Ubuntu 16.04 (or any other recent linux) and the Canon LBP6020B laser printer

My last post on battling with the Canon LBP6020 seems to have been quite
populer (my one and only post that regularly appears near the top of a
relevant google search), however it's getting a bit old now (Ubuntu
14.04).

I switched my daily laptop from Ubuntu to Arch Linux about a year ago,
and at the time was able to install the Canon drivers through the AUR
and everything was fine (as much as it ever is with a LBP6020).
Sometime earlier this year a regular update changed all that and it
hasn't worked since.

I finally got around to learning about docker and thought that it might
provide a solution to the LBP6020, i.e. a stable environment in which to
run the driver.

Now thanks to ticosax/cups-in-docker and Nik I've got a docker container
which appears to be reliably printing (although admittedly with only a
little testing).

If you're running Ubuntu 16.04, or any other linux capable of running
docker, this may provide a simple way to get a LBP6020 printing.

The docker image can be built from:

https://github.com/akgrant43/cups-in-docker

Instructions are in the readme.

Guake and Fish

With many thanks to Alan Pope via the Ubuntu UK Podcast I've switched my terminal environment from the standard gnome-terminal with bash to Guake and fish.

Guake suits my workflow as I like to have applications in separate workspaces and switch between the terminal and application.  Guake, which gets its name and style of operation from early first-person-shooter games such as Quake (except it's for Gnome, get it? :-)) is easily accessible via a hotkey - F12 by default - and will always display in the current workspace.

To learn more, see:

* https://github.com/Guake/guake - the official repository
* http://dalibornasevic.com/posts/48-guake-terminal-for-super-productivity - provides some useful configuration tips

To install and automatically start at logon in Ubuntu 14.04:

sudo apt-get install guake
ln -s /usr/local/share/applications/guake.desktop ~/.config/autostart/guake.desktop


Fish - the Friendly Interactive Shell for the 1990's is a step up on bash for two simple reasons:

1. Searching and running previous commands is much more convenient than in bash.  Once can simply type in a part of the command, any part, press the up arrow and step back through commands that contained the search string.

2. While typing a command fish will offer to auto-complete it with what it thinks you want, based on command history and the current directory contents.  You can 1) ignore the offer and type your command in full, 2) press tab to auto-complete in the same manner as bash, or 3) press the right arrow to accept the suggested command, and then Enter to execute the command.

The version that is included in Ubuntu 14.10, lacks two key features that I use: vi style editing and shared history across sessions.

Fortunately, the release currently in development addresses both of these.  To install the nightly build on Ubuntu:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:fish-shell/nightly-master
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install fish


This, of course, comes with the usual disclaimer that it is still in development and you are likely to encounter bugs.  I haven't had any problems yet, and figure that if something does go drastically wrong I can boot a USB stick and set my shell back to bash until the problem resolves itself.

To learn about fish, simply type help at the prompt and a browser window will be opened.

To edit your configuration, type fish_config and once again a browser window will be opened that will allow you to set colours (as the official web page says, you'll have an astonishing 256 colors available for use), modify the prompt, view functions, variables, command history, key bindings and abbreviations.

To enable vi mode and shared history place the following in your config file (~/.config/fish/config.fish):

fish_vi_mode
function fish_prompt
    history --merge  # This enables shared command history across sessions
    fish_vi_prompt
end


Vi mode editing is still a work in progress, and is missing a few features, e.g. replace mode, however, if like me, you only use it for editing particularly long commands it will probably be more than adequate.

You can also get a poor man's replace (r) function by adding the following:

bind -m insert r delete-char force-repaint


This simply deletes the character under the cursor and puts the editor into insert mode.  Saves a keystroke sometimes.

Useful links:

* http://fishshell.com/ - the official website
* https://github.com/fish-shell/fish-shell/wiki/Nightly-builds - nightly builds

Enjoy!

Ubuntu 14.04 and the Canon LBP6020B laser printer

The Canon in general, and the LBP6020 in particular, haven't had a good reputation on Linux / Ubuntu, however the good news is that while it still doesn't work out of the box, support appears to have improved recently.

If you're running Ubuntu 16.04, or any other linux distribution that supports docker, I suggest you look at my updated post "Ubuntu 16.04 (or any other recent linux) and the Canon LBP6020B laser printer".

If you're running something between Ubuntu 14.04 and 15.10, read on...

The latest Canon Linux drivers, available from Canon Europe, with release date 28 May 2014, includes support for the LBP6020 (earlier drivers may have, this is the first that I've seen).

When trying to get the printer working, the two main articles I used were:

• http://askubuntu.com/questions/463289/cant-get-my-canon-lbp-printer-to-run-under-ubuntu-14-04
• https://help.ubuntu.com/community/CanonCaptDrv190

The first indicates that the 32 bit libraries need to be enabled on 64 bit Ubuntu.  The drivers linked above include a 64 bit version, so I'm not sure if this is necessary any more (I already had the 32 bit libraries enabled).

Other than that, the steps I followed were:

Download the drivers from Canon Europe, and install:

tar xzvf ~/Downloads/Linux_CAPT_PrinterDriver_V260_uk_EN.tar.gz 
cd Linux_CAPT_PrinterDriver_V260_uk_EN/64-bit_Driver/Debian/
sudo dpkg -i cndrvcups-common_2.60-1_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i cndrvcups-capt_2.60-1_amd64.deb

Check that the LBP6020 is supported directly:

grep -H ModelName /usr/share/cups/model/*.ppd | grep 6020

You should see CNCUPSLBP6020CAPTK.ppd in the output.

Assuming that you only have one USB printer plugged in, check which device it is:

ls /dev/usb/lp*

Then define the printer queue (LBP6020 in the example below) with the device found above:

sudo lpadmin -p LBP6020 -m CNCUPSLBP6020CAPTK.ppd -v ccp://localhost:59687 -E
sudo ccpdadmin -p LBP6020 -o /dev/usb/lp0
sudo service ccpd start
sudo service cups restart

Check that the ccpd service appears to have started correctly:

On Ubuntu versions prior to 15.04:

sudo service ccpd status

On Ubuntu 15.04:

sudo /etc/init.d/ccpd status

You should see two numbers at the end of the line, if not, something's not right.  You can try looking in /var/log/cups/, but the information is unfortunately sparse.

Once the printer has been installed and is working, to start the printer:

# Switch the printer on and wait for it to settle

# Confirm that the usb device exists and matches the device in /etc/ccpd.conf:

ls /dev/usb/

# Start the ccpd service:

sudo service ccpd start

# Restart CUPS

sudo service cups restart

# Check that the service appears to have started correctly

sudo /etc/init.d/ccpd status

Hope this helps.

EDIT 24 Oct 2016: Added reference to a new post for Ubuntu 16.04 and other recent linux distributions.

EDIT 30 Apr 2015: Updated the status check for Ubuntu 15.04, and included the restart instructions from 11 Dec 2014.

EDIT 28 Feb 2015: Removed the command to autostart the service.  The sequence posted in the comments on 11 Dec 2014 assumes that the service hasn't been started.

Ubuntu 13.04 and Compiz Desktop Cube

The best installation guide I've seen for configuring the Compiz Desktop Cube is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwgeR_ZXhGc which is for 12.10, but with a couple of warnings below works fine in 13.04.

1. Close everything else before following the instructions - restarting a real possibility.
2. Enable Rotate Cube, not Desktop Cube.  Enabling Rotate Cube will ask you if you'd also like Desktop Cube.  Enabling Desktop Cube first locked up my window system.
3. Don't click on the Workspace Switcher until after everything else has settled down! I haven't tried this multiple times to figure out exactly what happens, but it hasn't been good.

The summary (if you've already watched the video) with my personal settings:

1. Close all windows / applications
2. sudo apt-get install compizconfig-settings-manager compiz-plugins compiz-plugins-extra
3. Start the CompizConfig Settings Manager
4. Under General -> General Options -> Desktop Size:
• Horizontal Virtual Size: 4
• Vertical Virtual Size: 1
• Number of Desktops: 4
5. Desktop -> Select Rotate Cube, allow Desktop Cube to be enabled
6. Desktop -> Desktop Cube -> Appearance: Set the Top & Bottom to something compatible with your background
7. Desktop -> Desktop Cube -> Transparent Cube:
• Set both Opacity fields to 50%
• Clear Transparency Only on Mouse Rotate
8. Desktop -> Rotate Cube -> Bindings -> Rotate Cube -> Initiate: Button1
9. Desktop -> Rotate Cube -> General -> Zoom: 0.3

Edit 26 Mar 2013: I've toned down the comments about the Workspace Switcher.  After a reboot it now behaves as before installing Compiz Settings Manager.

Ubuntu and sensitive touchpads

My current environment is a MacBook Air 13". The hardware is great, light, fast, good battery life and big touchpad. Unfortunately my typing style means that I'm continuously putting my palm close enough to the touchpad to change input focus. I tried to change the sensitivity with gpointing-device-settings however it didn't suit my needs.

Enter touchpad-indicator: It sits in the background and disables the touchpad whenever a mouse is plugged in, and re-enables it when the mouse is unplugged. For me this is a much better solution as it completely removes the problem of accidental mouse clicks, and I use the mouse automatically if it is available.

The current version seems to have a timing problem that causes it to miss mouse-remove events (see Bug #1111784), and doesn't handle the mouse being plugged in or out when the laptop is suspended. I've created a branch that resolves both of these issues at: https://code.launchpad.net/~akgrant0710/touchpad-indicator/akgfixes

Congratulations Canonical

Congratulations to everyone at Canonical!

After installing Ubuntu 13.04 daily build on two machines over the last week or so, a VirtualBox VM and MacBook Air, and using it as my primary environment for the last few days, my stats are:

Packages and libraries installed via apt-get:	21
Packages and libraries built from source code:	10
Number of issues / crashes:	0

And the new icons are shiny as well. :-)

Canon iP4200 grayscale printing fails

Printing to my Canon Pixma iP4200 has never worked properly in Ubuntu 12.04 and its finally got to the point where I decided to do something about it.

My preferred default settings are grayscale, two-sided, and it looks like I've been bitten by a bug with grayscale printing.  The result is either a row of dots near the top of the page, or a group of dots further down the page.  The effect is similar to what would happen on an old ribbon printer when the ribbon was dry or running out of ink, you can see that it's trying to print letters, but they're unreadable.

Ubuntu 12.04 uses gutenprint 5.2.8-pre1 and the bug appears to be specific to that version as I've been able to work around the issue in two separate ways:

1. Manually install the 5.0.1 driver from http://www.openprinting.org/printer/Canon/Canon-iP4000
2. Build the 5.2.8 driver from http://sourceforge.net/projects/gimp-print/files/gutenprint-5.2/5.2.8/ and manually replace the link to libgutenprint.so.3.0.0.

Obviously neither of these are ideal.  What I'd like is one of a patch for gutenprint 5.2.8-pre1 that fixes the problem, or supported upgrade to 5.2.8 or 5.2.9.

I've submitted a bug report: Bug #1151207 @ Launchpad.

10 Mar 2013: And a post in Ubuntu Forums: Re: Cups seems broken under 12.04 LTS...

Blog Reboot

My blog has obviously been languishing with only a few posts.

Time for a reboot, with a focus on "Adventures with Ubuntu".

I'll be using this as a bit of a log of tips, tricks and resolving issues in Ubuntu, starting with some printing problems I'm having in Ubuntu 12.04.  The goals are:

1. Have a place to log what I've done so I can reproduce it in future.
2. Hopefully help others that are having similar problems.
3. Maybe get some assistance back.

Enjoy...