Ready to tackle my Canon multi-function they no longer support for Linux

My Canon ImageCLASS MF3240 is not supported by Canon for Linux drivers any longer. It did when I bought it, the box clearly said Windows, Mac,& Linux, but I cant find the CD to see if a driver is there)

However, I have found a download that has support for other multi-functions that are very similar to mine. Several in the same series.
The download is a .tar.gz and has both 32 and 64 bit for Debian and RPM included.
There is an ‘install.sh’ included in the download.

I have read through the install and usage documentation provided, and Leap 15 has the CUPS and Ghostscript versions that are pre-requirement’s prior to install.

My question is, If I install it, and it recognizes that I need the 64 bit RPM, and installs it, how much of a problem will it possibly be to remove it if it doesn’t work?
I can’t tell where each file will go just by opening the D/L with ark.

<I thought Skanlite worked with my M/F scanner, but apparently it only makes me think it does, no image appears in the preview screen.>

All that’s needed is to remove the RPM(s) that are installed. Not hard at all.

Nope, not hard at all. Thanks
I got bold red letters in YaST2 after the rpm installs telling me what I installed was ‘a later version of what is available’.
So I removed them.
Now, try to find my 32bit version of WinXP and look at putting it in a virtual box, add the printer drivers and some software and print from there.

Not happy with canon, but I can’t afford a new multi-function unit of any brand. <My problem not this forum>

Did you try configuring the printer before you made the decision to remove them? (The bold red letters should not have concerned you and were not a sign of any problem.)

Yes, I did, I spent a couple of hours trying to configure, and going through the readme and help URL’s includes with the download.
I was going to try to contact the author to see if he had any thought, but can’t find an email address or a way to contact on the web.
And the bold red letters didn’t bother me, I just got tired of beating my head against the wall and took them out. Hate the sight of my own blood :shame:

I don’t know how far you got (and I’m not sure which UFRII version software you installed), but I’m aware that some of the older Canon printer models are no longer explicitly supported by the recent UFRII builds. Even though I’ve never owned Canon hardware, I checked out the following page

which offered a recent build (UFR II/UFRII LT Printer Driver for Linux V3.50). I installed the RPMs directly, and can see that no PPD for the MF3240 model is included, but with luck selecting a similar model at configuration time might be sufficient eg ‘Canon MF4100 series UFRII LT’ perhaps.

I note that three packages are included…

# rpm -qa|grep cnd
cndrvcups-common-3.90-1.x86_64
cndrvcups-ufr2lt-uk-1.40-1.x86_64
cndrvcups-ufr2-uk-3.50-1.x86_64
cndrvcups-utility-1.10-1.x86_64

The ‘cndrvcups-utility’ RPM provides a graphical printer config utility to register a printer with CUPS. It can be run (as root) like this

su -c /usr/local/bin/cnsetuputil

It allows you to manually choose both the model and IP address for a network-attached printer, so allows convenient experimentation if needed. Did you get as far as trying to configure by choosing a particular Canon imageCLASS model?

UFR II/UFRII LT Printer Driver for Linux V3.50 are what I used. Only mine were for US English.
I do have the British download also however.
But form all appearances US, UK and IT are all the same package, just from different countries. And the Asian site is UKEN, so no need to download it again.
I tried a couple of printers from the list. But when I ‘printed’ indications were it was being sent to the printer. 1/2 hours later, I gave up and canceled the print job.
I can put it back in, and get a printer or printers ‘close’ to mine and hope I run across one that will work.
Reading the install URL that comes with the documents is a nightmare in itself.
http://ug.oipsrv.net/USRMA-0586-zz-DR-enUS/contents/dlu-inst.html
If you are interested. My eyes glazed over a lot!

I may give it another try in a few days.

I hate this edit system!
Anyway, I will give it another shot in a few days, and look closely at the ImageClass 4100 series.
The drivers aren’t that hard to put back in.
My unit is connected to my desktop via a USB cable, and I will have to understand the relationship with that and the CUPS ‘network’ setup.

Bad news I’m afraid Bill - I no longer think you’ll be successful with getting this printer supported in a Linux environment. Canon’s own driver download page suggests that this model uses the CARPS protocol. There is an Archwiki page that mentions this proprietary protocol, and although some reverse-engineering was done to produce a CARPS CUPS driver, it DOES NOT include the MF3200 series models unfortunately.

CARPS

Some of Canon’s printers use Canon’s proprietary Canon Advanced Raster Printing System (CARPS) driver. Rainbow Software have managed to reverse engineer the CARPS data format and have successfully created a CARPS CUPS driver, which is available as carps-cupsAUR. The project’s GitHub page includes a list of working printers.

MF3200 Series not supported - different data format, different header

OK thanks for the research.
I will delete those D/L’s and see where that 32bit WinXP DVD is, and consider a VM and print from something XP

Too bad too, that imageCLASS MF3110 looks exactly like my MF3240.

Oh well, not everything in life comes easy/

Yes, that is the only realistic option here I think. BTW, I’ve seen some options for automating printing for a file placed in a ‘watched’ directory which might be of interest to you. Once such Windows freeware app (PrintFile) can be found here. It can process postscript files.

PrintFile can also act as a print spooler, watching a specified directory for files. Whenever a file appears in that directory it will automatically be printed.

This means that you could effectively print to file (postscript format ) in a shared directory configured for the VM guest, and have it print automatically. Just a thought.

I have never tried using a XP 32-bit key with a 64-bit Windows 10 ISO. Microsoft forums say it will work. The legal requirement is it is only installed in one place. It is worth a shot if you want a supported OS. As long as you find your Windows key it only costs you a download to test:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10ISO

Also, if you install the home version of Windows 10 and skip the licensing at install it use to only cost you $20 in the Windows App store to license it. I am not sure if that is still the case. You can of course test the printer from the unlicensed installed OS to insure it works before you purchase. The Windows 10 non-licensed is fully functional.

I recently had to configure a Canon Pixma Pro-100 printer to work with 15.0 and found it nearly impossible until I discovered a proprietary software called Turboprint, designed explicitly for the purpose of running unsupported printers under LInux. It’s not OSS, and that bothered me quite a bit, however I’d been printing from a Windows OS running in a VM, and that was working very well but was wasting too much valuable time.

IMHO the Turboprint interface is overly obtuse and clunky, but once I got used to it I found it very powerful powerful and flexible. The workflow runs something like this: Use the Print command as usual > Select Turboprint in the printing dialogue > Select printing parameters such as paper sizes, paper profiles (if needed), single or multiple copies, single side or duplex, etc. You can even re-balance color etc. if needed > select something like “Print now” . The print file is generated transparently at this point and printing commences. Cups is used in the background, so the print queue can be managed either from the TP monitor window or with CUPs.

Unfortunately I know of no similar way to get your MFP to scan or copy.

I’m aware of Turboprint, but the OP’s printer is a Canon ImageCLASS MF3240 and it has no support for this model (or any other ImageCLASS model), likely due to the proprietary protocol used (see my comments Earlier in the thread regarding that).

I saw one complete website posting information and downloading software. I think this will help
https://pdutility.com/