Does anyone has experience with an all-in-one Canon MP250 printer under Linux?
 

Hello people,

I'm about to buy a new laptop (brand Síragon, a local brand), and one of the stores I visited is offering this printer as "gift" with the laptop I want to buy. I googled for this model to see how it behaves under linux, and judging from this and this (as well as other sites I found), it doesn't have native support. It seems everything works fine installing the drivers from the Canon site, but generally speaking, when it comes to Linux support, are Canon all-in-one printers fine, or should I look for something else? (It's not a problem for me installing the drivers by hand, but I would prefer if it was directly supported by the kernel... just to be sure it will always have linux support). Also, in general terms -and in case I decide not to buy this one-, which printer brands play fine with linux, and which ones should I avoid. Other recommendations of interest about printers are welcome too.

Regards and thanks in advance for your answers.

PS: Well, I just found this site, and the scanner seems to have native support through SANE, as well as through the official driver, so maybe this device is not that bad (anyway, I still would like to hear your opinions).

Canon in general has little or no Linux support. The printer might work, but I've never owned a Canon printer so I can't really say. If you want a printer with Linux support, look at HP or Brother. Both offer Linux drivers and extensive support for Linux systems. Most other printer manufacturers offer much less, if any, targeting Windows users almost exclusively. I don't think I would ever buy a Canon printer, but if offered one free I probably wouldn't turn it down. One thing to check is the price of replacement cartridges, and how long they last.

Hi, thanks for your answer. I also think that HP would be better (I have an HP printer and it's fully supported on Linux, but it doesn't have a scanner). I don't trust very much the fact that these Canon drivers are not included in the kernel, and on the other hand, this printer will be used mainly by a relative with no technical knowledge about linux, and in case I can't assisst her with the driver installation every time a kernel upgrade arrives, this could be troublesome, so I'm thinking about getting something with full linux support. The linuxprinting.org database seems to be down at the moment, so I can't check for specific models, but I think I will probably buy an HP.

Regards.

In that case, an HP would probably be a better choice. IME, HP just works, better and easier than under Windows. An all-in-one model, a year or two behind the latest, would probably be a good choice. The drivers should be readily available, and it should work fine. Install hplip and the printer should be found quickly, and the drivers should be installed automatically.

FWIW, printer drivers (including HP's) are not part of the kernel. I'm not sure why this is, however.

Yes, I think that the CUPS packages are the ones that provide the printer drivers. Anyway, this printer doesn't seem to be supported by CUPS, and that could be problematic, so I better find one that is supported; just to be safe.

Thanks for your help, people.