Canon Pixma Printer Driver

[Sigurd]

Hello,
Why are still all the Canon Pixma Printer Driver missing in Kubuntu 20.10? In Kubuntu 19.10 all drivers were available. In Kubuntu 20.04 no driver and in Kubuntu 20.10 too. And the general driver it offers does not work at all. For people who simple use the computer this is fatal.
I mean Canon today does no longer ignore Linux and other OS. There is a Debian-package for my printer/scanner Canon Pixma MP 5750. And QApt installs it easily.
Kind regards,
Sigurd

[claydoh]

you have to ask the Ubuntu folks why they switched to the generic 'driverless' driver, or whatever it is they did. this unfortunately is not something kubuntu has any control or say in.
As for non-free drivers manually downloaded, those probably can't be distributed by distros much like the Nvidia drivers technically are not supposed to be, by their own licensing rules andrestrictions

[Sigurd]

Hello Claydoh,
I use this printer/scanner since many years. At the beginning Canon had only driver for Windows and Apple. Later step by step people volutarily programmed driver even for my printer/scanner too. And these drivers were implemented in Kubuntu too until Kubuntu 19.10. Since Kubuntu 20.04 these drivers are missing. Why? They are not the property of Canon.
Kind regards,
Sigurd

[claydoh]

I do not know, and have not found out why as of yet.
it is still something that Ubuntu has done. and is 100% out of Kubuntu's control, or scope as they don't touch anything in Ubuntu outside of Plasma and KDE.

[Sigurd]

Hello Claydoh,
Okay, I understand. Thank you for the conversation.
All the best and stay healthy,
Sigurd

[claydoh]

They seem to have a preference for printers to use the ippusbxd driver, which makes USB connected printers run as networked ones, which is a driver-less method, and (in theory?) supports a very wide range of printers out of the box automagically. Being from Debian, this is of course already outdated by a more modern and supposedly much better implementation called ipp-usb, but of course Ubuntu will see this sometime in the next decade or so, as they seem to do less of their own stuff these days (imo)

Some things to try for those who come across this thread:

Some report that uninstalling the ippusbxd package allows them to select a 'normal' driver when their printer is not working, some install a manufacturer-provided closed-source driver.
Others report that instead of setting up the printer as a USB connected one, to look at the network printer section when adding a printer, and seeing if the device is detected there, and select that instead of the USB connection. Bass-akwards from what one would expect, to be sure.

I'd test this on my $35 Pixma, but I don't have a USB printer cable handy, and wireless printing simply Just Works.

[Domenico]

Hello,
Why are still all the Canon Pixma Printer Driver missing in Kubuntu 20.10? In Kubuntu 19.10 all drivers were available. In Kubuntu 20.04 no driver and in Kubuntu 20.10 too. And the general driver it offers does not work at all. For people who simple use the computer this is fatal.
I mean Canon today does no longer ignore Linux and other OS. There is a Debian-package for my printer/scanner Canon Pixma MP 5750. And QApt installs it easily.
Kind regards,
Sigurd

Hello Sigurd,

post is old and maybe you've already found the solution. However, I realised one just needs to install

sudo apt install cups-backend-bjnp

to get the pixma drivers.

Have a nice day,

[Sigurd]

Hello Domenico,
thank you for your advice. A little bit after my post the Canon printer showed a message. I should give the printer to the service because the the ink bowl is full. Have you ever seen such a bowl in a printer? It is a simple flat jar above open. The water in the ink will immediatelly evaporate. Only the very small ink particles are left. Such a bowl cannot get full. This message is only to get money from a user of a Canon printer by getting it to the service or by buying a new printer. It is a programed termination date of a printer.

And with the problems I had with Kubuntu I bought a new printer/scanner from Epson. Now I have no problems any more. Until the programed termination date will appear.
Kind regards, Sigurd