OS: Kubuntu 9.10
Printer: Canon i550

I have tried selecting many of the drivers located on localhost:631 and none of them work. i550 is not in the list of drivers. When I select i560 it will print if it is only one line after that it seems to get confused and doesn't print.


Sites that I have looked at
http://openprinting.org/show_printer...num=Canon-i550
http://mambo.kuhp.kyoto-u.ac.jp/~takushi/#canon

I have tried selecting many of the drivers located on localhost:631 and none of them work. i550 is not in the list of drivers.[/quote]You are looking for BJC8200explain "confused".

Does the i560 use the correct driver?

Canon site does not have the native drivers for i550. I looked around in canon asia, canon australia and canon us. Neither have drivers for i550 for linux.

Hope I can get it working but it's not looking good. I didn't use Linux when the printer was purchased, in the future I will be checking Linux compatibility before buying a product.

If you can't get any free drivers working, you might consider buying a copy of TurboPrint. It does list the Canon i550 as a supported printer (see here). I've used it before with my Canon Pixma MP130 and I've found it to be quite good.

I tried the trial version of turbo point and it did not work. But it does list the canon i550 in the list of compatible printers.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&r...ql=&aqi=g1&oq=

One link seems to be saying that it works

The driver is already installed!
In the CUPS configuration, select canon, then scroll down to where it says "BJC8200". That is the driver as specified in the web sites in the first post. Kubuntu even has its own printer configuration in the Kontrol panel - why not use that?

BJC8200 does not work. The page gets fed into the printer and nothing happens. I forgot about the printer option in the kontrol panel.

That's the driver - you could try:
http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-10540.html
... are you running 64bit? Have you tried the printer under windows with the manufacturers driver?

Have you tried BJC7000? Some people report that it works with the i550 better. Other good reports from bjc7100 and bjc80.

Remember to print a test page from cups to test it.
Reading around this issue is confirming my opinion of Canon printers.

I am running 32 bit.

I tried all those drivers with no success.
Printing a test page throws me an error when I print from "printer configuration system setting" which is where there was an error during the CUPS operation: 'client-error-document-format-not-supported'.

However I don't get an error when I attempt the same procedure from the web interface it just does not print.

The problem I had with that tutorial was that libtiff3g and libpng weren't in the repositories.

Oh and the printer is working under Windoze

Funny how companies get into niches in our brains----Canon is my #1 choice in digital cameras, but they are off my list for printers. In the Linux world, they were totally useless for a while, but I have read they are coming around.

Which suggests another option for the OP: Call Canon (nothing to lose)

Thought problem: If a printer company says that it is not viable for them to support Linux, ask them how HP and Epson manage to do it....

Save a document to post-script and try printing that. But it sounds like a lib is missing.They are in the universe repo - enable it. (Should already be installed.)

I see

libpng12-0
libtiff4

sudo apt-get install libpng libpng-dev libtiff libtiff-dev

[works in windows] Did you use the driver that came with the printer or did it "just work" with the windows pre-installed drivers.

You may want to reinstall CUPS.

After printing a test page - does the printer status show that it has printed (the job is finished?) What does /var/log/cups/error_log say?

cat /var/log/cups/error_log

The general feeling of "no confidence" in this printer range comes from the range of reports about what works. It makes it look like Canon have varied the chipset or interface or firmware on this printer without varying the model name in a way that owners will notice. It also dates from a time that Canon were all-but outright refusing to provide open-source or free software drivers or information that would help develop the same. So Canon printer drivers in CUPS were usually reverse engineered and could conflict with each other. Otherwise users had to obtain a binary driver off canon. This last is still mostly the case - particularly with the cheaper printers.

Hi

I got my canon i560 to work after a bit of research. Have you looked at this thread:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...n-i560-221135/

For the drivers, you need to look at steel_j's post which point you to somewhere in Japan. (S)he then tells you just how to install the drivers and get the printer to work. Using slackware, I had to modify the installation process a bit, but my printer works fine.

Good luck

ros