Printing Under Helena 64 - MP830

[DavidS]

Hey...

I own the Canon MP830 and I am very frustrated with this printer when used under Linux.

Everything that should be printed LARGE is printed MICRO and vise versa! What is the deal with this??

Also, it seems like every time I turn the printer off and back on to print something, I find myself
having to reinstall the drivers! The OS kicks in to auto-install the printer.

When the printer is fully on, the OS reports the printer is off-line.

Even regular text when set on a font size of 10, it actually comes out as if it were set on 18!

Where can I get some REAL Canon MP830 drivers?

Any help will be tremendously appreciated!!!

[gravelbay]

Hey David,
Canon printer drivers almost drove me away from Linux. It makes no sense that a free, open source operating system would not have decent drivers for the printers that are the easiest to refill.

Then I found http://www.turboprint.info/. It costs a few bucks, but it is well worth it, at least to me. The drivers are at least as good as, if not better than the official Canon Window$ drivers.

They do not deal with the scanner part of your MP830, but they work for all printer chores on my MP970, including cleaning, ink levels, head alignment, printing CD, and so on.

[DavidS]

Thanks gravelbay!

But I do a lot fo copying and scanning for my home business.
I really NEED to have my scanner working.

You know... Linux is becoming nothing more than a TOY to me.
I'm always having to go back over to my windows side to do the
necessary things for my business. I find myself now questioning
whether to boot up in Linux or not. Then I boot into windows
just in case I need to do something that Linux cannot; like run
dreamweaver to work on my website or scan a doc or copy one
or use Sound Forge because Audacity has become useless to me
with every new release. Or, or, or... Hmmm... now I'm sounding
like a seal.

The only time I will be booting into Linux is at night for pleasure
and watching Hulu or just messing around online.

I could probably cure the printer situation with buying an HP,
but that is money I don't care to spend right now with the U.S .
economy in critical status.

I think Linux is getting better though, slowly but surely and I
feel it will be ready for me in a couple more years. Wine is
getting better all the time and hopefully they will figure a way
to get Dreamweaver to completely work in Linux.

Thanks again... take care!

[mick55]

gravelbay said

It makes no sense that a free, open source operating system would not have decent drivers

I would just like to clarify one thing about Linux vs Windows drivers.

Microsoft does not write or provide hardware drivers for printers
video cards, scanners or most of the other hardware we use.

The hardware manufacturer provides Microsoft with the drivers to
be included on the Windows install CD.Of course if they didn't
provide them can you imagine the sh*t storm that would cause.

The fact that the manufacturers of the hardware do not generally
write drivers for Linux does not make that the fault of
the Linux Distro in question.

They write drivers for Windows because if they didn't nobody would
buy their hardware.Nvidia writes very good drivers for Linux,
ATI does not, as a result I don't use an ATI card.

The open source drivers included in Linux distros are reverse
engineered because the manufacturer will not provide either
a driver or the source code required to easily write one.

If Linux can get enough market share the manufacturers will
have to write drivers for it or lose business.
Yep, it's all about the money.

DavidS said

Where can I get some REAL Canon MP830 drivers

You should direct your ire at Canon where it belongs.
They're the ones who didn't write a Linux driver because
there's not enough money in it for them.
Good luck getting them to write one for you.

cheers
mick

[DavidS]

It doesn't really matter WHO writes the drivers...

If they aren't available, I don't use Linux.

It's that simple.

[mick55]

It doesn't really matter WHO writes the drivers...

Sure it does.

If they aren't available, I don't use Linux.

If they aren't available I don't use the printer.

Hey, I'm not trying to change your opinion or start an argument.
Whether or not you use Linux is your business, and yours alone.
I just thought it should be noted that the real issue is the manufacturer's
lack of support for their own product.
It's just my opinion...and you know what they say about those.

Good luck
mick

[DavidS]

Yes, well, it is up to Linux users as a whole to make an effort to give
all the feedback we can to these manufacturers. Instead of just using
Linux, we ALL need to work at motivating the manufacturers to pull
their heads out and take Linux seriously!

It's not just ME... I've read people's complaints all over the web. Yet,
not very many Linux users seem to want to do their part.

Let me tell you... I have done more than my fair share in this regard.
I've written to several companies and continue to do so. But one or
two people aren't going to change any minds... we ALL have to make
a continuous effort to drill these manufacturers until they finally
give up and just do it!!

[mick55]

we ALL have to make
a continuous effort to drill these manufacturers until they finally
give up and just do it!!

H*ll Yeah! Where do I sign up

I know you know what's up,I just wanted other folks to know that it's
not the Linux guy's that are falling down on the job.
So many people are ticked off that their device is not supported and
they blame the OS instead of the manufacturer.
Microsoft has a death grip over most of those guys.
They have extremely strict guidelines over when they have to deliver
finished drivers and Microsoft doesn't exactly encourage them to
provide drivers for Linux.

Anyway, I really hope you continue at least dabbling in Linux.
You're young and I know you don't want to be pwned by
Microsoft your whole life.

Take care
mick

[gravelbay]

we ALL have to make
a continuous effort to drill these manufacturers until they finally
give up and just do it!!

H*ll Yeah! Where do I sign up

I know you know what's up,I just wanted other folks to know that it's
not the Linux guy's that are falling down on the job.
So many people are ticked off that their device is not supported and
they blame the OS instead of the manufacturer.
Microsoft has a death grip over most of those guys.
They have extremely strict guidelines over when they have to deliver
finished drivers and Microsoft doesn't exactly encourage them to
provide drivers for Linux.

Anyway, I really hope you continue at least dabbling in Linux.
You're young and I know you don't want to be pwned by
Microsoft your whole life.

Take care
mick

Mick,
I didn't mean to sound like I was assigning blame. You're absolutely right that the lack of drivers is the fault of the printer and scanner makers. I didn't say it wasn't their fault. I just was expressing my dissatisfaction with the situation.

I'm glad you did bring some clarification to the subject, though, for anyone who might not know that it's a manufacturer issue and not an operating system issue. I've also expressed my opinion to Canon.

[mick55]

Right on Gravelbay.

I was probably being overly defensive of the Linux platform.

peace
mick

[gravelbay]

No Problem Mick. I get that way about Linux, too sometimes.

[DavidS]

I found another site that offers a driver for the MP830 and has the scanner working also...
but I have no clue on how to install the files.

http://home.arcor.de/wittawat/pixma/

Anyone know how? The site talks about compiling. Not on my list of to-do's!