Ubuntu: Printer & scanner tips
Nick Peers runs through some tips to get your printers and scanners up and running using systems and tools, such as CUPS, SANE and XSANE.
These days, it’s almost mandatory to have a printer and scanner attached to your PC, but getting them set up in Linux can be a little tricky. Don’t worry, though, because armed with the right drivers and tools you can quickly get things up and running. There are two core tools built into most Linux distributions (distros) that help simplify the process: CUPS for printers and SANE for scanners. CUPS provides a centralised management tool for adding and configuring your printers while SANE allows you to interface with your scanner in much the same way, as well as providing the tools you need to preview and scan images. We’ll be focussing on these for this tutorial, coupled with some useful tools that mean you don’t need to go into the terminal should you need to access or tweak them.
With other operating systems, you can usually plug and play your printer or scanner – the drivers will either already be pre-installed or you’ll be prompted to download a driver, or insert a manufacturer’s disc. While it’s not quite that simple in Linux, the fact is that armed with the right procedure you shouldn’t have to spend hours getting things set up.
The good news is that you don’t need to start your search at your manufacturer’s website when installing your printer. If you’re lucky, you may find the drivers are already in place, particularly if your model is a network one, in which case all you need to do is open the CUPS front-end and see if it can detect your printer.
CUPS should be pre-installed with later versions of Ubuntu – including 14.04.3 LTS – and you can access it from System Settings by clicking ‘Printers’. If it’s not there, install it through the Software Center (search for ‘printer’ and select Printers) or via the terminal using sudo apt-get install cups .
Once installed, Click the ‘Add’ button to see if your printer is visible and supported. If your printer is connected via USB, but not showing up – as is likely – then you’ll first need to locate suitable drivers for it. Start by looking for Linux drivers on your manufacturer’s website and for your particular distro (you may need to find a unified package). Hopefully your exact distro (including version number) will be supported, but don’t panic if it’s not; we successfully installed a Dell B1265dnf all-in-one printer in Ubuntu 14.04.3 LTS using a unified package that only promised support up to 11.04.
If you’re lucky, the driver may be supplied in a Deb package, in which case downloading and double-clicking it should launch the setup wizard. If your driver is provided as a tarball (with a .tar.gz extension), then it’ll probably contain a shell script (.sh) installer, in which case follow the step-bystep guide ( p71) to discover how to get it up and running. Once done, re-open the Printers CUPS front-end under System Settings and your new printer should be visible.
Network setup
If you’re adding a networked printer, then you should be able to spot it without having to first source drivers. Click ‘Add’, expand ‘Network Printer’ and wait or click ‘Find Network Printer’. After a short pause any detected printers should show up. Select yours and you’ll see a choice of connection protocols appear. ( See What Connection Type? box, p72 for detailsofwhichonetochooseifyou’regiventheoption.) Select IPP if it’s available, otherwise choose LPD or visit your manufacturer’s website to see if it provides a driver that will likely offer an IPP connection if you install it.
If you’re happy to proceed with the options offered by CUPS, click ‘Forward’ and it’ll look for drivers, selecting them automatically if available. If it can’t find any you’ll be given three choices: select from database, provide a PPD file or search for a driver to download. Start by selecting your printer manufacturer to see if an exact match is available. If not, try a search – again, you may want to expand your search to your web browser, as it’s limited in scope.