Printing very slow (or never) on network printer
 

Hi there, wonderful Linux world! I wanted to bring up the same question as I asked in my previous thread https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...nt-4175625832/

More details: using Mint 18.3; the printer is a network printer Cannon IR Advance C5235

I have a problem printing on my network printer. The delay between sending the job to the printer and the actual printing is the issue. An 18 Mb PDF file takes about 10min to start printing; larger files take longer, and some files can sit there for an hour (until I give up and print from my Windows machine). Just the other day tried printing 120 pages out of 32MB Pdf file, it sat in the queue for 30 minutes till I gave up. No issues printing from a Win10 machine on the same network (Huawei Modem/Router as a router with 2 machines and another wireless router connected to it).

Another clue - printing web pages from Firefox also takes a long time; and sometimes, they don't print at all. the disappear of the queue and never print.

The driver I installed was downloaded from Cannon site; it is the only Linux driver they have for that series: https://www.canon.com.au/multifuncti...-c5240/support

Is it a driver issue?
Could it be a network issue? One thing I took a stab at when installing is when it asked for the port (I think...). I selected LPT1 just as a guess, but see attached screenshot for other options.

Cheers!

I have 2 printers on through cups on my main server. Both network based, one in guest room, another in living room. I had the same issue of hanging and what not, sometimes for a few minutes. Other times I found the printers had spit out a few copies of stuff that I had tried to print a few hours earlier and gave up on.

My solution, and I can't explain why this works. I got some idea in my head that the network part was the issue, the printer networking went on some kind of standby, again don't ask why I came up with this. I added a ping for each printer on my main crontab on the server, every 5 minutes.

Haven't had a problem in going on a year now. Prints immediately, every single time.

Thanks for the tip!
I am a REAL LIFE newbie - can you expound a bit on crontab - how did you do it?
Cheers!

Hi byebyemrgates,

The port definitely shouldn't be LPT1 - that's for a physically-attached parallel port connection. I am surprised anything at all prints ...

I would go with ipp (Internet Printing Protocol), but if you have cups-browsed and avahi-daemon installed on your system, CUPS should just discover the printer at its proper interface.

Thanks! I'll try ipp.
It is asking for device URI (see attached screenshot) - how would I find that?
Cheers!

I usually just use the actual IP address of the printer (preferably static). So for example (replacing the IP address by your printer's on your LAN):

... let us know how it goes.

Cheers :)

Here is what happened:
1. changed to ipp; address as you advised; test page would not print (just sitting in the queue, message "connecting to printer" ... printer not responding"; power cycled printer - no print
(but i could successfully ping the printer)
2. went to change settings again, selected "network Printer - find network printer" entered IP address of the printer, it gave me a list of options (about a dozen, with various port names that i am not familiar with); I selected LPt1 again; test page printed after power-cycling printer and rebooting the PC

what's your take on that?
(one thing i didn't do, I just realised, is rebooting after changing to ipp...)

Hey again,

... not sure what to make of this.

Can you explain exactly how your Canon ImageRunner is connected to your network (ex. Ethernet cable connection to your router/switch, connected physically to another computer acting as a print server, wireless connection ...) ? I am surprised that LPT1 yields any positive results at all ...

I did a bit of research .. confirmed that you definitely have the right driver, which is good. Information found suggests that this printer works with a "socket" connection type if plugged (or wirelessly connected) directly into the network (i.e. *not* on a print server) ... This would mean replacing ipp://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx by socket://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx.

Let us know how you're set up (my above question) and we'll go from there ...

Thanks a lot!
I have a router/modem, supplied by my ISP (Huawei HG659). Into the Lan ports I plugged in: PC1 (Windows10), PC2 (Linux Mint), another router to serve as a wi-fi router, and the printer. So the printer is connected by an ethernet cable to a LAN port on the router.

Originally, the printer was installed by a technician to print from the Windows machine. When I took over the office, since I hate Windows, I installed another machine with Linux Mint 18 on it, and that's what I mainly use. I installed the driver and then installed the printer as described above - using "find network printer" and selecting lpt1 port just as an experiment - and it worked. Even though I nominated LPT1, as you see in the screenshot, the device URI is showing as lpd://192.168.1.101/LPT1 - so it is somehow connecting to the network... not sure why, but it worked. However, as I mentioned, printing large files takes a long time, sometimes eternity...

(Someone once suggested that maybe it treats each page as a separate document. That would explain why it never offsets multiple copies on the tray, as happens when I print from windows...)

Thanks for getting involved!

Hi again,

OK thanks for the details ... your setup is quite typical.

I guess it's not particularly productive to wonder why specifying LPT1 lets you print (albeit slowly) ... Perhaps, as you say, LPT1 is just being used as a label ..

In your original post, you show a screenshot of a setup screen which I presume is part of an applet provided by Mint .. I always use the generic CUPS interface through a web browser (http://localhost:631), but your way is likely just a front-end to that, so equivalent.

I would experiment with different connection types, beginning with socket://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx ... See how functionality and/or performance is affected after each change ... In other words, good old, unscientific, trial and error troubleshooting :) ...

If other folks here at LQ (calling all members ! ;) ...) have specific experience with Canon printers on Mint or any Debian derivative .. Please feel free to chime in !

Let us know how things go, byebyemrgates !

EDIT: ... You know, rereading the details of your setup ... there is perhaps one thing that is less common that may be affecting performance ... Your wireless access point (what you call your own, second router) would normally be the peripheral that your client devices would be plugged into (or connecting to wirelessly). Here in Canada, at least, ISP-supplied modems/routers often have only 1 port available for a client-supplied networking component, and then the client connects all devices to that. This is how I am set up.

I am guessing you're using your own router exclusively for wireless connections ... You could try plugging your 2 computers and the printer into that and checking how functionality/performance is affected. Additionally, this would have the effect of adding a level of security to your home LAN, since your personal computers would no longer be plugged directly into your Internet-facing device (which, I know, undoubtedly has at least some kind of security provision set up ... but still ... ). Another benefit would be the segregation of the management of internal LAN traffic (your own device) from Internet traffic (your ISP-supplied device).