CUps and canon MG3550 on wifi, printer not found

Originally Posted by PROBLEMCHYLD Can you post the instructions or file. I do get tired of changing the ip address for the printer.

That is difficult to say since I don't know your router's specs or interface. I also don't know anything about how to configure your printer. Your best bet is to log into the administrative panel on your router and look for DHCP settings. Or possibly look for any options to assign a static IP address to your printer. Another option is to add a range of IP addresses on your home/business network that are specifically for static addresses. As an example, say your LAN is using 192.168.1.0/24. Configure your router to only assign DHCP addresses to 192.168.1.100-192.168.1.199. Then go into the network settings on your printer and manually add the gateway of 192.168.1.1, IP address of 192.168.1.2, net mask of 255.255.255.0, and DNS of 192.168.1.1. This should allow all devices on your network to find the printer and for the printer to communicate as well. Then you just have to configure the wireless connection and have the printer automatically reconnect when your wireless signal gets an interruption.

Forgot to add for clarification:
This works because the addresses 192.168.1.2-192.168.1.99 are open for assignment. You could also possibly use the range of 192.168.1.200-192.168.1.253. You may need to swap the gateway address on your printer to 192.168.1.254 depending on how your router is set up. Sometimes routers use the beginning of the subnet address block or the end (.1 or .254).

Originally Posted by ferrari That is often the case when a firewall is active and preventing discovery. As the others have ssaid already, that should not stop you from a manual configuration via CUPS web page > 'Administration' > 'Add Printer'

i need to change the URI , probably to ipp//192.168.35.7:631/ but where do i change it? if i edit printes.conf it does not change in the cups interface, and i can not see any way to change inside the web interface without removing the printer...

No, don't edit printers.conf directly, unless cupsd is stopped first, (otherwise CUPS will overwrite it).

Choose 'Modify Printer' to adjust the URI via the CUPS web interface.

Originally Posted by mralk3 That is difficult to say since I don't know your router's specs or interface. I also don't know anything about how to configure your printer. Your best bet is to log into the administrative panel on your router and look for DHCP settings. Or possibly look for any options to assign a static IP address to your printer. Another option is to add a range of IP addresses on your home/business network that are specifically for static addresses. As an example, say your LAN is using 192.168.1.0/24. Configure your router to only assign DHCP addresses to 192.168.1.100-192.168.1.199. Then go into the network settings on your printer and manually add the gateway of 192.168.1.1, IP address of 192.168.1.2, net mask of 255.255.255.0, and DNS of 192.168.1.1. This should allow all devices on your network to find the printer and for the printer to communicate as well. Then you just have to configure the wireless connection and have the printer automatically reconnect when your wireless signal gets an interruption. Forgot to add for clarification: This works because the addresses 192.168.1.2-192.168.1.99 are open for assignment. You could also possibly use the range of 192.168.1.200-192.168.1.253. You may need to swap the gateway address on your printer to 192.168.1.254 depending on how your router is set up. Sometimes routers use the beginning of the subnet address block or the end (.1 or .254).

By far the easiest thing to do is to get the router to pin the hardware (MAC) address of the printer to the printer's current IP address so the router's DHCP server always gives out the same address. Most but not all routers enable you to do this. You need to look for something like a 'DHCP server' configuration option in the router's settings interface. For this purpose, you should be able find the printer's hardware address and current IP address (as provided by DHCP) with '/sbin/arp -en' from about 20 seconds after you have switched the printer on. There is no need to futz around with trying to give the printer a static address and I do not even know if my MG-3650 printer allows you to do that: I have never needed to know.

None of this explains why you are able to specify a non-numeric hostname in the IPP address of the printer when using gutenprint. It simply doesn't work for me when I give the printer a name in /etc/hosts, either because of a cups setting or because the printer tries to do a reverse look-up. (A reverse look-up cannot work against a name in /etc/hosts because that is private to the printing computer and not known by the router.)

chrisVV, PROBLEMCHYLD and mralk3

You have hijacked the thread. Please keep the conversation to helping the OP.

I agree that IP address reservation is a good strategy if the router supports it, but all network printers should support DHCP or static IP address configuration.

Name resolution failing (or working) has nothing to do with CUPS. The protocols used for name resolution are determined by the 'hosts:' entry in /etc/nsswitch.conf. For example, I have the following protocols and order set

hosts:          files mdns_minimal [NOTFOUND=return] dns

Refer 'man nsswitch.conf' for more information.
I have Avahi in use and can reach printers (at work and home) using their hostname.local if desired...

~> lpstat -t
scheduler is running
device for Brother_HL-2150N_series: socket://BRN008077DC419C.local

Originally Posted by michaelk chrisVV, PROBLEMCHYLD and mralk3 You have hijacked the thread. Please keep the conversation to helping the OP.

The OP's posting was "i am trying to install canon MG3550 printer using CUPS web interface, but i am stuck. when i try "find new printer" in CUPS it does not show up. i can ping the printer, and it has the hostname canon.local. ... any hints ? i am trying to use the gutenprint driver first hand.."

My postings, and as far as I can tell all the others, have been entirely on topic. They have all addressed the issue of (i) how the OP can set up the gutenprint printer driver or otherwise get the printer to work with CUPS via wireless, and (ii) when using the gutenprint driver via IPP, how you can specify a fixed IP address for CUPS.

Originally Posted by chrisVV The OP's posting was "i am trying to install canon MG3550 printer using CUPS web interface, but i am stuck. when i try "find new printer" in CUPS it does not show up. i can ping the printer, and it has the hostname canon.local. ... any hints ? i am trying to use the gutenprint driver first hand.." My postings, and as far as I can tell all the others, have been entirely on topic. They have all addressed the issue of (i) how the OP can set up the gutenprint printer driver or otherwise get the printer to work with CUPS via wireless, and (ii) when using the gutenprint driver via IPP, how you can specify a fixed IP address for CUPS.

This was real civil of you, I would have flew off the handle. Next time I find any solutions to any issues I'll just keep them to myself. Don't want to hijacked by contributing. Have a good day.

Originally Posted by ferrari I agree that IP address reservation is a good strategy if the router supports it, but all network printers should support DHCP or static IP address configuration. Name resolution failing (or working) has nothing to do with CUPS. The protocols used for name resolution are determined by the 'hosts:' entry in /etc/nsswitch.conf. For example, I have the following protocols and order set hosts: files mdns_minimal [NOTFOUND=return] dns Refer 'man nsswitch.conf' for more information. I have Avahi in use and can reach printers (at work and home) using their hostname.local if desired... ~> lpstat -t scheduler is running device for Brother_HL-2150N_series: socket://BRN008077DC419C.local

'Name resolution failing (or working) has nothing to do with CUPS' is a bold statement to make. I can assure you I have nsswitch.conf correctly set up and if I give an IP address a name in /etc/hosts the resolver will find it without problem, including if I ping it or if I run arp. The fact is however that I cannot put the (fully-resolvable) name specified in /etc/hosts in the IPP address given to CUPS's gutenprint driver.

Given that the OP was not able to use a non-numeric hostname it was a reasonable supposition that he may have run into the same difficulty.

Your mention of zeroconf/avahi does however indicate it may be the printer trying to do reverse look-up which is the problem. zeroconf would deal with that. Putting a name in /etc/hosts would not.

Sorry, the OP reported that post 16 was not helpful and it appeared there was a separate conversation/topic on how to setup the printer/router with an IP address reservation that went on for 4 or 5 posts.

Maybe sidetracked would of been a better word then hijacked.

Originally Posted by michaelk Sorry, the OP reported that post 16 was not helpful and it appeared there was a separate conversation/topic on how to setup the printer/router with an IP address reservation that went on for 4 or 5 posts. Maybe sidetracked would of been a better word then hijacked.

I don't think it would have been much better. You cannot effectively run a network printer, such as the OP's MG-3550, with the gutenprint driver without either giving it a static address or employing address reservation or zeroconf. Failing to say that on the misconceived notion that it may "sidetrack" the topic would have been most inadvisable for both the OP and any others in a similar position later reading this thread. (Curiously you can run the Canon IJ printer driver without pinning the address, because it appears to look up the printer by a broadcast on the local network or by some other means, when processing a print job. So my posting about the IJ driver was also on topic.)

I think the problem is that the OP does not know enough to benefit from the (now very detailed) information that has been given in this thread about how to set up his printer. Provided there is not a language difficulty he should be able to get it running in about 5 minutes.

I have provided the solution in post #2 of this thread and it works. That's all I know.

PS To be more demonstrative, I first removed the printer then clicked "find new printers"

Originally Posted by Didier Spaier I have provided the solution in post #2 of this thread and it works. That's all I know. PS To be more demonstrative, I first removed the printer then clicked "find new printers"

The OP was interested in wireless and the gutenprint drivers. Your posting was useful as a resource but linked to an older posting of yours for setting up the proprietary Canon IJ drivers with USB (and your older postings said that you did not know whether your approach worked with wireless). My posting #4 confirmed that the proprietary drivers do work OK with wireless, for my printer at least. It was other posters who subsequently set out how to get the gutenprint drivers up and running with wireless.

One curiosity is that xsane scanning works with wireless but scangearmp2 does not. Anyway I think this has been about flogged to death.

2 things helped me here, both how to install the canon driver as per Didier's comment (though i was hoping that it would not be needed) and the hint that the uri needs to end in a backslash and contain the port number.

i am thankful to all participants and ask forgiveness for calling out OT. i hope i hurt no-ones feelings.

Originally Posted by slockna 2 things helped me here, both how to install the canon driver as per Didier's comment (though i was hoping that it would not be needed) and the hint that the uri needs to end in a backslash and contain the port number. i am thankful to all participants and ask forgiveness for calling out OT. i hope i hurt no-ones feelings.

Glad you got it working, but your printer is included in gutenprint already. You actually didn't need it.