How to install Canon MP150 printer?

Problems and successes with specific brands/models of printers
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nap44
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How to install Canon MP150 printer?

#1 Post by nap44 »

Hi All,
I'm trying to install my Canon MP150 printer.

I'm so totally confused now, after reading all I can find on the forums, I don't know what to do next. :(

I click on Add printer which takes me to the Cups page. There I'm presented by a driver ver rc2 and two files.
cups-rc2-source.tar.bz2 and the same file with extension .tar.gz

Which one do I use? Or am I in the wrong place entirely. Where do I download it to and then what do I do.

Printing ability is usually the first thing I try to set up, as you can then print out help pages when trying to solve any problems, but this seems to be the most difficult thing to do in Linux when it should be the simplest, IMHO.

I know I need a PPD file but how do I get it and then what.

If anyone could spare a little time to write elementary steps needed to install the printer, it would be very much appreciated. I know it's probably easy when you have done it a few times, but I can't even get past first base. :cry:

Sorry for the long winded dialogue but I'm really very frustrated now.

Thanks in advance,
Rick

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Lobster
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#2 Post by Lobster »

our printing page has been updated but is not as easy as could be
http://puppylinux.org/wikka/Printing

the manual only has this:
This is an easy one to get up and running. Just run "Menu | Setup | Printer Wizard" and the directions there should be sufficient to get most printers working. If your printer is not on the list that comes up try one that is similar for example if you have an superjet 23e try the superjet 23 or superjet 23f.
Puppy Raspup 8.2Final 8)
Puppy Links Page http://www.smokey01.com/bruceb/puppy.html :D

nap44
Posts: 108
Joined: Thu 09 Aug 2007, 01:52

#3 Post by nap44 »

Hi Lobster,
Thanks for your reply, but I'm afraid I'm now even more confused.

I've used the Cups Add Printer wizard as you suggest which asks me "Do you want to add a new printer", to which I answer Yes.

This then opens the Cups page and among the choices are "Manage Printers" or "Download the current Cups software".

I'm confused here for a start as I thought the Cups software was already installed as part of the Puppy linux. Maybe I'm wrong though.

If I select "manage printers", I'm led through a setup procedure to identify my printer and am presented with a list of printers.

My printer is not listed, so I back out of the setup and go back to the choice of "Download the current Cups software". There I get presented with the option of downloading 2 files. I don't know which one to pick, if indeed I even need these files if Cups is already installed as part of Puppy.

So that's where I'm at. I'm pretty sure I need a PPD file for my printer or the Guttenprint driver but I lost at this point.

Can you offer any further clarification.

Thanks again,
Rick


Lobster wrote:our printing page has been updated but is not as easy as could be
http://puppylinux.org/wikka/Printing

the manual only has this:
This is an easy one to get up and running. Just run "Menu | Setup | Printer Wizard" and the directions there should be sufficient to get most printers working. If your printer is not on the list that comes up try one that is similar for example if you have an superjet 23e try the superjet 23 or superjet 23f.

muggins
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Location: hobart

#4 Post by muggins »

which version of puppy are you using? (as the latest pup2.17 includes cups).

normally, if your printer isn't included in the list for the printer wizard, and a search of the forum for someone outlining getting your printer to work fails, the next place to look is:

http://openprinting.org/printer_list.cgi

your printer is listed here:

http://openprinting.org/show_printer.cg ... IXMA_MP150

however no .ppd file has been produced yet, but they recommend gutenprint, which apparently has a "multipass mp150" driver. this is apparently included in ubuntu, but i'm not sure if it's included in the latest puppy gutenprint.

http://www.canon-asia.com/ has a linux driver for the mp160, but not the mp150...i don't know whether the same driver would work for the mp150?

or you could try turboprint, http://www.turboprint.de/english.html , which has a driver for your printer. try downloading & installing the free driver to see if it works. (if your lucky it might print out without putting the turboprint logo all through your printout, but if it does, then you might consider forking out to buy a license.)

lastly, for scanning, you can download the sane backends & xsane using the puppy package manager, (listed in the menu), and see if they work with your multifunction printer. ( after you've installed them you need to open /etc/sane.d/dll.conf and make sure
pixma is uncommented. (i.e. remove # in front of pixma)

however, if sane doesn't work for you, the commandline pixma scanner driver, on the page below, is reported to work for mp150:

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 22&t=19153

muggins
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Location: hobart

#5 Post by muggins »

you can also check the openprinting canon forum:

http://forums.openprinting.org/list.php?25

nap44
Posts: 108
Joined: Thu 09 Aug 2007, 01:52

#6 Post by nap44 »

Hi Muggins,
Thanks for your comprehensive reply. I've managed to download a driver from the Canon site. It is for a MP160 Pixma. Mine is a MP150 but they seem to be almost identical (at least in looks) so I'll try this driver.

But again I'm stuck. The driver is called cnijfilter-mp160-2.70-1.i386.rpm

When I try to open it in Puppy 2.17, PupZip gives an error, which is "An error occured opening the rpm file. Suggestion: Install unrpm.pup DotPup package, which contains an alternative RPM extraction program, that PupZip will automatically use if present".

I can't find this package. When I open Puppy package manager, it refers me to a DotPup page but there is no unrpm.pup there.

So what do I do now. How do I extract the driver. I'm assuming I'll find a ppd file in it, but I'm not betting on it. Can you help any further. I just seem to be getting further into the mire. This is just painful!!! 2 steps forward and one back. :o

From what I see on the various sites, the printer only needs a file called canonmp160.ppd placed in the /usr/share/cups/model directory. I wonder why this and other drivers are just not placed on a site to be downloaded directly into the directory to be then recognised by cups. Or is this oversimplyfing it. :idea:

Cheers,
Rick

muggins
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Location: hobart

#7 Post by muggins »

download unrpmfull.pup from here:

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... ach&id=272

click to install it, then try opening the archive with pupzip again. ( if pupzip still doesn't open the archive, make a temporary directory, move the archive there, then on the commandline, (assuming you've called the temp directory /root/mp160):

Code: Select all

cd /root/mp160
unrpm *.rpm
)

then move all the extracted files to their proper locations, /usr/bin, /usr/lib etc

also, if you check the canon site again, you'll see that for the printer, mp160, there are 2 files required - the specific one for the mp160 & the common xxxx.rpm. both are needed to get the mp160 working, so i assume that would be the case for your 150. both needed to be extracted to the proper locations in /usr.

also, you need to create symlinks for all the files extracted to /usr/lib. i can't recall their names, but i think there's about 10-12 of them. e.g. if you've got one called libcanon.xxx.so.6.1 you need to symlink it to libcanon.xxx.so:

Code: Select all

ln -s /usr/lib/libcanon.xxx.so.6.1 /usr/lib/libcanon.xxx.so
(i'm using poetic license with the names here as it was awhile ago when i installed!)

once you've extracted the 2 files to the proper locations & created the symlinks, you're nearly there. then you need to download pakt's cups .pup from here(18Mbytes):

http://puppyfiles.org/dotpupsde/dotpups ... l-v0.3.pup

Before you install it, copy the mp160 .ppd file, which would have been in one of the rpm archives, to /root, then when you click on the cups .pup, it should pick up the .ppd file in /root.

then follow the directions to add the printer to the cups browser & set it as default.

then cross your fingers, turn 3 times widdershins while calling out nonac, nonac, nonac & it should work.

if all this effort is in vain, then send of an #@!#! email to canon support asking why they don't release linux drivers.

muggins
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Joined: Fri 20 Jan 2006, 10:44
Location: hobart

#8 Post by muggins »

actually i just re-read your posting & see you've got pup2.17. rather than doing all the malarkey i suggested above, you could try copying the .ppd file to /usr/share/cups/model , then start up the cups in a browser, (which i think is http://localhost:631), and see if, when you select "add printer", it gives you the option of the mp160 .ppd.

if not, then you might have to go through the aforesaid rigmarole.

nap44
Posts: 108
Joined: Thu 09 Aug 2007, 01:52

#9 Post by nap44 »

Hi Muggins,
Thanks for your valuable help. I've put it away tonight, so I'll try again tomorrow using your suggestions. It's exhausted me just getting to this point.
Thanks again. I'll get back to you with results.

Cheers for now,
Rick :)


muggins wrote:actually i just re-read your posting & see you've got pup2.17. rather than doing all the malarkey i suggested above, you could try copying the .ppd file to /usr/share/cups/model , then start up the cups in a browser, (which i think is http://localhost:631), and see if, when you select "add printer", it gives you the option of the mp160 .ppd.

if not, then you might have to go through the aforesaid rigmarole.

nap44
Posts: 108
Joined: Thu 09 Aug 2007, 01:52

#10 Post by nap44 »

Hi Muggins,
Just an update as promised, but finally I have to admit defeat. Still can't get my printer to go and I don't think it is worth any more effort having spent days on it now.

As much as I like Puppy, it is just too hard for my limited knowledge, having come from a windows environment. Good help has been available from the web but unfortunately, each suggestion leads onto another suggestion and another complication then another suggestion, then a steep learning curve which leads onto another suggestion which leads onto etc....... You get my drift.

And to absorb all this you really need to print out some of this stuff to read up on it which one can't do because the printer won't work. Talk about the chicken and the egg. It's all so confusing and to my mind a real pity, as it makes it quite difficult for one to swap from a windows environment.

My observations are that Linux per se is still in development and after perusing various web sites, most of the support seems to be in the form of try this or try that. But sometimes for the new user, it needs to be pointed out that to try this or that, clear directions like click menu then file system then etc....... with directions as to what happens when those choices are made. For instance, when I first started looking at linux as an alternative, I saw many references to "open console" or "open a terminal window" when as simple as it, I didn't have a clue what that meant. Simple once you have been shown.

I'll go back to Linux Mint which has a driver for my printer installed, which works and play around with that distro until I become more familiar with linux. Now if only I can get wine to work in Mint, I'll be happy.

Failing that, back to Windows XP. :cry:

Cheers and thanks again for your valued help,
Rick :)

nap44
Posts: 108
Joined: Thu 09 Aug 2007, 01:52

#11 Post by nap44 »

Hi All,
I just love the speed of puppy 2.17.1 and it's general intention.

For my purposes, I just needed a simple OS that could browse the net, print to my printer and, using Wine, run a few of my Windows packages.

Puppy seemed to be the best of all the linux distros.

However, in my case, trying to install my printer has been the most frustrating thing I have ever done in my life. I have, via windows, printed volumes of pages, read heaps of postings on the forums and still cannot get my printer to work. With each step I follow, it leads to another complication, like wrong file type or can't open or I need something else or just read this link (which further confuses) etc .......... and so it goes on. This comment also applies to other distros, except maybe Ubuntu which had a CUPS printer driver already loaded and was the only one that I could get to print.

Attempting to install Wine has been just as frustrating.

A lot of the help procedures describe, for example ... just download to your home directory or use Alien to unpack or put in this directory /usr/share etc etc, but if you don't know where these are, or how to get to them, or what to do once they are there, you get more and more confused ....well I do. It seems I'm not alone as I see very similar comments in the forums, particularly with regards Wine and printing. These would be the most useful installs for users coming from windows.

I just have to admit that (imho), the whole linux thing is so terribly unrefined from a newbies point of view, that I'm ditching any hope of using it and returning to windows before I get another ulcer. I think this confusion betrays the good work done by so many helpful people, but at the end of the day you just want to scream!!!

Maybe I'll return to linux at some future time, but for now it's back to windows, unfortunately. :cry:

Cheers to all and thanks for prior help.

Rick

muggins
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Location: hobart

#12 Post by muggins »

sorry things weren't easy to resolve, but the blame lies not with linux, or puppy, but with canon for not releasing easy to use drivers. so, don't forget:
if all this effort is in vain, then send of an #@!#! email to canon support asking why they don't release linux drivers.

nap44
Posts: 108
Joined: Thu 09 Aug 2007, 01:52

#13 Post by nap44 »

Hi Muggins,

I'll have a wee break to get my breath. I'm just reluctant to abandoned Linux. I can see good things but I need to be productive with it and the two things I need, ie printing and wine have proven to be difficult in the extreme. It's just a major learning curve after being spoilt with windows. I understand the linux driver issue and believe me, I'm pushing for linux drivers whenever possible.

Puppy seems to have Cups already and I've downloaded umpteen copies of drivers. Canon-Asia have a driver for my printer (MP150) and I have downloaded that several times as well as the gutenprint generic one. But I get lost as to what to do with them. Forum help will explain one way, citing various versions and the host site will offer an alternative, which appears to be different to me.

So coupled with my struggles in learning linux, I must have several copies spread around my installation, none of which work. Even copying files from one place to another gets me confused. The copy wants to copy onto itself so I must be doing something fundamentally wrong. I get error messages or popup boxes which describe things in terminology I don't understand. I downloaded one driver package in rpm format, whatever that is, but can't open in Puppy. Needs another pack called unrpm. So downloaded that. Don't know how to unravel it or where to put it. It's in a .pup format. I tried, but just get cryptic messages or none at all. Same story with wine.

Perhaps, if you were willing, you may be kind enough to walk me through each step. I'll try one thing at a time and report back with any problems before doing the next.

I think that's the only way I'll ever get this resolved. These baby steps might help me to understand how linux works and overcome some of my problems. I'm feeling embarassingly dumb :oops: at the moment as I can quite happily find my way around windows but get stumped in linux. Maybe $s have finally got to my head!

Come back if you would have the time and patience to help me further. I would appreciate it if you could but understand if your time is limited.

Cheers,
Rick :(

muggins wrote:sorry things weren't easy to resolve, but the blame lies not with linux, or puppy, but with canon for not releasing easy to use drivers. so, don't forget:
if all this effort is in vain, then send of an #@!#! email to canon support asking why they don't release linux drivers.

muggins
Posts: 6724
Joined: Fri 20 Jan 2006, 10:44
Location: hobart

#14 Post by muggins »

hi nap44,

you mention that:
Canon-Asia have a driver for my printer (MP150)
where is the link for this driver, or what is the name of the package you downloaded it in? if it's available i can have a look & see how easy it would be to install. in the meantime, have you downloaded & tried the free turboprint?

nap44
Posts: 108
Joined: Thu 09 Aug 2007, 01:52

#15 Post by nap44 »

Hi muggins,
My mistake. The Canon drivers are for Windows only. Thought I had won the jackpot!

Re Turboprint. I just downloaded the driver. Tried installing the deb file according to the TurboPrint install instructions by typing into the terminal but got an error message "can't stat /etc/sudoers: no such file or directory". See what I mean about newbie difficulties. What does this mean. Stuck here!!!

Anyway, used the tgz file which I also downloaded and it extracted ok into a folder called TurboPrint, which surprised me as I thought it would install all files into the directory the tgz file was in. But it created it's own directory. This was the surprise.

I've managed to install this and printed a test page but it has a major watermark across the page making it unusable. So partial success.

Now if you could lead me through the Cups setup step by step, I would appreciate it very much. Otherwise I may buy the turboprint driver if no success.

Cheers,
Rick

muggins wrote:hi nap44,

you mention that:
Canon-Asia have a driver for my printer (MP150)
where is the link for this driver, or what is the name of the package you downloaded it in? if it's available i can have a look & see how easy it would be to install. in the meantime, have you downloaded & tried the free turboprint?

muggins
Posts: 6724
Joined: Fri 20 Jan 2006, 10:44
Location: hobart

#16 Post by muggins »

i had another look, and saw this post in ubuntu forums:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=3000925

one post says that the driver for the Canon iP1500 works, but there's someone has also posted stp-bjc-MULTIPASS-MP150.5.1.ppd.gz, which i've attached.

so probably the easiest thing to try is to download the stp-bjc-MULTIPASS-MP150.5.1.ppd.gz to /root, then extract it in /root directory, then go here & dload the cups .pup:

http://puppyfiles.org/dotpupsde/dotpups ... l-v0.3.pup

install cups, and it will detect the .ppd file in /root directory. then when the installation has finished, a window will pop up, and you need to follow the instructions on how to add a printer, and select stp-bjc-MULTIPASS-MP150.5.1.ppd as the driver.

this is only for the printer functionality of your device, any scanner function will have to wait for another day. if this doesn't work, then i'd estimate that your options are, (in terms of easyness):

1) buy turboprint license
2) try using the Canon iP1500 driver
3) try using the Canon mp160 driver
4) do _______. (i'll let you fill in the blanks here).
Attachments
stp-bjc-MULTIPASS-MP150.5.1.ppd.gz
(12.15 KiB) Downloaded 1503 times

nap44
Posts: 108
Joined: Thu 09 Aug 2007, 01:52

#17 Post by nap44 »

Hi muggins,
Some success. I thought I was going mad. Knew I saw it somewhere!

Found a printer driver AND scanner driver from Canon. See link below.
MP160 Scanner Driver Ver 1.00(Linux)
MP160 Printer Driver Ver 2.70(Linux)

But the linux driver is for a Pixma MP160 printer. I have both a MP150 and a MP160 and they seem to be identical both physically and probably software wise. The 160 superceded the 150 model and I can't tell them apart except for a different case colour. The 160 is slightly darker.

So with that in mind, I expect the linux MP160 driver to work perfectly on the 150. I have downloaded all the drivers listed on the site. There are two files for the printer and the scanner. One is a common package and the other just says "package for MP160.

The files are in RPM format.
This is where I'm up to now. Don't know how to convert or unzip or what!
Think I need unrpm?? to convert but I don't even know how to get it in Puppy and what to do next.

Now I'm excited!! :D

Could you help, please. :(
Cheers,
Rick

Link
http://www.canon-asia.com/index.jsp?fus ... country=SG

muggins wrote:hi nap44,

you mention that:
Canon-Asia have a driver for my printer (MP150)
where is the link for this driver, or what is the name of the package you downloaded it in? if it's available i can have a look & see how easy it would be to install. in the meantime, have you downloaded & tried the free turboprint?

muggins
Posts: 6724
Joined: Fri 20 Jan 2006, 10:44
Location: hobart

#18 Post by muggins »

i'll just cover the printer.rpm's as the procedure is the same for the scanner, (plus i still haven't gotten the neighbour's mp160 to work with xsane anyway!).these are the steps you need to follow for printer:

1) dload & install unrpm-full from here:
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... ach&id=272

2) create a temporary directory, say /root/cnij

Code: Select all

mkdir /root/cnij
3) if you click on the respective .rpm files. they should open with pupzip, then choose to extract their contents to /root/cnij

(if they don't extract with pupzip, you'll need to move them to /root/cnij, then do:

Code: Select all

cd /root/cnij
unrpm cnijfilter-c*.rpm
unrpm cnijfilter-m*.rpm
4) then you need to use roxfiler to open directory /root/cnij/usr/lib directory, then you need to manually select each of the 6 libcnbxxxx files, right click them, select "link", and create a relative link by removing everything after the libcnbxxx.so eg on the commandline, the first one would be:

Code: Select all

ln -s libcnbpcmcm291.so.6.50.1 libcnbpcmcm291.so
(somebody more knowledgeable about bash scripting could probably provide an easy way of doing this?)

5) copy everything to their real location:

Code: Select all

cd /root/cnij
cp ./usr/* /usr
cp ./usr/share/cups/model/*.ppd /root
6) dload & install the cups .pup from here:

http://puppyfiles.org/dotpupsde/dotpups ... l-v0.3.pup

this should recognise the .ppd file in /root, then pop-up a message explaining how to use cups to install the printer, using that .ppd file.

the above procedure would need to be followed for the scanner as well but, as i've mentioned, i haven't been able to get the gui xsane to recognise my neighbour's mp160 scanner. but the commandline program i mentioned on the first page does work, so would probably work with your mp150 as well.

nap44
Posts: 108
Joined: Thu 09 Aug 2007, 01:52

#19 Post by nap44 »

Hi Muggins,
Thanks for your reply but where do I install unrpm to?

I clicked on it and it opened up a window in XArchive. I extracted them to /root. Is this correct?

I then created the /root/cnij directory as you suggested.

Then copied rpm files into this directory and clicked on it.
An error has occurred opening rpm files. Suggestion install unrpm.pup dotpup package!!!!!!!!!!! Why isn't it installed?

So I typed this code as you suggested
cd /root/cnij
unrpm cnijfilter-mp160-2[1].70-1.i386.rpm
(this is my rpm filename)
Returned 10646 blocks

This is where I'm up to:-
In /root/cnij/usr/lib, I can see the 6 files you referred to but I'm confused.
The files are:-
libcnbpcmcm291.so.6.50.1
libcnbpcnclapi291.so.3.3.0
libcnbpccclbjcmd291.so.3.3.0
libcnbpcnclui291.so.3.3.0
libcnbppess291.so.3.0.9
libcnbpo291.so.1.0.4
You say remove everything after the libcnbxxx.so but on your example command line reference you have ln -s libcnbpcmcm291.so.6.50.1 libcnbpcmcm291.so

If I remove everything after libcnb don't I end up with libcnb.so???
I don't understand what to do here with each of the 6 files. What should they look like?

You then say in 5, copy everything to their real location:
Copy what?
Where did the ppd file suddenly spring from as referred to in the code?

Finally you say download and install CUPS. Puppy 2.17.1 already has CUPS installed, so do I need to do this.

Can you clarify my queries.
Thanks,
Rick

muggins
Posts: 6724
Joined: Fri 20 Jan 2006, 10:44
Location: hobart

#20 Post by muggins »

if unrpm works on the commandline, then it's installed...even though pupzip might not be aware of it.

you should have two files to unrpm for the printer, the common one & the one specifically for the mp160. you need to unrpm them both in the same directory.

when i say "remove" everything after the ".so", i mean when you right click on the original six files in /root/cnij/usr/lib & select "link..." . A box will open up & you need to move the cursor to just after ".so", delete the end bits, then press enter. so you should end up with 12 files, the 6 originals & 6 symlinked pointing to the originals.

actually there's a mistake in the copying part. it should be:

Code: Select all

cd /root/cnij
cp -rf ./usr/* /usr
cp ./usr/share/cups/model/*.ppd /root
if you do all the above, then dload & install the cups .pup, you should be close to printing out something...(that's if mp160 .ppd works with your printer!) i'm sure there's a way of getting cups to use an already existing .ppd file, but unfortunately i don't know how. so it's easier to use pakt's cups .pup which will "grab" the .ppd file from /root.( pakt & rarsa deserve honorary cups doctorates for plumbing the depths of the labyrinthal cups!). if you have an alternative method, please use.

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