent information about the app
4. Fill out the work path then the command. This will be "scangearmp"
5. Choose a nice icon and a comment, if you want.
6. Save your work, and you're done. You'll now see your new printer app in the menu, and you'll be happy.

BTW, this is how I take care of programs, like OOo, when the debian menu install package doesn't work.

Pastor Ron

[simple simon]

Originally Posted by m_pav

Using the url I provided, check to see if your printer or mfc has Linux drivers. If it has, you will need to download the 2 files with the .deb extension fro your device.

Hope this helps

Mike P

Mike could you tell me what the two files are? For the MP600 (which is what I have) there is one printer file (cnijfilter-mp600-2.70-2.i386.rpm) and one scanner file (scangearmp-common-1.00-2.i386.rpm) but I believe I need a "common" file too, but the only one there seems to be a source file (cnijfilter-common-2.70-2.src.rpm).

I have converted the rpms to debs using alien --script but I'm not sure what to do with the source file. Presumably I have to compile it but I have not a clue how to.

If you could help I would be most grateful.

Simple.

[simple simon]

I have sort of answered my own question by finding the links:

ftp://download.canon.jp/pub/driver/b....70-1.i386.rpm

for the missing binary and

http://mp610.blogspot.com/2007/11/se...-or-mp610.html

for simple instillation instructions, although the lines:

"Install also some additional packages (here for Ubuntu Feisty. On Gutsy, libpng3 becomes libpng12-0, and libtiff3 becomes libtiff4):
$ sudo apt-get install libpng3 libtiff3"

leaves me the question as to which files should SM7.0 use?

Any ideas?

Simple.

[m_pav]

You may have to delete the .deb files you created and remake them with alien using an additional switch, but for the life of me, I can't remember what that switch is. I think it has something to do with scripts, or you may even have to download the source.rpm, debianize that and make a true .deb from the source, but beware of the rpm dependency hell.

Hopefully, somebody here will step in and assist with the bits I missed out.

It's a real shame Canon only provided rpms for your printer. Maybe you could contact them and request a properly compiled deb version.

Mike P

Keep away from RPM.s they are not packaged correctly for Debian systems and while Alien can debianise them, there can be omissions and failures.