I'm trying to get a Canon PIXMA MP140 multifunction printer to work in Fedora 9.
I've got the scanner element to work in GIMP, but can't get the printer drivers to install at all.
Does anyone have any experience or advice to offer, please?
norm

You did not state which 'driver' you can not get working. I went to Openprinting.org, found the printer, and that leads you to a Canon site to download a package. I saw lots of choices, this is what I think should work. Note, Openprinting.org says the printer 'partially works'. What that means I don't know.

Did you install it with rpm? Have you got cups installed? How have you tried to configure the printer?

Thanks for replying.
It's the printer drivers that won't install:
cnijfilter-common-2.80-1.i386.rpm'
cnijfilter-mp140series-2.80-1.i386.rpm'

I get a message saying that I don't have permission to install, but I am logged in as root, and "permissions" show root as the file owner.

CUPS is installed, and the printer simply doesn't respond
norm

O.K. open a konsole, and do a ls -l for each file. Post the results. You may have the files in a directory you don't have permission for. ( just a thought ). So, check the directory also.

You could also change the ownership to your user. As far as I know, root does not need to own the file to install it.

So, as root, 'chown username username filename' and try again.

[root@localhost ~]# ls -l cnijfilter-common-2.80-1.i386.rpm
ls: cannot access cnijfilter-common-2.80-1.i386.rpm: No such file or directory
[root@localhost ~]# cnijfilter-mp140series-2.80-1.i386.rpm
bash: cnijfilter-mp140series-2.80-1.i386.rpm: command not found
[root@localhost ~]# ls -l cnijfilter-mp140series-2.80-1.i386.rpm
ls: cannot access cnijfilter-mp140series-2.80-1.i386.rpm: No such file or directory
[root@localhost ~]#
I have the files on my root desktop, all owned by root.

This is what's happening:
All done logged on as root, with the printer plugged in and switched on.
as advised by Canon.
Downloaded MP140_rpm.tar from Canon.and got 5 packages:

Guide,
FAQ,
cnijfilter-common-2.80-1.tar.tar,
cnijfilter-mp140series-2.80-1.i386.rpm
cnijfilter-common-2.80-1.i386.deb,

This is what I get if I follow the Canon procedure which says the "common" file must be installed first:

[root@localhost ~]# rpm -ivh cnijfilter-common-2.80-1.i386.rpm
error: open of cnijfilter-common-2.80-1.i386.rpm failed: No such file or directory
[root@localhost ~]# rpm -ivh cnijfilter-mp140seeries-2.80-1.i386.rpm
error: open of cnijfilter-mp140series-2.80-1.i386.rpm failed: No such file or directory
[root@localhost ~]#


If I right-click the "common" package I get a file "cnijfilter-common-2.80"
Open this file to find 16 more files and 4 documents.

If I double-click the "common" package, I get:

"Local file installer is running as a privileged user
Package management applications are security sensitive.
Running graphical applications as a privileged user should be avoided for security reasons."
and the option to "continue anyway", so I do.
I'm then asked if I want to install the file, but get "failed to install file", reason: "don't have the necessary priviliges"

Right-clicking the mp140 package produces a "usr" file which contains 3 more files: lib, local, and share
Double-clicking this package produces the same as I get double-clicking the "common" package.

I must be doing something wrong, but what?
norm

The normal thing to do is download the package as a regular user, not as root. Anywhere in your /home/username directory structure is O.K. Run the tar command as a regular user.

Use 'su root' to get root privileges, and run rpm to install the packages in the order specified.

The directory /root/Desktop is not allowing you to install. The ownership of the files can be the user who downloaded the files.

To get to that point, either, 1 start over as a regular user, download, tar, su root and install OR
2. As root, you can copy the .tar file to your home directory, chmod and chown the files to user owned, and 777 privileges. Run tar on the tar file, su root and install in the correct order.

Thanks for your interest and advice which I tried.
I cleared all from my root desktop, and downloaded fresh into my /home/user directory.
When I tried to "tar" the package, this is what I got:

[norm@localhost ~]$ tar MP140_rpm.tar
tar: Options `-[0-7][lmh]' not supported by *this* tar
Try `tar --help' or `tar --usage' for more information.
Looked at this informatiom but couldn't understand a word of it!

So from other advice I tried this:

[norm@localhost ~]$ tar -xvf MP140_rpm.tar
tar: MP140_rpm.tar: Cannot open: No such file or directory
tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now
[norm@localhost ~]$

Really am baffled.
norm

The error "No such file or directory" implies the system is not finding the file. It will not find the file if you are not in the directory where the file exists, or there is any errors in the name of the file you provide. Linux is case sensitive, so you have to be careful to be exact, for every character, or it will fail with the above error.

Please try this. Open a konsole, and use 'cd' ( change directory ) to get into the directory where the .tar file exists. Verify that by doing a 'ls' command, making sure the file is listed.

From this point, type 'tar -xvf mp' and press the tab key. Notice this is just the first two characters of the file name. If they are upper case, you will have to type them in upper case. The system will complete the file name, if it is a unique name at that point. ( probably will be ) if not it will list all files starting with the letters you types. Type only the characters to make a unique name. Press tab so the system completes the name. Then press enter.

This approach will save a lot of typing in your life time, and save typing errors.

Let me know what happens.

[norm@localhost ~]$ cd /home/norm/Download
[norm@localhost Download]$ ls
MP140_rpm.tar

[norm@localhost Download]$ tar -xvf MP
tar: MP: Cannot open: No such file or directory
tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now

[norm@localhost Download]$ tar -xvf MP140_rpm.tar
cnijfilter-mp140series-2.80-1.i386.rpm
faq-pd-2.80-1.tar.tar
guidemp140series-pd-2.80-1.tar.tar
cnijfilter-common-2.80-1.tar.tar
cnijfilter-common_2.80-1_i386.deb

[norm@localhost Download]$ tar cnijfilter-common-2.80-1.tar.tar
tar: Old option `f' requires an argument.
Try `tar --help' or `tar --usage' for more information.
[norm@localhost Download]$

The Canon instructions require the "common" file to be installed before the "modelspecific" file
norm

Looks like this much worked.

You need to add the arguments, after tar.

Try 'tar -xf cnijfilter-common-2.80-1.tar' and see what happens.

Hi Cliff,
[root@localhost ~]# tar -xf cnijfilter-common-2.80-1.tar
tar: cnijfilter-common-2.80-1.tar: Cannot open: No such file or directory
tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now

Sadly I've come to the conclusion that this printer is simply not going to work in Linux, so I'll have to resort to another OS
Many thanks for your help and patience
norm

I understand your frustration.

I do believe this printer works, at least to some degree with linux. This is from linuxprinting.org.

The problem you are having is installing the driver. The 'No such file or directory' says the system is not seeing the file, for what ever reason. If you are in the directory where the file(s) are, then I don't understand. BTW, it appears you were root on that last attempt. You should not need to be root to tar a file in your /home/username/ directory. Is that where the files are???