printer problem SOLVED w/forum search

[denoobifyme]

Once again, I am quite pleased with, impressed by, and grateful for all the effort that goes into providing me and only me with an elegant, functional, nimble OS.

They let me run my personal netbook at work -- I surf without any constraints. The office printer is a Canon MP190. I couldn't get one of my stories to print. In fact, in PCC>Hardware, under Configure Printers and Scanners, I only had an icon for Configure Scanner.

Simple forum search -- I needed printerdrake and task-multimedia. (Not sure why I need multimedia, but others are wiser and more experienced.) Next PCC call, there's an icon for printers I can configure. Looking good, progress made. Printerdrake correctly identified the office USB printer as a Canon MP190. Then it said "but the model number is unknown. Select a comparable model, using the manual."

I see. No manual available (reason irrelevant). The default suggestion was a RAW (no driver.) Wise wizards usually provide safely acceptable defaults. I click on through and fire up the story for printing. I'm able to select Printer P, the Canon MP190. Great. Beautiful. My story enters the queue. Couple minutes later, it says "1 Page" and "Complete."  The story is seven pages, and nothing has completed.

Back to PCC, configure Printer P. Under the Def column, is an X. Under Desc, Canon MP190, under Model Number, Unknown.

I give up, where's the answer? (friendly smile) "Unknown model" and "unknown printer" forum searches are apparently too broad.

EDIT -- in printerdrake under Canon, there are no MP models listed at all. That's why I went with the RAW (no driver) default selection.

As my sig says, I'm running Gnome2010 on an Acer Aspire One Netbook.

[DeBaas]

Install task-printing-canon in Synaptic.
Change the driver to Pixma MP180.

[denoobifyme]

Thanks, DeBaas. Making progress. I already had task-printing-canon installed as part of canon mega-utilities. The Pixma model equivalent got recognized. I went to print and got the same pause without printing. I thought my netbook power settings might not print while on battery, so I plugged it in.

I tried printing the test page and another file (1 page poem). After about 30 seconds, a popup window told me "someone else paused it." This was a repeatable occurrence. So that's where I am now. Thanks for getting me a little further down the line. (smile)

[jordanin]

I am not sure you can find an open source solution. I have a mp560 and was only able to get it to work by installing the proprietary canon driver. The one for your printer is here: http://software.canon-europe.com/products/0010639.asp You will have to download the rpm version and follow the instructions in the tarball.

[denoobifyme]

Thanks so much, jordanin. I'll take the "almost" out of the title.