Printing from Linux VM

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Hello,

I am new here. I recently installed two Linux distributions in virtual machines (Under Oracle’s Virtual Box) on a Windows 7 host. One is Ubuntu, the other is Mint – both derived from Debian, their documentation says. Both distros are the latest stable ones available (64-bits, if it matters).
I have installed the drivers for my network printer (a Canon MF8550Cdn color multifunction) in both system – freshly downloaded from the Canon site, using the exact same driver files under both Linux variations.
Under Mint, I can print through the network with no problem.
Under Ubuntu, my print tasks get lost in the Great Bit Bucket in the Sky, with no error message whatsoever.
Can anyone guide me to what parameters I should check and/or modify, please?

Thank you.

P.S.: I’m a long-time Windows user, but new to Linux

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It’s probably not Linux but your VM. The VM provides the hardware services to your software so you need to check that the network and printer are visible to Ubuntu. Try pinging the printer.

cheers, Paul

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Thank you for the suggestion, Paul.

However, there’s a catch: both virtual machines have the exact same configuration, that is to say, the Virtual Box defaults for 64-bit Ubuntu, except I’ve given them more video RAM (128 MB) and more RAM (2 GB) than the default. Every other setting is the VB default. Both “machines” see the printer at its correct IP address.

I have tried the NAT and Bridge network configurations in both machines. The Mint installation prints normally in both cases. The Ubuntu installations sends the print jobs to never-never land in both cases… :confused:
Weird, isnt’t it?

Thanks for any other pointers

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Can you ping the printer from Ubuntu?
Have you checked that you have the correct IP / DNS name for the printer?

cheers, Paul

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Have a look to see if there’s an error log (/var/log/cups/error_log) in the Ubuntu VM.

Have you tried comparing the Paused state, in case CUPS has paused the printer in the Ubuntu VM.

Try opening the CUPS web interface at http://localhost:631 and selecting the Printers tab. There click on the printer’s name and select the resume printer option from the Maintenance drop-down menu.

See this post and this post for more info.

Hope this helps…

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@Paul: yes, I can ping the printer with no trouble. Since it’s accessed through its IP address and not by name, the DNS setting is irrelevant, but FYI I use the OpenDNS servers.

@Rick: the printer does not show as “paused” in the CUPS interface, and its print queue is empty. The error log only contains the following entries:
W [08/Apr/2015:15:41:54 +0200] CreateProfile failed: org.freedesktop.ColorManager.AlreadyExists:profile id ‘Canon-MF8300-UFRII-LT-Gray..’ already exists
W [08/Apr/2015:15:41:54 +0200] CreateProfile failed: org.freedesktop.ColorManager.AlreadyExists:profile id ‘Canon-MF8300-UFRII-LT-RGB..’ already exists
I will try understanding the other posts you gave a link to, and following their suggestions. I’ll report here later.

Thank you both!

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Have a look at DebuggingPrintingProblems and follow the troubleshooting steps, particularly the Capturing print job data section.

It might be an idea to carry out the tests on both VMs so you can see successful output (Mint) vs failed output (Ubuntu).

Hope this helps…

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Thanks for the suggestion, Rick

I’ll do that during the week (I only play with Linux in my spare time). I’ll post my findings here.

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