Canon MG5422 Linux setup

I created this page so I did not have to look up how to setup Canon Pixma MG5422 and similar Canon printers under Ubuntu and Mint Linux (I am running Mint KDE 17, same installed worked when I was using version 16).

Some of the information I took from a post on a Ubuntu Forum, but had found it on another the first time I had to re-install the Printer drivers.

While the default Cups reads the ink level, nothing will print. You must install the libtiff4, and follow the install.sh in the Cannon driver directory.

For the Multi function printers, to be able to scan, you need to download Scan Gear software. Which I added a download link below. I only found GIMP to see this software. In GIMP file create and scan gear option should be displayed after installing it. Also will ask you to scan for printer.

I have the printer setup for wireless operation, print and scan works once driver are installed. This printer will do two sided, not supported by the driver that work, vs. the CUPS drives shows the option but does not work or print.

When printing you will need to select the name of the printer was given by the cannon install, not the cups name.

1) Install libtiff4 from here

1a) I'm on amd64, which clashed with an already installed libtiff4:i386, which I removed:

sudo apt-get remove libtiff4:i386 

then,

sudo dpkg -i libtiff4_3.9.7-2ubuntu1_amd64.deb 

[I didn't bother checking to see what depended on libtiff4:i386 on my system, so do this at your own risk. I was feeling brave/reckless]

2) Installed the canon driver from here, and executed install.sh

It is disappointing that there hasn't been an update to this driver since 2012.

Printer options for the official driver are scarce but the quality is fairly decent. I couldn't get the default CUPS+Gutenprint v5.2.10-pre2 driver to work at all. However, I have kept it installed as it does show the ink level, which is handy.