# Canon PIXMA MX860



## neurosis (Oct 12, 2011)

Has anyone attempted to or had any luck getting one of these printers to work with FreeBSD?  I see information on getting it to work with linux but not with FreeBSD.


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## htutt (Oct 19, 2011)

Me too, mine is Canon PIXMA iP2580 (iP2500 series). It's not working with my FreeBSD8. I read about usb printer setting on FreeBSD, I tried as their examples but not working. I don't know how to do with my Canon printer.


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## wblock@ (Oct 19, 2011)

The first step is to figure out which PDL (Page Description Language) the printer supports.  openprinting.org is usually the place I look, but it's still down as part of the kernel.org problems.

If a printer supports text, PCL, or PostScript, it's easy: lpd Printing With FreeBSD

Printers with less-common PDLs are often supported through CUPS.


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## htutt (Oct 20, 2011)

Hi wblock,

I was going through with your CUPS link. I install cups and gutenprint also.
With the CUPS web interface from localhost, I added my Canon printer though there aren't Canon ip2500 ppd files, I used ip2000 and ip3000. When I made print test, I got 
	
	



```
Error: Unsupported format 'application/postscript'!
```
. What should I do next?


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## wblock@ (Oct 20, 2011)

Sorry, I don't use CUPS.  There may be additional filter software needed to deal with whatever the printer expects for output.


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## htutt (Oct 20, 2011)

I tried also your examples of lpt using. Still don't get even just a print out from the USB Canon printer.


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## wblock@ (Oct 20, 2011)

What PDL does the printer use?  I did some searching last night and failed to find an answer.


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## htutt (Oct 21, 2011)

wblock@ said:
			
		

> What PDL does the printer use?



I don't know what PDL use of the printer. How to look for it?
My Printer information from dmesg are as the following;

```
ugen0.3: <Canon> at usbus0
ulpt0: <Canon iP2500 series, class 0/0, rev 1.10/1.11, addr 3> on usbus0
ulpt0: using bi-directional mode
```

The exact printer model is Canon PIXMA iP2580.

Update For using CUPS;
The last time I re-configured for cups, it not showing error as above. When I made test prints, showing processing, then later Idle in printer status. But it didn't make just a print.


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## wblock@ (Oct 21, 2011)

htutt said:
			
		

> I don't know what PDL use of the printer. How to look for it?



The manufacturer should show it in the manual, but the only manuals I can find are compressed Windows exe files.  Canon's specifications for the iP2500 on the web page is useless, too.  As I said above, openprinting.org usually is a good place to look, but they're still down.


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## htutt (Oct 21, 2011)

Thank you for your help. I hope, maybe someone find out the way how to get a print from those printers sooner or later.


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## neurosis (Nov 26, 2011)

Can someone recommend a printer that is not such a pain to use with FreeBSD that also has wireless networking support?


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## joseph_tsai (Dec 15, 2012)

Hi,
  MX860 is ij-series printer. Someone already have solution to compile the official linux source code to use on freebsd.

 This is the web page.
http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-questions/2008-October/183685.html

 the webpage's version is 2.7 but the official's version is already 3.1. I 
 do not know the mx860 is already included or not. Maybe you can try!
thanks!


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## joseph_tsai (Dec 16, 2012)

Hi,

I just do a modify to "WATANABE Kazuhiro"'s PATCH to use on version 3.1. The PATCH download page is  http://rapidshare.com/files/2503558169/cnijfilter-source-3.10-freebsd.diff. You should download the Linux RPM (cnijfilter-mx860series-3.10-1-i386-rpm) and the source code (cnijfilter-source-3.10-1.tar.gz) from the official website either. Then followup WATANABE Kazuhiro's step to make your print work. 

Hope it's helpful! *T*hanks!


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## kolumbs (Dec 27, 2013)

Canon Pixma ip2500 series are working with ghostscript and the proprietary Canon Linux driver. There is some hassle to get /compat/linux/usr/local/bin/cifip2500 running on the Linux compatibility layer. Plus you will need a simple filter which uses ghostscript to convert ps to ppmraw and then cifip2500 to convert into Canon Language. Afterwards printing flies off with native LPD spooler under FreeBSD.

Few steps:

 Download the Canon Linux driver (RPM package): http://www.canon-europe.com/Support...x?DLtcmuri=tcm:13-742545&page=1&type=download
 Extract with rpm2cpio into /compat/linux
 Check that cifip2500 works, if not use truss to pinpoint errors in Linux shared libraries
 Establish LPD spooler with appropriate printcap entry: http://www.wonkity.com/~wblock/docs/html/lpdprinting.html
 Create your "own" filter with an entry similar to this: `gs -sDEVICE=ppmraw -sOutputFile=- - |/compat/linux/usr/local/bin/cifip2500`
Test your print page by `lpr YourTestPage.ps`
Most likely this works with all Canon printers which have a Linux driver.


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