<SOLVED?> Problem adding Canon MG6100 wireless network printer in PCLOS lxde

[TomSk]

I'm running PCLOS LXDE 2012.1 on an IBM T21 Thinkpad with 384MB RAM. The printer connects to the router wirelessly, and I believe that the windows machines in our home network connect to the printer directly via wireless (for the laptops) or via wire to the router and then wirelessly to the printer for the PC.

I've tried to add this printer a number of ways but to no avail:

Control Centre/Hardware/Config Printer - I searched for a network printer using the printer's IP address 192.168.1.118 as the host. The printer was found quite quickly, I selected the Canon Pixma MG6100 package and all seemed to go OK, but when I tried to print anything it comes up with the 'not connected?' error message. Diagnosis suggested that the printer was not enabled, and going back into Control Centre/Hardware/Config Printer and right-clicking on the printer and selecting 'properties' I found that the printer was indeed not set to enabled on the policies tab. Ticked the box, hit apply, came back out of PCC - but still the same problem. Deleted the printer via control centre/hardware etc and went to the next approach.

(Interestingly, later attempts to add a printer this way using host: 192.168.1.118 failed to detect any printer, but maybe that would be solved by a re-boot?)

Tried some forum searches,

Went into http://localhost:631 and the CUPS process, hit add printer - username: root password: not telling   tried the http method using http://192.168.1.118:631/ipp/ - went through the process of selecting the correct Canon printer and setting the defaults. This time the printer was shown as enabled, but when I tried to print a webpage or a test page I still get the 'not connected?' message

Deleted that printer, went into CUPS again and this time tried setting it using the ipp method (ipp://192.168.1.118/ipp/) no joy, same problem, and finally as socket://192.168.1.118:9100 again no joy

I've recently started with Linux so I'm sure I've just misinterpreted the CUPS examples and need to add more stuff after ipp/ or 9100 to help the printer to be found but at my level of knowledge I'm stumped

On another Linux forum there was some discussion about installing the Canon MG6100 printer/scanner by downloading some linux drivers from the Canon website, and installing them etc, but although I've downloaded the four drivers and extracted to them, I'm not sure what to do next, or if I could still do the install via the standard PCC or CUPS protocols, which would be easier for me as a newcomer. Anything involving command line is a bit alien to me at the moment so I'd need clear, step by step instructions  

Thanks for your help

[Neal ManBear]

Check that you have system-config-printer installed.     

[TomSk]

Thanks for your prompt reply Neal

You'll see from my (only) other post that after initial install of PCLOS I had problems with the config printer icon in PCC/Hardware - despite doing all the upgrades and then adding task-printing. I eventually solved this by reloading task-printing, system-config-printer and a couple of other printing-related system-config files which got the config printer icon working - so I will check this when I get back to that machine later today, but I'm fairly sure system-config-printer will be there.

Will let you know

Update: yes, I checked and system-config-printer was listed as installed. I marked it for a reinstall and applied. Will now attempt printer add again.

Tried using 'other' in 'add printer' and putting (I think) http://192.168.1.118 in the URI box - this seemed to find the printer but again when I tried to print it failed.

The network printer never gets autodetected by system-config-printer or CUPS

What isn't clear to me is for this printer should I use ipp, http, socket or lpd? It doesn't matter which option I use, it doesn't seem to be found - I'm wondering have I got the address wrong - will check the IP address again tomorrow. It doesn't seem to be as simple as entering ipp://192.168.1.118/ipp in CUPS

 

[TomSk]

As an afterthought - even though the printer can be printed to directly over wireless, might I need to set up access into our home windows network for PCC to find it? It's not specifically attached to any particular machine on that network though...

I haven't got round to setting up access windows shared drives etc as yet.

[Neal ManBear]

Tom,     
As I have no printer, I can be of no further assistance, I think. Maybe someone with a printer will come along soon.     

[AS]

What isn't clear to me is for this printer should I use ipp, http, socket or lpd? It doesn't matter which option I use, it doesn't seem to be found - I'm wondering have I got the address wrong - will check the IP address again tomorrow. It doesn't seem to be as simple as entering ipp://192.168.1.118/ipp in CUPS

 

a couple of hints: a network printer to be used in CUPS must have an IP address on the same subnet of the CUPS server,
that is: your PCLinuxOS should have an IP address in the range 192.168.1.1 - 192.168.1.254 excluding 192.168.1.118 of course.
(not fully true really, as it could be possible to print using any network address ... but this would require some extensive configuration ...)

ipp, http, socket, lpd are all communication protocol, http/https is sometimes used when the printer allow to be configured remotely by using a browser, type in your browser the following:

Code: [Select]

http://192.168.1.118so you can verify immediately if your printer support this type of configuration/administration.

ipp, lpd, socket are printing protocols, you should find in your printer specifications which one is supported, and which one eventually is enabled or not (usually they are configurable on the printer itself ...)

That said, verify about your connection, open a terminal on your PCLinuxOS system and type:

Code: [Select]

ping 192.168.1.118that will assure you that from a network point of view your printer is reachable ... or not.

Once you have established which network printing protocol is supported from your printer, you will need to understand "which language" understand your printer: common printing languages are HP PCL, Postscript, ... Canon may use a proprietary language on some of it's printers, for this reason may require a proprietary driver ... usually available on their support website.

I would say, start verifying you printers specs and how to configure your printer parameters ... and proceed one step at once, printer configuration, communication, supported printing protocols, supported languages, driver installation ...

Also search on forum, you should find at least a couple of threads explaining step by step the installation of a canon driver (different models ... but the procedure is similar ...)

AS

[TomSk]

AS

Thanks for your help - I'd separately come across the suggestion to ping the printer http address, which I did and it was contactable. The printer can also be managed via that address via a browser, but it seemed none of this helped. I really needed the specific cnijfilter file for the printer model.

A check in the PCLOS synaptic package manager revealed several Canon cnijfilter files, but none for my model.

I'd downloaded the printer drivers from the Canon support site, but installing them for me as a newcomer was a little too complicated - extracting, un-tar ing, install-sh - I couldn't seem to get anything to work, and I couldn't find anything on PCLOS forums relating to installing Canon drivers - perhaps I didn't search hard/well enough.

So, I tried a different LXDE distro, and have successfully installed the printer. Even this involved command line stuff to add an additional reporitory, apt-get the driver and install - but the process all worked fine.

Maybe I could have done the same in PCLOS? The repository I added was ppa:michael-gruz/canon, then I did an update, and then apt-get the model specific driver - which has been very nicely configured to allow plenty of dpi options etc - some report problems that the Canon support drivers are colour/600dpi fixed and need editing to get further print options.

The process used the non-recommended sudo command, but perhaps if I'd still been using PCLOS it could have been done from the root terminal without the use of sudo

Here it is if it's of any help to anyone struggling with the same issue

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:michael-gruz/canon

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install cnijfilter-mg6100series (NB drivers for numerous Canon printer models are available at this repository)

[AS]

AS

Thanks for your help - I'd separately come across the suggestion to ping the printer http address, which I did and it was contactable. The printer can also be managed via that address via a browser, but it seemed none of this helped. I really needed the specific cnijfilter file for the printer model.

A check in the PCLOS synaptic package manager revealed several Canon cnijfilter files, but none for my model.

I'd downloaded the printer drivers from the Canon support site, but installing them for me as a newcomer was a little too complicated - extracting, un-tar ing, install-sh - I couldn't seem to get anything to work, and I couldn't find anything on PCLOS forums relating to installing Canon drivers - perhaps I didn't search hard/well enough.

Please post a link to the download page related to your printer model.

So, I tried a different LXDE distro, and have successfully installed the printer. Even this involved command line stuff to add an additional reporitory, apt-get the driver and install - but the process all worked fine.

Maybe I could have done the same in PCLOS? The repository I added was ppa:michael-gruz/canon, then I did an update, and then apt-get the model specific driver - which has been very nicely configured to allow plenty of dpi options etc - some report problems that the Canon support drivers are colour/600dpi fixed and need editing to get further print options.

No, apt-get as used in PCLOS is really an interface to the underlying rpm package manager, while in that other distro it is really and interface to apt. Beside that, each distro customize the packages to fit their system layout and dependencies ... most probably it will not work ... to much differences.

The process used the non-recommended sudo command, but perhaps if I'd still been using PCLOS it could have been done from the root terminal without the use of sudo

Here it is if it's of any help to anyone struggling with the same issue

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:michael-gruz/canon

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install cnijfilter-mg6100series (NB drivers for numerous Canon printer models are available at this repository)

Don't do that, post a link to the canon website, we will try to provide as much help as possible.

AS

[TomSk]

AS

Thanks for that. This link should take you to the Canon site source for the printer and scanner drivers for this printer model.

http://software.canon-europe.com/products/0010891.asp

Thanks for your help.

Would like to switch back to PCLOS LXDE on the T21 Thinkpad as the alternative distro has problems writing a grub config that is visible at boot-up, so whilst it boots fine, no boot options can be seen 

Regards
Tom

[AS]

AS

Thanks for that. This link should take you to the Canon site source for the printer and scanner drivers for this printer model.

http://software.canon-europe.com/products/0010891.asp

you will need the driver at position no.:  37.   Linux IJ Printer Driver (3.40)
optionally the driver at position no:  39. Linux IJ Scanner Driver (1.60)

try to follow the procedure described here for a canon printer ...
http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php/topic,101638.msg865288.html#msg865288

Of course, please ask where required

Thanks for your help.

Would like to switch back to PCLOS LXDE on the T21 Thinkpad as the alternative distro has problems writing a grub config that is visible at boot-up, so whilst it boots fine, no boot options can be seen 

Regards
Tom

Please open a new thread for a different issue, otherwise things become easily confused ... 

AS