Help! New Canon MX496 printer will not work.

The Blind Painter · 12-22-2016, 11:38 PM

Hello all you wonderful Linux folk. I am brand new to Linux and just trying to get everything to work,
Can anyone give me some help to get the new printer to work please?
I have tried all the things I have found on line and it still wont work. It works on my windows machine however.
Thank you in advance.

ardvark71 · 12-23-2016, 12:16 AM

Hello and welcome to the forum

First, please read the information here. The more information we have, the better we can help you.

What is the distribution and version of Linux you're using? What are "all the things I have found on line?" Have you installed the drivers for your printer? What error messages do you receive, if any? What is the printer doing or not doing?

Regards...

The Blind Painter · 12-23-2016, 02:17 AM

Im using linux mint 17.3 Rosa. When I add new printer everything loads up but the Printer State Field says processing then nothing will print

ardvark71 · 12-23-2016, 03:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Blind Painter

Im using linux mint 17.3 Rosa. When I add new printer everything loads up but the Printer State Field says processing then nothing will print

Hi...

Did you install the drivers from Canon? If not and you're in Australia, you can download them here. You will need both the debian IJ printer driver and ScanGear package. Once downloaded, find their location and double click on the packages to install them.

Regards...

The Blind Painter · 12-23-2016, 04:39 AM

yes I loaded the drivers. Latest error now says broken pipe

ferrari · 12-23-2016, 04:48 AM

Can you share more information about how your printer is connected and configured? Post the output of

Code:

lpstat -t

or

Code:

cat /etc/cups/printers.conf

Shadow_7 · 12-23-2016, 05:31 AM

Always go to the official manufacturers site to get the download of drivers. If not already included in your distro.

It looks like libsane in debian jessie has pixma libs, so check that it's not already included in your distro. It looks like gutenprint drivers are included in debian jessie.

# apt-get install cups-driver-gutenprint foomatic-db-gutenprint printer-driver-gutenprint

URL:
localhost:631

To configure cups. Implies that the user is in the lpadmin group to configure, and lp group to use. Implies that cupsd and some form of http server is running (apache), tends to be the default if cups is installed. Implies that localhost is a synonym of sorts for 127.0.0.1, probably defaults to that in /etc/hosts for most distros. It's not entirely intuitive to configure, but it's not too painful if you know the walls well enough to bounce off of them. If your specific model of printer is not included in the list, the previous models driver might work for it. mx492 mx490? YMMV

Rickkkk · 12-23-2016, 11:32 AM

TheBlindPainter: Also - please specify if your printer is physically connected to the Linux computer or if you are trying to print over a network, and if so, wired, wireless and/or shared from another computer/server. My experience in setting up printers is with the native CUPS interface instead of with various GUI front-ends. The problems I've run into are usually due to improper driver selection and/or improper protocol (http, ipp, socket, JetDirect for HP, etc, ,,,).

As someone mentioned above, it can be a bit time-consuming, but in the end I've always been able to get printing working.

The Blind Painter · 12-24-2016, 05:00 PM

I do have the printer connected via USB I am not a computer geek so some of this stuff is beyond me like cups and whatever. I have know clue what that means. sorry.

The Blind Painter · 12-24-2016, 05:06 PM

It prints the self test but not the CUPS test page?

The Blind Painter · 12-24-2016, 05:22 PM

I got this message:Page 1

(Scheduler not running?):
{'cups_connection_failure': False}
Page 2 (Choose printer):
{'cups_dests_available': [(u'Canon-MX490', None)], 'cups_queue_listed': False}
Page 3 (Local or remote?):
{'printer_is_remote': False}
Page 4 (Choose device):
{'cups_device_listed': False, 'cups_devices_available': {}}
Page 5 (Locale issues):
{'printer_page_size': None,
'system_locale_lang': None,
'user_locale_ctype': 'en_NZ',
'user_locale_messages': 'en_NZ'}

The Blind Painter · 12-24-2016, 05:37 PM

cat: /etc/cups/printers.conf: Permission denied

ferrari · 12-24-2016, 07:02 PM

You might need to be root. Use

Code:

sudo cat /etc/cups/printers.conf

ferrari · 12-24-2016, 07:05 PM

If CUPS is not running, you can start it with

Code:

sudo service cups start

Shadow_7 · 12-24-2016, 10:18 PM

For some things you might need the cups-bsd stuff for the legacy lp/lpr style printing. Although I suspect the user isn't in the lp or lpadmin group. Back when printers supported postscript you could just pipe a .ps file directly to the device. Although not that well supported these days since most printers need translation engines now.

Most times I'll a2ps things, then import that to gimp and print from gimp. I seem to have a little more control that way. Just make sure that the .PPD file for your printer is installed so you can select it from a list. Or a compatible model so you can select that from a list.