Canon printer drivers

It is a known phenomenon among Linux users, the poor support of Canon products. Yet there is a possibility for Canon products to get them function under Linux. There are websites where suitable drivers for Canon products can be found.

Note: Not all Canon products have suitable Linux drivers.

This page is intended to make the search for suitable drivers for Canon products easier. Before installing the drivers always have read the manual or readme file which comes with the driver. Otherwise, go to the Canon printer drivers site for a manual or instruction.

On the following two websites there can be searched for suitable Canon drivers:

• European Canon support site

• Australian Canon support site

It may be that on one site the (correct) driver(s) cannot be found, while still can be found on the other support site. Please check both sites.

It is necessary to determine whether the offered driver is not offered in another format other than the .deb format that works with Ubuntu. always choose the proper Ubuntu driver whose extension ends with .deb. It is possible that the needed .deb files are zipped an a so called tarball. After downloading such tarball right click on the file and choose unpack here. The tarball will be unpacked. The drivers for the Canon product can be installed by double-clicking on .deb file. Please note that the common driver is installed first before the actual driver needs to be installed!

It is also possible that extra files (dependencies) needs to be downloaded and installed before the driver get installed properly. The apt-get application will show which files (dependencies) are missing.

If the installation of the drivers fails, then there is another method to add the printer in Ubuntu. To try this method, open Firefox (or another web browser) and type in the navigation bar: http://localhost:631/. This will open the Cups Administration System. With this tool it can be attempted to install the printer under Ubuntu.

Updating and Downloading Other Device Drivers

The process for keeping other device drivers updated range between techniques that involve either using Device Manager or downloading updates directly from vendor websites.