Canon Printer Pixma iP4300

Installation with Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn

Introduction:

This guide is an update based on the installation guide for the Canon Pixma iP4200 printer that is on the official Ubuntu help pages at: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HardwareSupportComponentsPrinters/CanonPrinters/CanonPixmaIP4200#preview

The guide like that is based on does not work for AMD64 because Canon's drivers are for 32 bit only.

Main changes:

1.   allow for the download of the iP4300 drivers from:
   http://www.canon.com.au/products/printers/colour_bj_printers/ip4300_support.aspx

2.    Code changes to allow for the iP4300 drivers rather than the iP4200

3.    The omission of Step 4 in the iP4200 guide as the downloaded files are in an rpm format already.

4.    The addition of a -c option in the code in the new step 4 which has been found necessary for success.

Preliminary:

Requirements:

1. You need a working installation of Ubuntu and a connected Canon Pixma iP4300 printer. This is best connected directly to the Ubuntu pc until you are competent with the with the install. Then with a minor variation the procedure will work with a networked printer connected to another pc.

2. Entering Code via the terminal. To open the terminal click on "Applications" on the top left of your screen, select "Accessories" and then "Terminal"

to give you:

To enter the code in this terminal window it is best copy and pasted direct from the guide so as to avoid typing errors in the code.

Installation:

1. Connect your printer, start Ubuntu, open this guide in a Firefox window and open a Terminal window as above.

2. Install the needed packages: alien, libxml1, libpng12-0, libpng12-dev, libgtk1.2 and libgtk1.2-common by copying the code below and then paste into your Terminal window.

Copy the code from this guide and paste it into your Terminal window. Tip: Copying & Pasting:

Code:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install alien libxml1 libpng12-0 libpng12-dev libgtk1.2 libgtk1.2-common

Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex

In Ubuntu 8.10 where libxml1 has been replaced with libxml2 instead of the above code use the following:

Code:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install alien libxml2 libpng12-0 libpng12-dev libgtk1.2 libgtk1.2-common

After copying and pasting the code press "Enter". This will bring up a prompt asking for your password. Type in your password and press "Enter". Note when you are typing in your password nothing extra will show on screen. This is normal in Terminal for your password.

3. Download the drivers for your printer from Canon. For the purposes of this howto, we will assume that the files are saved to the directory /home/yourname/canon. In my case they need to be in /home/rob/canon.

Download from: http://www.canon.com.au/products/printers/colour_bj_printers/ip4300_support.aspx
Select "Driver Downloads" and then "iP4300 Printer Driver Ver. 2.70 (Linux).

In the Popup Window is a long licence agreement and the files are st the bottom of the page. The files needed for download are: cnijfilter-common-2.70-1.i386.rpm and cnijfilter-ip4300-2.70-1.i386.rpm.

You may also if you wish download one of the Operation Guide files.

Unless you have changed the download options for Firefox the 2 files will probably be on your Desktop.

To move them from there first go to Places/Home Folder:

when the File Browser window opens click on File/Create Folder. This will create an "untitled folder" in the browser window. Type in its name "canon". Note: no CAPITALS and no quote marks (").

Now double click the "Desktop" icon, click on the first of the 2 downloaded files to select it and then while holding down the "Shift" key click on the second to select it as well. Then Edit/Cut to remove them from this location.

Click on the Up arrow

to get back to your Home Folder. then double click on the icon for the "canon" folder. When it opens go to the Edit/Paste menu to paste the 2 files into this folder.

4. Convert the RPM packages to Debian packages:

This is done in the Terminal window.

First change to the canon folder where we put the downloaded files. Copy and paste this code into your terminal window and press "Enter"

Code:

cd canon

To make sure you are in the correct folder enter this code:

Code:

dir

You should then see:

cnijfilter-common-2.70-1.i386.rpm cnijfilter-ip4300-2.70-1.i386.rpm

To do the conversion from rpm files to deb files copy and paste this code into your terminal and press "Enter". If necessary re-enter your password.

Code:

sudo alien -c cnijfilter-common-2.70-1.i386.rpm cnijfilter-ip4300-2.70-1.i386.rpm

In your File Browser window you should now see 2 new files in the "canon" folder. They are:

cnijfilter-common_2.70-2_i386.deb
cnijfilter-ip4300_2.70-2_i386.deb

5. Install the Packages:

In Terminal enter this code:

Code:

sudo dpkg -i *.deb

6. Make sure the library links are correct by entering this code in Terminal:

Code:

sudo ln -s /usr/lib/libtiff.so.4 /usr/lib/libtiff.so.3

Then this:

Code:

sudo ln -s /usr/lib/libpng.so /usr/lib/libpng.so.3

and this:
Code:

sudo ln -s /usr/lib/libxml2.so.2 /usr/lib/libxml.so.1

and this:
Code:

sudo ldconfig

7. Restart CUPS (Common Unix Printing System)

with this code in terminal:

Code:

sudo /etc/init.d/cupsys restart

8. Add New Printer:

There is a graphical user interface for this. Go to the menu System/Administration/Printing:

and it brings up:

Double click to "New Printer" icon:

and accept Canon iP4300 (canon iP4300 USB#1) or whatever connection your printer comes up as connected to.
Click "Forward".

Under Manufacturer select "Canon" and click on "Install driver"

In the window that follows you have to navigate to /usr/share/cups/model/ where you should find canonip4300.ppd

To do this double click on "File System" and in th righthand window scroll down to "usr"

double click "usr"

Double click "share", in the next window scroll down to "cups", double click it, then scroll down to "model" and double click it to get:

Click canonip4300.ppd and "Open".

In the window that follows scroll down until you find iP 4300 Ver.2.70, select it and click forward.

Give the printer a name and a location that has a meaning for you and click "Apply".

You will need to set the paper size and should now be able to print a test page.

If you now go to System/Administration/Printing, right click the printer and select "Make Default".

Open firefox and set the paper size the same as you set in the printer properties. If you don't the system gets confused and print jobs are "stopped".

Advanced Features

Unfortunately, the installed PPD file doesn't allow you to select the printing quality. To fix this, back up your ppd file, then open it as root:

Code:

gksudo gedit /etc/cups/ppd/iP4300-Ver.2.70.ppd

Insert these lines in the file after the "Resolution" section:

*OpenUI *CNQuality/Quality: PickOne
*DefaultCNQuality: 3
*CNQuality 2/High: "2"
*CNQuality 3/Normal: "3"
*CNQuality 4/Standard: "4"
*CNQuality 5/Economy: "5"
*CloseUI: *CNQuality

and File/Save.

The following gives a greater choice of print resolution if added to the "Resolution" section, but I am not clear whether the Quality setting impinges upon this. Note that the ip4200 only offers 600dpi in black and white.

*Resolution 1200/1200 dpi: "<</HWResolution[1200 1200]>>setpagedevice"
*Resolution 2400/2400 dpi: "<</HWResolution[2400 2400]>>setpagedevice"
*Resolution 4800/4800 dpi: "<</HWResolution[4800 4800]>>setpagedevice"

(from http://gentoo-wiki.com/Canon_Pixma_Series)