Canon Pixma Pro-200 Linux Drivers

[DragonspitBen]

I'm a Linux user and have a Pixma Pro-200. When I bought it I also bought a computer with a Windows 11 duel boot so I could use the printer.

Since then I've been trying to figure out how to use it on Linux, to no avail.

I tried loading my Windows drive the other day and couldn't use it because it was trying to update. Windows forces updates (one reason I don't use it) and I couldn't get around the process in any way.

There's absolutely no way that I'm going to sit and wait for six hours just to have my privacy tweaks undone. The plan now is to nuke that drive and turn it into more storage.

But here's my conundrum:

My very expensive printer is now useless to me. I'm trying to run a printing business and I can't make money with it anymore. Before I replace it, are there any plans whatsoever for Canon to release Linux drivers???

Thanks for any help.

[FrankBernhardt · Accepted solution]

I'm in the exact same boat as you. The way I got around this obstacle is to install VirtualBox and  create a windose virtual machine. I used win7 (I already had the VM lying around). I then installed the P-200 drivers into the VM along with the icc files and Easy-PhotoPrint Editor. Because it was w7 that's all that would install. But it was enough for me.

After setting up the VM make sure you setup the VM cdrom drive under settings/storage/storage devices/cdrom and point it to the VBoxGuestAdditions.iso (which should have been down loaded as guest additions and resides in ./share/virtualbox/VBoxGuestAdditions.iso) and in windose open the cdrom drive and install the guest software.

So how does this help?

Well in VirtualBox in the settings for the VM you'll see "Shared Folder". In the Machine Folders add the folder you want to share. I used /home/myname/Pictures and gave it Full access and checked the Auto Mount.

Now when you spin up the VM  you'll  see a new share Pictures (//BoxSvr Z:). Click on it and you'll see everything in your Pictures folder. Yay!

When I use EasyPhoto Print I just point to the Z: drive.

I use DarkTable and sometimes Gimp. I've noticed that my prinnts are much darker I if I just click on the jpg file then print directly from there. When I used EasyPhoto Print the print looks pretty much what I see on my screen. But your mileage may differ 😉

Hope this helps.

Cheers.