Install Canon MP560 Ubuntu 15.04

Question

Trying to install a Canon PIXMA MP560 wireless printer on my brand new Ubuntu laptop:

$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description:    Ubuntu 15.04
Release:    15.04
Codename:   vivid

Canon does not provide drivers for this printer. (I checked this link.) Most of the answers point to a ppa that does not work for my OS.

For example, if I try

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:michael-gruz/canon
sudo apt-get update

Then I get the error

W: Failed to fetch p://ppa.launchpad.net/michael-gruz/canon/ubuntu/dists/vivid/main/binary-amd64/Packages 404 Not Found

W: Failed to fetch p://ppa.launchpad.net/michael-gruz/canon/ubuntu/dists/vivid/main/binary-i386/Packages 404 Not Found

E: Some index files failed to download. They have been ignored, or old ones used instead.

(In the above code, replace the p: with http:. I can't post more than 2 links without a 10 reputation.)

I looked at the ppa repo directly, and it seems that the latest version available is quantal.

I explicitly edited the /etc/apt/sources.list.d/michael-gruz-ubuntu-canon-vivid.list to point to quantal. That is, I replaced

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/michael-gruz/canon/ubuntu vivid main

with

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/michael-gruz/canon/ubuntu quantal main

That got rid of the update error, but I got a not found error when I tried to to the install:

$ sudo apt-get install cnijfilter-mp560series
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
E: Unable to locate package cnijfilter-mp560series

It looks like the Package file for quantal ( ppa.launchpad.net/michael-gruz/canon/ubuntu/dists/quantal/main/binary-amd64/Packages) is empty.

Any ideas? I guess I could try pointing to an even earlier version. Is there a better way to install this printer under Ubuntu 15?

Answer 1

Ubuntu 15.04 seems to be not supported by this PPA – the latest change was from 2014-06-23.

But you can download the matching packages from launchpad and try to install them manually.

As there seems to be no native 64 bit drivers support, you need to add the 32 bit architecture :

sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386  
sudo apt-get update

Download and install the driver for Canon PIXMA MP560 printer - printing functionality :

wget https://launchpad.net/~michael-gruz/+archive/ubuntu/canon-trunk/+files/cnijfilter-common-32_3.90-76~ubuntu14.04.1_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i cnijfilter-common-32_3.90-76~ubuntu14.04.1_amd64.deb  

wget https://launchpad.net/~michael-gruz/+archive/ubuntu/canon-trunk/+files/cnijfilter-mp560series-32_3.90-76~ubuntu14.04.1_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i cnijfilter-mp560series-32_3.90-76~ubuntu14.04.1_amd64.deb

Download and install the driver for Canon PIXMA MP560 printer - scanning functionality :

wget https://launchpad.net/~michael-gruz/+archive/ubuntu/canon-trunk/+files/scangearmp-common-32_2.10-33~precise1_amd64.deb  
sudo dpkg -i scangearmp-common-32_2.10-33~precise1_amd64.deb

wget  https://launchpad.net/~michael-gruz/+archive/ubuntu/canon-trunk/+files/scangearmp-mp560series-32_2.10-33~precise1_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i scangearmp-mp560series-32_2.10-33~precise1_amd64.deb  

Alternatively download the original drivers from Canon Asia website and install them manually :

Canon MP560 series IJ Printer Driver Version 3.20 for Linux (debian package archive)

Download location : http://support-asia.canon-asia.com/contents/ASIA/EN/0100236502.html

Extract the archive and install the packages by executing :

sudo dpkg -i cnijfilter-common_3.20-1_i386.deb  
sudo dpkg -i cnijfilter-mp560series_3.20-1_i386.deb  

Canon MP560 series ScanGear MP Version 1.40 for Linux (debian package archive)

Download location : http://support-asia.canon-asia.com/contents/ASIA/EN/0100237802.html

Extract the archive and install the packages by executing :

sudo dpkg -i scangearmp-common_1.40-1_i386.deb   
sudo dpkg -i scangearmp-mp560series_1.40-1_i386.deb  

Sometimes it even works to select another printer from Printers setup in System Settings.