Level 6

16,717 points

Canon Support for Snow Leopard

Canon has posted their support schedule for Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) for their consumer printers.

http://support-au.canon.com.au/contents/AU/EN/8200620400.html

It looks like if your product is a few years old then it is not advisable to purchase 10.6, or be ready to buy a new printer.

As for their business products, such as the imageRUNNER series, none of the current Canon printer drivers work on 10.6. Having been involved with the 10.6 seed testing I found that while the drivers appear to install okay, the creation of a network printer queue fails. This occurred with the following drivers.

CUPS PS v2.11
PS v1.81
UFR2 v1.80
Fax v2.20

So if you feel the need to update, then beware.

If your Canon device supports PostScript, then you can use either the Generic PostScript included with 10.6 or install the Canon PPDs so that you get some finishing options.

If your Canon device only supports a Canon proprietary protocol, such as UFR2, CAPT or GARO, then there is currently no solution for them with Mac OS X 10.6.

Pahu

MacBook Pro 17', Mac OS X (10.5.8), Mac Pro, Xserve G5, iPhone 3G

Posted on Aug 25, 2009 11:38 PM

416 replies

Bahi

Level 3

639 points

Aug 30, 2009 11:45 AM in response to Daniel Woods

We've worked around this problem by keeping one machine on 10.5; that machine, which itself prints over the network to the Canon printers (in the last case, an MP970) can share the Canon printers. Snow Leopard machines can then print via this 10.5 machine, because that process does not require the BJNP protocol. So without the need for any machines to use USB, you can still print via Snow Leopard; you'll just need to hold one machine back. If you have any old PPC hardware kicking around, here's a use for it for the next fortnight or however long Canon takes to get its act together.

To share the printer from the 10.5 machine, use the Sharing preference pane under System Preferences. On the Snow Leopard machines, just add a new printer in the usual way and Bonjour will pick up the new shared resource.

Message was edited by: Bahi

Aug 30, 2009 7:20 PM in response to Bahi

I can install the 1.81 software for our ImageRunner and the printer adds but it throws up an error when I try and print saying the software was not installed. Back to the desktop HP - no duplex printing for me today.

Michael

zcold

Level 1

0 points

Aug 31, 2009 6:48 AM in response to PAHU

Like someone said above, just make sure you dont upgrade one of the computers and just share the printer.

Mario GT

Level 1

10 points

Aug 31, 2009 8:36 AM in response to zcold

Hi have a Canon LBP 3200 laser printer, fully functional before installing 10.6, when i upgrade the CUPS driver don't work anymore (error in the printer job). Im waiting for updated CUPS drivers because i dont want to buy another printer just because a OS upgrade !!

Lucky I have my old Pismo with Mac OS 10.4 for printing

Message was edited by: marioegt

Aug 31, 2009 1:02 PM in response to Mario GT

I have the LBP 3010 laserprinter, bought it six weeks ago, no driver, no Canon info on their site...

Aug 31, 2009 8:37 PM in response to JaclynC

MX 850 via network operating here ok.

reinstalled latest Canon drivers (in retrospect, I wonder if that was necessary), clicked on "More Printers..." button and selected it.

Aug 31, 2009 8:51 PM in response to Dennis van Spanje

It never ceases to amaze me how many people rush out and upgrade to the latest shiny version of Mac OS X without first checking for compatibility issues with 3rd party products.

Aug 31, 2009 10:36 PM in response to PAHU

Followed the step by step instructions in this link and got my MX700 printing wirelessly in SL:

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=774775

Haven't tried scanning yet. Took about half an hour to follow the instructions, but it worked!

Aug 31, 2009 10:40 PM in response to zaphod6502

You can stop being amazed, I did not upgrade. But I think the poor support for printers in OS 10.6 is the amazing thing..

Aug 31, 2009 10:49 PM in response to Dennis van Spanje

Indeed. And the blame falls squarely on Apples shoulders for breaking support for so many different 3rd party hardware products that were working perfectly in 10.5.8.

Sep 1, 2009 1:08 AM in response to MacWanderer

The amount of effort involved and the requirement that you use there pathetic MP Navigator puts me off this.

I think I'll just wait until Canon release the BJNP transport for Snow Leopard.

Sep 1, 2009 1:10 AM in response to MacWanderer

The amount of effort involved and the requirement that you use their pathetic MP Navigator puts me off this.

I think I'll just wait until Canon release the BJNP transport for Snow Leopard.

PAHU Author

Level 6

16,717 points

Sep 1, 2009 1:24 AM in response to Daniel Woods

I don't think you need to wait. After reading some of the other posts, I did some testing this afternoon to my networked MP980.

Like has been said, the scanner has been working fine, but the network printer is not being displayed. While some have said that they have been able to get the Canon IJ Network appearing in the More Printers view, I personally have had no success.

But then those that have had success with installing an older version of the Canon 'CUPS' driver got me intrigued and now I can concur that this does resolve the network printing issue. From what I can see, installing the older version of the driver does not replace the v10.19.0 that is included with 10.6 (provided you customize the install and select Additional Drivers) but it does add the plugin 'canonijnetwork' to the Canon BJPrinter folder. With this plugin installed, the network printer now appears after several seconds in the Default view, with the Printer Name as MPxxx (00.00.85.xx.xx.xx) and the Kind as canonijnetwork.

I am currently flattening my test Mac and reinstalling 10.6 to confirm this and will report later. If this is the case then I can only assume that Canon supplied the inbox drivers (those included with 10.6) to Apple without this plugin or Apple failed to include this plugin with the Canon driver package. Given that Canon has not made the v10.19 driver publicly available it is not currently possible to compare. But it does look like there is a solution if you want to connect to the networked Canon inkjet printer.

Pahu

PAHU Author

Level 6

16,717 points

Sep 1, 2009 2:04 AM in response to PAHU

My latest test with a clean install of 10.6 shows that the folder BJNP, which contains the canonijnetwork plugin is not present. After running the installer for the older Canon CUPS driver (in my case the v10.12.10 for the MP980) the BJNP folder was created in HD/Library/Printers/Canon/BJPrinter/Plugins. With this folder and the contained plugins present, the network printer could be added. This was the case for both Ethernet and wireless.

The procedure is as follows:

1. Download the Canon 'CUPS' driver for the respective model of Canon MP, MX or iP printer. The CUPS driver typically has a version number of 10.x.x.
2. Run the installer and restart when prompted.
3. Open System Preferences > Print & Fax and click to Add ( + )
4. Select the Default browser view. You will probably see the printer listed with its Kind as Bonjour Scanner. Do not select this. Just wait a bit longer and eventually you should see the printer appear with its MAC address in brackets and the Kind as canonijnetwork
5. Select this entry and ensure the Print Using menu changes to Canon model series
6. Click Add to complete

Kerl

Level 1

12 points

Sep 1, 2009 9:15 AM in response to thomas_r.

Ok, this seems to work for the devices that rely on UFRII, so ImageCLASS MF4100 printers and the like.

For some reason the imageCLASS MF4350d on Canon's website already offers UFRII 2.0 for OSX which was released on 08/06/2009. This version works for me on 10.6, while most of the other models still offer UFRII 1.8 which does not work.

http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=ModelInfoAct&fcategoryid=124&mo delid=17450

If you cannot find it there, here the direct download

http://gdlp01.c-wss.com/gds/0/0100001150/03/UFRII_V200_MacOSX_usEN.dmg

Installing then should be straight-forward.

Good luck!

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Canon Support for Snow Leopard