[SOLVED] Canon printer/scanner - drivers and installation

I'm new to Linux and keen to learn. I am running Zorin 6 on a Dell Inspiron 1520 laptop. I have a Canon MP560 "all-in-one" printer/scanner, which has WiFi as well as USB connection options.

I have succeeded in adding it as a network printer by putting its IP address into the System Settings>Hardware>Printers> "Add Printer" dialogue. Zorin found it, found a driver, and I can now get the machine to print.

I have two separate questions:

1) Can someone explain the driver options - or point me to a Linux-beginners site which does? When installing this printer, it appears that the software involved is "CUPS" (a Linux programme...) and that the driver is from the Gutenprint suite of drivers developed for Linux. That's fine, and I can understand and use it. But I notice on various forums a lot of chat about how to find and install Canon's own drivers for Linux. The drivers for my MP560 are available from the Canon Europe site http://www.canon-europe.com/Support/Consumer_Products/products/Fax__Multifunctionals/InkJet/PIXMA_MP_series/PIXMA_MP560.aspx?type=download&language=&os=Linux.
Are these (Gutenprint and Canon) drivers equally-valid options? Is it more complicated to install the Canon one? If I do, will it offer a similar GUI to the standard Canon interface which appears when running Windows? Will it conflict with CUPS/Gutenprint?

2) How do I get the scanner of my Canon MP560 to work? I notice that the Canon Europe site offers a scanner driver (ScanGear for Linux) which I assume is essentially that which I already know from working with Windows. If I download it from the Canon website, how do I install or set it up? I seem to have no opportunity in System Settings>Hardware to find or install a scanner. Which prompts the question: is there a Linux package analogous to CUPS/Gutenprint which drives scanners? I have seen references to SANE and X-Sane (but wouldn't know a Sane backend if it bit me on the backend.....!).

I'm not stuck, or grappling with an urgent problem, but I am curious - so any explanation/tutorial would be appreciated.

Hi, basically Canon will produce a 'ppd' = 'proprietary printer driver' - it should come as a .deb package - and if you don't have it installed yet, now would be a good time to install 'gdebi package installer'.

Open a Terminal (Ctrl+ Alt+ T) and enter:

Code:

sudo apt-get install gdebi

Now if the print driver is in .deb format, once downloaded, right-click and select from the context menu that appears 'Open with ...' and choose 'Gdebi Package Installer'

Then, after installing the .deb package, you should get the driver showing up when you choose the print selection (see my Zorin 6 Unofficial Manual here and look near the end on my workaround:

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=7646

As for scanners I suspect it should be much sameness - just run 'Simple Scan' after installing any scanner driver - it should pick it up.

The only caveat that I would advise is that if you have a TV Card, Sane can sometimes pick that up as the scanner!

Thanks, Swarf, for that advice.

I have Gdebi Package Manager installed... and I have successfully downloaded and installed the Canon Scangear driver for my scanner (or rather the scanner element of my all-in-one Canon MP560 printer/scanner/copier).

But the Simple Scan programme doesn't pick up the scanner. I suspect this is because the connection to the MP560 (for both printing and scanning) is via wifi, not USB. How is it than Zorin can add a network printer (using the IP address) but not a scanner which is in fact the same machine!

So I still need to know how to get Zorin to search for, find, and connect to a scanner via wifi in the same way as it seems able to do with a printer. Once the scanner can be "seen" and a connection established, I hope that getting the driver to work will not be too difficult.

Hi I do't own such a piece of kit, but when I reinstalled someones HP all-in-one in Windows XP it had to have USB connection first then had an IP address assigned to it - have you tried that route?

Hello again Swarf....

I have solved the problem. But before I give details, just a comment about the various different brands of printer/scanner. I have gleaned form trawling the forums that some manufacturers are more Linux-friendly than others. It seems that HP plays very well with Linux (which has lots of software packages designed for HP machines). People using Epson seem to have variable experiences. Canon similarly is sometimes easy to set up, sometimes not.

But one key thing about my Canon MP560 - and I suspect most other Canon Pixma models - is that you have to set them up and connect them either with USB or by wifi. You can't do both, or shift from one type of connection to the other, because that confuses the Canon machine and causes it to misbehave.

Here's how I got the scanner of my Canon MP560 to work with Zorin - and it was really pretty straightforward, even for a newcomer to Linux like me. NB the MP560 had already been set up to connect via Wifi when I first got it and ran it with my Windows XP laptop.

1) download the Canon Scangear software driver package for Linux from the Canon-Europe website (NB the Canon UK site doesn't seem to offer the packages for Linux, you have to go to the Europe site and put in the details of your particular Canon model);
2) extract the files from the tar.gz download;
3) Using Gdebi Installer, install the two driver-packages (I didn't note their precise filenames, but one is the Scangear driver and the other is the "common" files). Incidentally I think I saw somewhere that the Canon Scangear drivers for Linux are 32-bit - which is what I need - there is no 64-bit version;
4) the Canon scanner can then be found and used via the Scangear GUI (NB it has to be switched on in order to be detected) by either Gimp (go to File>Create> and Scangear should show up), or by SimpleScan. In the former case, it may be necessary to click OK when it first reports "no scanner detected" - a popup window then offers to search for scanners and update the list, and it then automatically finds the scanner;
5) a further step, which I discovered from one of the Ubuntu forums, is that it is possible and convenient to add Canon Scangear directly to your Main Menu. This means it becomes unnecessary to go via Gimp or Simple Scan, but the Canon machine can be operated directly. To do this, it's simply a matter of System Tools>Preferences>Main Menu, and then choose the "Graphics" sub-menu and click to add a new item. In the dialogue box which opens, put Canon Scanner or whatever title of choice in the first box, and "scangearmp" in the Command box. Then hit enter, and it all happens automatically. The Graphics menu should now include an entry for the Canon scanner - click and it opens the Scangear GUI directly.

So all is working well - and I hope this might be helpful to any other Zorin users who need to get a Canon printer/scanner to work over a wifi connection.

Great going - sixty blue jewels for solving the issue yourself and another 60 for sharing! Will mark as [SOLVED]!