[ILUG] Printing with Canon IP4000 under Linux

[Mel Gorman]

This was flaky as hell to get setup for a parallel port (didn't try USB),
so here are the rough steps to do it.  The explanation is not very
comprehensive, I just reckon the subject line will be easily google-able
and it might help someone out.

1. Make sure parport_pc and lp kernel modules are loaded or compiled in.
You will know if they are already loaded by running dmesg | grep parport
and looking for something like;

parport0: PC-style at 0x378 [PCSPP(,...)]
lp0: using parport0 (polling).

  If you need to configure the modules, they can be found in make
menuconfig under;
	Device Drivers -> Parallel Port support -> Parallel Port Support
						-> PC-Style hardware
	Device Drivers -> Character devices -> Parallel Printer Support

  If you need to load the modules, run modprobe parport_pc and modprobe
lp. If you are using Debian, add these module names to /etc/modules for
the future

2. Configure the kernel parameters if necessary. In my case, I needed to
add the following to grub on the kernel line
	lp=parport0 parport0=0x378,auto,fifo

   Lilo would mean putting in append="lp=parport0 parport0=0x378,auto,fifo"

  This may not be necessary, I didn't try without it.

3. Install Ghostscript ESP as cups needs it - apt-get install
gs-esp

4. Enable Raw Print File support by editting /etc/cups/mime.times and
uncommenting the line;
application/octet-stream

   Edit /etc/cups/mime.convs and unncoment the line;
application/octet-stream        application/vnd.cups-raw        0       -

5. Install gnome-cups-manager. On Debian, this is apt-get install
gnome-cups-manager.

6. Run gnome-cups-manager as root. Add a new printer
  o On page 1, name the print IP4000 (or anything you like really)
  o On page 4, use the BJC-8200 driver
  o On page 5, use parallel:/dev/lp0 as the connection

  Documentation elsewhere suggests using the S400 or BJC-3000 drivers. I
don't know why they screw up on me (page is printed the wrong size). If
BJC-8200 does not work for you, try one of the other ones. There is also a
"BJC 8200" driver that uses gimp-print, but it printed poor quality images
for me

7. Print a test page to be sure it works. Paper will only be taken from
the loader at the top, I don't know if there is a way of using the
cassette tray from Linux.

8. Print from command line with cupsdoprint -P IP4000 file.ps

This experience was a bit of a disappointment as it took about 1.5 hours
to figure this all out. However, it may be due to an excessively old
installation (5 years running apt-get upgrade every so often) without all
the configuration helpers installed, the fact that I never used cups
before and that I was using a custom kernel without printer support. YMMV
etc etc

-- 
Mel Gorman
Part-time Phd Student                          Java Applications Developer
University of Limerick                         IBM Dublin Software Lab