HowTo get Canon Pixma MP495 All-in-One Printer Working with Linux

After a few years of wanting one of these printers they are actually very cheap. We picked ours up from Walmart for $49 and they are getting cheaper every time I go there! After looking around online for a wireless all-in-one printer that would work with both of our laptops over WiFi network we found that this one was well supported. It was actually easier to setup this printer with my Linux system than it was on our Mac running OSX! (To install this printer with your Mac, running OSX, just follow the instructions on the disk.)

Below are the steps for setting the Canon Pixma MP495 on a Debian, Ubuntu or any other Debian based distro. These instructions can be done without any system tweaks!


The following steps have been tested with Debian Squeeze (kernel 2.6.32-5-686), Ubuntu 11.10 (3.0.0-15-generic, on a 64-bit system), Backtrack 5 r1 (2.6.39.4) and Linux Mint 11 successfully.

  1. Download these files:
  2. Place these files in their own directory. Extract them (tar -xvf *.gz)
  3. Install your respective .deb packages found within the extracted folders, inside the packages directory (dpkg -i *i386.deb). In all there are four packages that need to be installed.
  4. Change the SSID of your wifi router to BJNPSETUP.
  5. Activate wifi on the printer by hitting the “maintenance button” 13 or 14 times… until you see a character that looks like a capital “G” without the horizontal line. Then press the color start button.
  6. Find out the IP of your printer by viewing the list of clients that are connected to your router. The IP address of the printer seemed to be automatically assigned by the router.
  7. Open your web browser and type in the IP address of the printer.
  8. Change the SSID to whatever SSID you want the printer to connect to. Hit “Okay” at the top.
  9. Change your SSID back to whatever you set the printer to look for.
  10. Print a test page… and if it worked you’re done!

NOTE: scangearmp (actually none of the apps) was not added to my Application menu. You’ll have to create a launcher and add it to your menu yourself, if you want.

If this worked for you too, please leave a comment with the distro and kernel you are currently using (uname -r). Enjoy!

4 thoughts on “HowTo get Canon Pixma MP495 All-in-One Printer Working with Linux

  1. Worked fine, did not have to change SSID, recognised printer using printer utility and adding ip address of printer which set up previously with windows machine. Thanks very much for information.

    Using Mint Julia

    JFK

  2. Worked fine, i used Linux Mint Maya Mate desctop, kernel 3.2.0-56-generic. The printer was already setup with my windows. I skipped point: 4., 5., 6., 8. and 9. I check IP adress from windows and added printer in Administration –> Printing. Thanks for info.

    regards
    IO

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