New printer on 10.2 and 11.2

**randomnick5000** · 18-Sep-2019, 10:59

I'm looking for a way to install any new printer on an old release 10.2 and 11.2. I have several such computers which can't be updated, but they must have the option of printing. Previously I used the hp photosmart 8100, but it was withdrawn from the market and now I am looking for an alternative. As a newcomer to openSuse I tried to find a solution with Canon pixma ip 7250, but the rpm requires a version 12.1.
My limited knowledge about installing a new printer has been exhausted, so maybe you know any other solution that will allow me to print from such systems?

**Knurpht** · 18-Sep-2019, 11:08

Hi, welcome !!!

I'd strongly suggest that you upgrade to a recent version. If the hardware can run 10.2 and 11.2, they should be able to run 15.1 . My educated guess is that no one here still has 10.2 or 11.2 around, too many things have changed since then to give you a fair chance to get this working.

**deano_ferrari** · 19-Sep-2019, 01:12

I agree with Knurpht here, but if you really are stuck with hosts running such old distro versions, and assuming these machines are all on the same network, you could consider setting up one machine (with a current openSUSE Leap version) as a CUPS server, and install the proprietary Canon printer driver on that system. The other hosts can print to the server via a raw printer queue.

https://www.maroonmed.com/picking-th...in-a-nutshell/

**mrmazda** · 19-Sep-2019, 22:33

Do PPD files really care about OS versions? It seems like if you could extract the ppd from Canon's rpm and put it wherever ppds go, that YaST could figure out how to use it. If the printer is an IP printer, the protocol to connect to it ought to be standard.

IME, I'll never buy anything with Canon's name on it again. I bought a Canon once that advertised Linux support right on its box, yet it took 6 months to find a driver to make work without Windows. Canon claimed there was no North American support for the model I bought in a local Office Depot store. I had to get the first driver from a UK site. More than a year later drivers started showing up on canon.com.

**deano_ferrari** · 20-Sep-2019, 02:06

Originally Posted by mrmazda

Do PPD files really care about OS versions? It seems like if you could extract the ppd from Canon's rpm and put it wherever ppds go, that YaST could figure out how to use it. If the printer is an IP printer, the protocol to connect to it ought to be standard.

Not always quite as simple as that. The PPD references filters (perhaps proprietary filter) that have underlying library dependencies. That's where issues can occur, and often where potential problems arise when trying to install driver packages not compatible in a given environment.

IME, I'll never buy anything with Canon's name on it again. I bought a Canon once that advertised Linux support right on its box, yet it took 6 months to find a driver to make work without Windows. Canon claimed there was no North American support for the model I bought in a local Office Depot store. I had to get the first driver from a UK site. More than a year later drivers started showing up on canon.com.

Yep, a typical Canon story.

**Knurpht** · 20-Sep-2019, 06:59

Originally Posted by mrmazda

IME, I'll never buy anything with Canon's name on it again. I bought a Canon once that advertised Linux support right on its box, yet it took 6 months to find a driver to make work without Windows. Canon claimed there was no North American support for the model I bought in a local Office Depot store. I had to get the first driver from a UK site. More than a year later drivers started showing up on canon.com.

Sort of same experience here. Had to use drivers from canon.au where the model I had to deal with was a EU sale only. Another experience was with one of their office copier/fax/printers. In the end we got two ( ! ) Canon tech guys in the building, they spent days to get it working. Then they turned the copier off and back on and it did not work anymore. They left for the weekend, I went in on Saturday, turned the thing on and it spit out a couple of pages with lots of jibberish, dots, lines and ...... some long string starting with hpljet4. Since it did not work anyway, I ran locate on the server and found there was a ppd with the ljet4 string in it's name, then told the cups server the device was a HP Laserjet 4 and ...... it worked. Thought I went crazy. Immediately left to another customer where they had the same issue, but not with openSUSE ( IIRC Ubuntu ), repeated the trick and that one worked too. Ever since I kept my hands from Canon printers. Only support them when Canon themselves provide their correct driver.

**tsu2** · 20-Sep-2019, 08:42

After years of dealing with Canon proprietary printer drivers (and protocol),
Suddenly a few months ago CUPS was able to "discover" the printer and print to it (IIRC MX920).
Flabbergasted.
Don't know if something new was pushed somewhere... didn't try to figure out what had happened.

I'd advise the same for anyone else...
Doesn't hurt to just see if CUPS will work on its own without any proprietary CANON software and drivers, it only takes a few minutes to see if it works or not.

Otherwise, I'd advise the same as suggested...
For least risk avoiding a break down, instead of trying to installing on an ancient openSUSE, install on another machine instead and use that machine as a Printer Server to accept and queue jobs, and send to the printer.
I'd also highly recommend imaging these old machines into virtual machines for peace of mind... as a virtual machine, you'd have far better ways to backup, re-deploy and recover from any issues... plus deploy on its own "network segment" so that it can be secured as much as possible from external threats.

TSU