Linux @lemmy.world buffy @lemmy.world 5 mo. ago

Official printer drivers not available for Linux, but printer is supported by third party software on Linux. Suggestions?

I recently bought a used Canon Pixma Pro 100 and I was trying to get it to run on Linux, given that it's the only computer OS I've been using since forever.

From what I've seen, there are no official drivers for the printer and gutenprint doesn't support it. There is an alternative, called Turboprint, which is a paid proprietary software for Linux that seems to fully support the printer.

Well, I would never settle for a proprietary software solution, even though I wouldn't mind the least paying for software if it was FOSS.

A solution is clearly within reach, since others have done it. I am just wondering how hard it would be, and what would be the steps that I could take to come up with a solution. I've done some reverse engineering before, so I know it can range from straightforward to arduous and time consuming. I wonder if this would be too complicated and if I would be better off setting up a QEMU Windows virtual machine with the drivers (that is what I've tried and it works well) while I work on finding a proper solution. I'm now trying to extract the useful part of the MacOS drivers and see if it would work using CUPS. (this part was edited from the original post to address an originally inconsistent phrasing).

I would really appreciate if you could help me with this!

Below I have some further context, some background and references:

1- A post on the Canon community forum says that:

Unfortunately the "Pro" series of printers aren't supported, but if you don't mind paying a little money then check out Turboprint for Linux.

2- The printer doesn't seem to be supported by generic drivers, according to an Arch forum user

3- Another Linux Mint Forums user confirms that it doesn't work on Linux and suggests a printer driver wrapper

4- Dpreview users unanimously say the solution is either Turboprint or Windows VM, according to this post and this other post

5- A printerknowledge user links a post that seems to contain instructions on how to get the printer working on Linux, but it appears to be a dead link

Update 1: I found this link on stack exchange explaining how to extract ppd from dmg MacOS images. I extracted the ppd file and all the resources from the official MacOS driver provided by Canon. Now I need to replace MacOS-specific paths to something valid on Linux. There are three or so entries that I need to configure. I will update this post as I make some progress on adapting the drivers to Linux.

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13 comments

Just to make sure: you tried with CUPS / gutenprint both with the Generic PCL and the Generic Postscript drivers? A fair portion of "unsupported" printers I've seen usually accept at least one of them, in particular if the printer also supports "discoverable printing" (eg.: sending to the printer from a phone).
- Thanks for the recommendation! I tried both, but sadly it didn't work.
  
  I could extract the ppd file from the MacOS driver, but I still need to substitute some OS specific paths that lead to executable files and icc profiles, like *cupsFilter: "application/vnd.cups-raster 0 /Library/Printers/Canon/BJPrinter/Filters/Raster2CanonIJ/Raster2CanonIJS.bundle/Contents/MacOS/Raster2CanonIJS". Not that many, just two or three. I will most likely try to install the drivers on a MacOS VM and see if I can extract those files and place them in a Linux-specific cups directory (/usr/lib/cups or something). I think so far the odds are even.
  
  Update: It looks like I have all the binary files with me. Raster2CanonIJS, Command2CanonIJ, the ICC profiles and whatnot. I'm now looking for some guidance on where I should place those files on Linux, that would belong in /Library/Printers/Canon/..., etc. on MacOS.
  
  Not sure exactly what files do you have but at least on my system:
  
  ppd files can be found in /usr/share/ppd/cupsfilters if you want them grabbe dby Cups.
  
  icc profile files can be found in an adequate directory within /usr/share/color/icc. Which directory I guess depends on what and who is managing those files.
  
  paper definition files (size, margins, etc) go into /usr/share/gutenprint in a directory within usually with the name papers (note the plural).
  
  Now, all this gets me is where to place the files. I wouldn't know exactly how to register to eg.: Cups that those files are there other than using Cups's own web interface to add drivers.
  
  Thanks! I didn't have the icc profiles correctly set, which might be one of the problems with my setup.
  
  I was initially having issues with the Raster2CanonIJS and Command2CanonIJ binaries (that I copied to /usr/lib/cups/filter): cups was raising some errors when executing the scripts. But after fixing those, I wouldn't get any further errors or warnings, although the printer would simply be unresponsive while the job was set as "completed". I will check if the problem was the lack of icc profiles under /usr/share/color/icc.

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