Good day,

I'm running Apricity Linux (an Arch-based distro). I purchased a Canon G2000 All-in-One printer and it shows up in lsusb:
I have tried to install it via CUPS but have not been successful. CUPS recognizes it as a G2000 but after clicking Canon as the Make, I can't find G2000 in the list of models provided. I've tried deleting and reinstalling numerous times using the closest model I can find (I know that's pretty hopeless), but not luck. With one of the models I tried, at least I got the green light to blink when I tried to print a test page, but it still didn't print. Each time I try to print a test page, Apricity tells me it's printing and that printing has been successful, but that actually nothing prints.

I've done a lot of research on this but so far, I've come up with no solution. I've already installed cnijfilter2.

I'd be happy to provide any information you may need. Any help would be much appreciated.

Thank you in advance.

Can you find a ppd file for your model anywhere on line? If you can download one, you can pass it to the cups Add Printer dialogue as an alternative to using the model name.

I had a rather similar problem with an HP all-in-1 printer; I was using HP's hplip driver package but, for some reason, not all the ppds in the package had been installed. I found the relevant one and copied it over and that solved the problem.

The lsusb output depends on the vendor and product ids in the usb database. It has nothing to do with the presence or absence of a cups driver.

Thanks, hazel, for your reply. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find the ppd file for the G2000. I'm not sure why, as it was released back in 2015. I'm sure one will become available in the future, but until then, I'll have only a photocopier and will have to use my old printer/scanner, which is barely functional. I've already added the ink, so I doubt I'll be able to take it back. I should have done more research . . . I was blinded by the sale price! Lesson learned.

If anyone has any further advice, it would be very much appreciated.

There's an instruction here on how to extract ppds from Windows drivers. I've no idea if it works but it's worth trying. Obviously you need a Windows machine to do the first step. The last step is set up for Suse and uses their control centre, so you would have to install your ppd file in some other appropriate way. I'd probably just copy it over by hand to /usr/share/cups/model.

The best course of action would be to contact the vendor and request a Linux driver for this series.

Thanks so much for the advice, Hazel. It's very much appreciated. The directions look a bit over my head, but I like a good challenge, so I'll give it a go this weekend and report back. Thanks for giving me some hope!

I wrote to them yesterday asking for a driver, but they washed their hands of it, saying they only support Windows and Mac. I did, however, reply to tell them that they should release a Linux driver.

I find that an odd response since they obviously produce drivers for many of their recent models.

I doubt that installing a windows PPD will work here, unless the printer supports PostScrip, (and in the case of a Canon inkjet it's likely using a proprietary print language).

If you have a windows machine available to use as a print server, here are some pages describing how to print from a Linux box without the need for CUPS printer drivers...

http://justin.yackoski.name/winp/
http://searchwindowsserver.techtarge...Script-printer
https://www.stat.tamu.edu/~henrik/GS...PSprinter.html

Thanks for your thoughts and recommendations, Ferrari.

Unfortunately, I don't have a separate Windows machine, but I do have Windows 10 as a guest on my Linux box, so as a temporary solution, I thought I would just set up a shared folder for print jobs, but I've been having troubles completing the install of the Windows driver on the virtual machine. At a certain point it says to connect the printer via USB and turn it on. I do so and it isn't recognized and then says "MP drivers could not be installed". I've tried all three USB ports to no avail. Virtual Box shows "Canon G2000" with a check beside it in the devices menu. I can't figure it out. I'll have to post to a VB forum to see what I'm doing wrong. Do you have any ideas?

Thanks again.

There are numerous guides online, but these two graphical guides should help you with getting the required USB device access in the guest...

http://www.htpcbeginner.com/access-u...lbox-guest-os/
http://www.howtogeek.com/171228/10-v...ld-know-about/

Another tip that I'd give you here is to use bridged networking as ideally the host and guest need to be on the same LAN so the host can access the printer as a network device.

Frustrated, I decided to take the Canon back to Tesco-Lotus and unbelievably, they actually let me exchange it for a different all-in-one printer. I was amazed because I had already added the ink to the cartridges. I've got a Brother now and, after a little work, I managed to get the driver installed. All is well.

Thanks again for your help and suggestions.

That is a pragmatic approach use what works!

using old canon G2000 printer, driver from gutenprint