Arch Linux

andreioniscu

Member

Registered: 2017-02-24

Posts: 4

Canon MP280

Hello guys, I have just installed arch linux on my dad's laptop because windows was just too laggy. He is very satisfied with arch but there is one problem. I cant get his printer going. He has an MP280 from Canon and it just doesnt print. I tried installing cups, I tried installing drivers from the AUR (cnijfilter-mp280 3.40.1-3.1), configuring cups, but nothing works. Do you guys have any ideas?
Thanks in advance!

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 21,650

Re: Canon MP280

In general: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=57855 You haven't provided anything that really might be useful to help you, what doesn't work, did you get any error messages any info in the log?

This particular case has one small thing that I can tell you anyway. remove the canon driver, and use gutenprint instead, those drivers tend to work better/ more hasslefree than the drivers officially provided by canon.

Last edited by V1del (2017-02-24 12:16:50)

andreioniscu

Member

Registered: 2017-02-24

Posts: 4

Re: Canon MP280

How do I get the gutenprint drivers? Sorry if  it is a silly question but I am new to arch!

Last edited by andreioniscu (2017-02-24 12:28:07)

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 21,650

Re: Canon MP280

They are in the repos...

pacman -S gutenprint

and then configure them in CUPS

Last edited by V1del (2017-02-24 12:51:48)

andreioniscu

Member

Registered: 2017-02-24

Posts: 4

Re: Canon MP280

Ok, so after I installed the guten print drivers, the printer was doing nothing and I was getting the "filter failed" message. Now I installed the cnij-mp280 package from the AUR and the little display on my printer tells me that it is printing something when I try to print, so my computer and my printer are communicating. The thing is my printer would not print anything and would just show me the spinny thing on its display but nothing more. After I checked cups I saw that it is indeed processing, but it is still giving me the filter failed message. Any ideas?
Thanks!

Texbrew

Member

From: The Lone Star State

Registered: 2016-02-09

Posts: 580

Re: Canon MP280

Two problems: You still are not providing enough information for anyone to help you. V1del told you that in his first reply. You should go to the link he gave you and try to figure out what logs you need to post. The output of

journalctl -xb

should contain messages about your printer if it is connected. The CUPS logs may provide some clues.

cat /var/log/cups/error_log

The other problem: it seems you ignored V1del's advice to use gutenprint instead of the Canon driver in the AUR. If both drivers are installed, that may be why you can't get it to work.

Did you enable CUPS as instructed in the wiki? My guess is yes because you mentioned that filter error message. I suggest you give the wiki page another read.

What method did you use to connect to the printer, by command line or by browser? From the CUPS man page:

WHERE DO I BEGIN?
       The  easiest  way  to  start is by using the web interface to configure
       your printer. Go to "http://localhost:631" and choose  the  Administra‐
       tion  tab at the top of the page. Click/press on the Add Printer button
       and follow the prompts.

       When you are asked for a username and password, enter your login  user‐
       name and password or the "root" username and password.

I tried my username & password earlier and it failed. I had to shut down the browser, start over and use the "root" username and password to add a Canon MP190. It works fine with documents, but I can't print a web page as yet.

Canon printers, especially newer ones, aren't the most linux friendly printers. I don't know how old the MP280 is, but an online review is dated Aug, 2010 which makes me think it's been around long enough that the gutenprint driver should work.

You might try deleting the printer in the CUPS browser interface, and then add it again on the Administration page.

Edit: I went back to the page V1del referenced, https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=57855 and realized my post here violated a "don't do this" in my eagerness to help.

Responding
When someone posts something like the above, don't respond with a blind guess. Usually it'll just confuse the situation, instead just politely request more details. Don't post some solution that worked for you for something vaguely similar 2 years ago unless you are confident it is the same issue.

Apologies to the OP and to forum mods.

Last edited by Texbrew (2017-02-27 17:27:39)