80 lines
3.7 KiB
Markdown
80 lines
3.7 KiB
Markdown
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date = '2025-04-16T23:26:33+01:00'
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draft = true
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title = 'Getting the Canon PIXMA TR4755i to Work on Linux'
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tags = ['linux', 'uk']
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# Introduction
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For those of you who don't know, Student Finance England provide free printers to more or less all disabled students
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via their Disabled Students' Allowance (DSA) funding. The printer they provide is a Canon PIXMA TR4755i (or at least,
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it was for me).
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Printers are known for being rather unreliable pieces of technology, particularly on Linux (although, historically,
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I've honestly found printers to work much more reliably and without need for troubleshooting on Linux than Windows).
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So I was quite concerned when the government sent me a free printer, that I would not be able to use it. Luckily, after
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a few short hours of wrangling things, I managed to get it working via USB (I've not tried network printing, but will
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update this post once I do). I wanted to make this post to save people time if you are also a disabled student, or
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happen to have this model of printer for another reason.
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# Guide
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## Install CUPS
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Firstly, install CUPS and run the CUPS daemon. The commands for this will depend on your distro and how you are
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managing services/daemons, so I will leave this to you to figure out. Your distro's wiki or forums should have info on
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how to set up CUPS.
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## Install the Canon InkJet Printer Driver for Linux
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Then you will need to install the Canon InkJet Printer Driver for Linux. Depending on how this is installed, you will
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connect to the printer in two different ways.
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### Without a package manager (RPM or DEB)
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Canon have Linux driver downloads [here][canon_linux_driver_download]. They provide downloads for systems using .debs
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and systems using .rpms.
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For setup, you should ideally refer to Canon's own manual, which is provided as a tarball [here][canon_manual].
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However, as this is not the most accessible format, I'll provide the current version of instructions here on my blog:
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Firstly extract the tarball downloaded from Canon's website, and change directory into the newly expanded directory.
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$ tar xzvf cnijfilter2-versionNumberHere-rpmOrDeb.tar.gz
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$ cd cnijfilter2-versionNumberHere
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Canon provide an install shell script which will walk you through setup:
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# ./install.sh
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When installation is complete, you should be walked through registering the printer. Afterwards, the printer should be
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recognised by CUPS, and you can use any system print dialogues to print to the printer.
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### Via the AUR
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The AUR provides a `cnijfilter2` package. Installing this package provides the `cnijlgmon3` utility, which you should
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run as root:
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# cnijlgmon3
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The output should say something like:
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direct cnijbe2://Canon/?port=usb&serial=60-12-81-A7-7D-34 "Canon TR4700 series" "USB Printer #1 with status readback for Canon IJ"
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direct cnijbe2://Canon/?port=usb&serial=60-12-81-A7-7D-34 "Canon TR4700 series FAX" "USB Printer #2 with status readback for Canon IJ"
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Copy and paste the URL starting with `cnijbe2://Canon/` into the following shell command:
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# lpadmin -p PrinterNameHere -p /usr/share/cups/model/canontr4700.ppd -v "URLhere" -E
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`PrinterNameHere` can be whatever you want; it's just how the printer will be named in any print dialogues.
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The `.ppd` file should have been provided by `cnijfilter2`.
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Replace `URLhere` with the URL you copied above, from the `cnijlgmon3` output.
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Afterwards, this printer should have been added to CUPS, and you can print to the printer using any system print dialogues.
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[canon_linux_driver_download]: https://www.canon.co.uk/support/consumer/products/printers/pixma/tr-series/pixma-tr4755i.html?type=drivers&os=all
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[canon_manual]: https://www.canon-europe.com/supportproduct/tabcontent/?type=manuals&detailId=tcm:13-1641056&productTcmUri=tcm:13-2320166
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