Canon MG5550 and Ubuntu 12.04

Questions on certain printers and applications
Post Reply
Dipper
Posts: 3
Joined: Sat May 10, 2014 3:11 pm

Canon MG5550 and Ubuntu 12.04

Post by Dipper »

I'm completely new to Ubuntu and I am struggling to get my computer to print using my Canon MG5550. I'm currently using the trial version of Turboprint.

I have managed to print photos and documents perfectly but at other times the TurboPrint printer monitor says 'Printer not responding'. It's difficult to work out under what circumstances the printer won't respond. I think that if I turn the computer on before the printer it doesn't print but if the printer is turned on before the computer it does print. It also doesn't seem to want to print more than one item. If I shut the computer down and restart it, I can print one more page.

Any help would be appreciated but remember that I know virtually nothing about Ubuntu so please keep any instructions very simple.

Thanks in anticipation of your help.

Edit: If I shut the computer down when the 'printer not responding' message is there, as long as I don't cancel the printing job, the document prints automatically after the computer has been restarted. I don't need to do anything. It then lets me print one more page.
zedonet
Site Admin
Posts: 2156
Joined: Fri Oct 06, 2006 8:02 am

Re: Canon MG5550 and Ubuntu 12.04

Post by zedonet »

Hello,

is the printer connected by USB cable or via WLAN / network cable?

In case of USB, this could be a known problem with unreliable printing because of wrong USB settings - please try the following:

1. Make sure that the "TP-USB" Backend has been chosen in TurboPrint Control Center. Open TurboPrint Control and check if the column "URI" starts with "tpu..." and not with "usb...". If it starts with "usb...", click on "Edit" and choose the port entry "Canon MG5550 ... TP-USB" and click on "OK" to save the configuration.

2. If you still have printing problems, try the following (only if you have some experiences with a text editor and altering system files as superuser):
Edit the file

/etc/turboprint/system.cfg

and add the line "USB_MODE=0". In case this line was already present (e.g. USB_MODE=1) just alter it.
Dipper
Posts: 3
Joined: Sat May 10, 2014 3:11 pm

Re: Canon MG5550 and Ubuntu 12.04

Post by Dipper »

Thanks for that advice. It's connect wirelessly via my router which is next to the printer. The URI begins with "dnssd".

I have managed to make some progress by fiddling with the 'Start/stop job', 'Idle' and Accept jobs' buttons but I can't work out any pattern to it. I can now get it to print even if the printer is switched on after the computer but again it's very random. I left one document for about half an hour after it failed to print and when I returned to the TurboPrint Monitor screen and stopped and restarted the job it worked.
zedonet
Site Admin
Posts: 2156
Joined: Fri Oct 06, 2006 8:02 am

Re: Canon MG5550 and Ubuntu 12.04

Post by zedonet »

Thank you for the information.

You could try two things:

1) attach the printer via USB and try if printing works reliably.

2) change the network protocol from "dnssd" to "bjnp":

First make sure that the printer is properly logged in to the WiFi network and find out the printer's IP address in the printer's setup menu -> network settings. Then open TurboPrint Control and open the "edit printer" dialog. The connection should be set to "Canon MG5500series - BJNP". On some Linux distributions the printer will automatically be detected, on others you must set it up manually with the settings

Connection type="Other"
URI = "bjnp://<ip-address>"

(replace <ip-address> by the actual ip address)
Dipper
Posts: 3
Joined: Sat May 10, 2014 3:11 pm

Re: Canon MG5550 and Ubuntu 12.04

Post by Dipper »

First of all, thank you for your very clear instructions. It's much appreciated.

When I went to change the URI the printer was shown as 'standard printer'. I selected 'other printer' then followed your instructions. I have just printed out 10 jobs (single pages) in a row. There was a slight delay between jobs as TurboPrint Monitor said my IP address was busy but only about 5 - 10 seconds each time. I'll keep trying various other print jobs and see what happens. If I have any problems, I'll come back here.

Once again, thank you very much for your advice. If printing becomes reliable, I will purchase a licence key.

Incidentally, both the computer and printer are only a week old. My old printer broke and my XP computer became so slow it almost stopped. That's why I'm new to Ubuntu.
Post Reply