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CANON PIXMA problems with pgutenprint/cups/task printing dri

PostPosted: Mar 8th, '14, 20:43
by sputnik
Hello,

I have Canon Pixma MX 860, which doesn't work properly via usb. I have downloaded and tried everything trough Software management and from the Mageia app. Printer still works on its own way. After oppressive forum work on various topics concerning Canon and the other printer issues, source code driver seem to be only solution.
http://www.canon-europe.com/Support/Con ... e=download

But I am not the the "tar.gz source code" type of user. I would be grateful if somebody can make mi a "canon driver. rpm" ready for installation, or give me some link or step by step instruction (although I don't have even a basic skills or understanding).

Thanks, Best Regards

Re: CANON PIXMA problems with pgutenprint/cups/task printing

PostPosted: Mar 9th, '14, 05:21
by benmc
hi

cups+gutenprint supports the mx860. i see that there are 2 drivers available.
have you tried both.

how exactly does
sputnik wrote:Printer still works on its own way


regards

benmc

Re: CANON PIXMA problems with pgutenprint/cups/task printing

PostPosted: Mar 9th, '14, 18:47
by sputnik
Thank you for replay.

I have tried both drivers. The first one on the list with remark "recommended" does better job. The unsatisfying and improper operation is evident trough uncompleted print jobs. Sometimes I get the first of few pages printed, sometimes it gets stuck without possibility of canceling even on the printers cancel button. After such a problem it is impossible to reset printer without unplugging. In other situations it is possible to print whole document properly but it don't wont to accept another document-print job. Restarting CUPS through command line helps. This is very strange and hard to accept behavior.Printer has a large internal memory and was very fast with capability of printing few large documents one after another. I am convinced that in Mageia it can work as same as in WIN, because everything what I use works better in Mageia than it did in WIN.

Best Regards

Re: CANON PIXMA problems with pgutenprint/cups/task printing

PostPosted: Mar 17th, '14, 13:28
by wintpe
how are you connecting to this printer, usb, ethernet, wifi, ?

regards peter

PostPosted: Mar 17th, '14, 18:35
by sputnik
Peter, for now being I am using USB connection, but in a few days I will use WI FI.

Thnx

Re: CANON PIXMA problems with pgutenprint/cups/task printing

PostPosted: Mar 17th, '14, 18:48
by wintpe
re your last comment about everything works in mageia ,........

nice to hear you championing mageia.

but unless a manufacturer writes a driver like HP and Epson do for Linux, then we rely on volunteers
in the opensource community to contribute hours of their time reverse engineering the drivers.

sometimes they are successful.

other times they give up, leaving a partial implementation for someone else to improve upon.

this is not having a poke at any specific project, just a fact of life.

as a result if you don't buy hardware with Linux in mind, then you are likely to experience a hit and miss
result.

I have been making Linux my default platform for 15 years now, and been working on Unix since 1989.

All the HW i buy is checked out for Linux suitability from the off.

try to do the same wherever possible.

I would attempt that wifi or ethernet connection as soon as is possible, hopefully the canon will employ a
standards based network connection using lpr or similar, and this may address your problem.

it sounds like a print buffer overflow or flow control issue.

regards peter

PostPosted: Mar 17th, '14, 19:48
by sputnik
Printer is here with me for some time, from 2010. I have decided to use linux because WIN is full of bugs and they always ask for some more apps to install, in the same time with lots of restrictions. At first I have tried with Mint and Ubuntu, I wasn't happy, something worked as it was supposed to, something didn't, especially with
ATI and HD overheating. At the end I have success with Debian, learned a bit and was happy to see how the magic comes from white letters on black screen :-).
Next 9 month I was literally in the field, working in the orchard. When I came back I needed comp asap and didn't have any more time to spend on learning and creating my own sys with Debian. That's how I came to MAGEIA. It is so nice and fluent that I don't need nothing to know about computing, command line, apps, drivers....just start app and use. Also it is much faster then WIN XP/2007 on ACER TravelMate 5720 from 2008.
Printer has its drivers in source code compressed to tar.gz, but I couldn't find the way how to unpack them and prepare for installation. On the other hand I am afraid to do something wrong. So my second question was could somebody give me the advice or prepare tar.gz for installatio, as I saw that "Doctor" did it once. I am not sure how fedora package for the same printer could be used.

Re: CANON PIXMA problems with pgutenprint/cups/task printing

PostPosted: Mar 20th, '14, 15:09
by wintpe
I could advise you but I would not recommend it.

firstly there's your experience level, and secondly and more important, no one should be installing source.tar.gz based
code on rpm based systems, or dpkg based like debian.

the reason is that rpm keeps a database of every file that is installed, so that it can remove them during upgrades etc, or
back them up.

there alot more rpm does but im trying to keep this short.

there's a mageia wiki on how to build these, but i think given your comments about not needing to know computers, that
this will be more complex than you want to explore.

the best approach is to create an rpm, by creating a spec file to take that source.tar.gz and package it

if you dont it has the risk that you could just blat system files if you dont know what you are doing.

regards peter

Re: CANON PIXMA problems with pgutenprint/cups/task printing

PostPosted: Mar 20th, '14, 23:49
by doktor5000
For the driver installation, David explained this e.g. via viewtopic.php?f=24&t=2800 and for a similar printer in viewtopic.php?f=24&t=905