Solved: Canon Pixma TS 6350a printer: lower paper tray can not be activated

[LMikceh77]

Hi,

The question is based on the following system data:

Kernel: 5.15.0-101-generic x86_64 Bits: 64
Desktop: Cinnamon 5.6.8
Distribution: Linux Mint 21.1 Vera Base: Ubuntu 22.04 jammy

I set up a Canon Pixma TS 6350a printer and connected it via USB cable.
The printer scans perfectly. He makes copies and pulls the paper from the lower paper tray.
So far so good.

When I start a print job from the system from the notebook, the printer always pulls the paper from the rear paper tray or asks to insert paper there in order to print (the rear tray is actually intended for photo prints). After inserting paper, it then prints. The lower paper tray is set in the printer, but it cannot be used for the print job.
That's annoying.

As a test, I connected a second Canon Pixma TS 6350 printer. There, too, a print job from the Linux system requires you to insert paper into the rear paper tray. Here too, the lower paper tray is set and cannot be used for the print job.

From this I conclude that the error must be in Linux or in the Cups system settings. Does anyone have an idea how to solve the problem?

Thanks for an answer.

[dave1953]

I don’t know the answer but I would have assumed this behaviour could be changed in the cups printer settings. Cups usually ‘assumes’ default settings which may or may not be correct. For example one of my printers attempts to default to “letter” size paper rather than A4. So upon installing the printers with cups I always check the default settings and change them if necessary. These are available within your cups settings. Hope this helps.

[LMikceh77]

I have made the appropriate changes in the printing settings of cups.
The setting on the printer itself was ultimately not implemented.
Can I somehow force the printer to pull the paper out of the lower tray using cups?

[dave1953]

Because of the large amount of settings available in the cups interface, I would imagine there to be a setting in there, somewhere. You are using the cups browser based interface http://localhost:631/printers/ I assume?

[LMikceh77]

Thanks for the tip. I'll take a look when I'm near the printer again (it's at a friend's house).

[dave1953]

Please be aware you will need to enter your username and password into a dialogue box before cups will allow you to access any commands. If you select a command the box will open for your credentials to be added.

In my experience before you access the browser interface it is also a good idea to ensure you are part of the lp (line printer) group,

sudo gpasswd -a [your username] lpadmin

for example mine would be -

sudo gpasswd -a david lpadmin

Hope this helps.

[LMikceh77]

I solved the problem via http://localhost:631/printers.

There I changed the paper format from "hagaki" (= postcard) to automatic.
The paper feed tray was set to bottom tray. If you enter postcard format (hagaki) as the format, the printer automatically goes to the rear paper tray and issues an error message if no paper is inserted there.

I also switched off the automatic paper detection in the printer via its menu in the OLE display in order to fundamentally avoid collisions between the paper format setting and the paper feed tray.

I previously checked to see if I was part of the lp (line printer) group. I was registered as a member of the group, so no further problems arose.

@dave1953: Thank you very much for the tip.

[dave1953]

Glad you got it sorted.