What is canon-lbp2900-capt-toolkit?

This repository is a toolkit for getting a Canon LBP2900 or LBP2900B printer working on modern Ubuntu or Linux Mint systems. These printers use a proprietary Canon protocol called CAPT, and the official Canon driver is old and hard to install on current Linux versions, so this project wraps the whole setup, repair, and network sharing process into a single bash script with an interactive menu. The script lets you choose between installing an open source replacement driver, based on the ValdikSS captdriver project, or the official Canon v2.71 driver if you provide that file yourself. It automatically removes whichever driver you are not using, so the two never conflict. A major focus of the project is fixing two specific bugs: a CUPS printing system issue that can freeze print jobs containing many images, and a well known problem where the printer engine jams on exactly the fifth print job after power on. The fifth job bug is fixed by rebuilding how the software talks to the printer over USB, keeping one continuous connection across jobs the way Canon's own driver does, instead of opening and closing the connection for every job. Beyond driver installation, the script also removes old Canon driver installs and print queues before reinstalling, resolves USB conflicts with other system services that might be holding the printer, and can share the printer over a local network so other Linux or Windows computers can print to it, including separate setup scripts for Windows clients. It includes automatic troubleshooting for when the printer stops responding, a rollback option if a patch causes new problems, and permanent detailed logging so that if something goes wrong later, the log file already has the information needed to diagnose it. To use it, you need a Canon LBP2900 or LBP2900B connected by USB, root access on the machine, and an Ubuntu system based on the 24.04 noble release or a compatible Linux Mint version, since the CUPS bug fix depends on that release's package sources. An internet connection to the Ubuntu or Mint package repositories is required even if you supply the driver files yourself ahead of time, since the script still installs several build dependencies during setup.