Hello,
I tried to print to my Canon MG5150 (MG5100 series) but it seems that there is not driver available which I can use on my new MBA with MacOS 26.
On my “older” MBP (also MacOS 26) no problem, because here a driver exists from the former Mac …
I tried to install the Canon Driver 3.4 from the Mac-Support site but it needs Rosetta (and still not compatible with MacOS 26).
Any ideas?
Thanks, Claus
I think you may be out of luck here.
The PIXMA MG5150 isn’t on the US support site. I guess it was only sold to certain markets. I did find support on the UK site: https://www.canon.co.uk/support/consumer/products/printers/pixma/mg-series/pixma-mg5150.html
That having been said, they only list drivers for macOS versions 10.7 (Lion) up to macOS 10.13 (High Sierra). So there will be no help through official channels.
Their official manual download is an installer package!, not just a PDF or something. So I can’t view it without installing software. How completely unacceptable, and something I’m unwilling to do.
The specifications don’t mention anything resembling a standardized printing language (PostScript or PCL), so the only interface is probably proprietary.
I suppose you could try to download and install the High Sierra (macOS 10.13) drivers. But I suspect they won’t work. The fact that they don’t support any newer macOS, and that was the last version to support 32-bit applications tells me that it is probably a 32-bit driver and therefore won’t work with any newer version of macOS (Rosetta 2 can only translate 64-bit Intel code). But give it a try.
Thats too bad, a very well printer and scanner not supported anymore.
I contacted the Canon support, exited to read their answer (I guess … Sorry, not supported anymore).
:-(
I think @Shamino’s answer was correct. I have an OS26 virtual machine and just tried installing the driver that he suggested.
By default, macOS 26 wouldn’t allow the installer to run for security reasons, but that was easily overcome (System Settings > Privacy & Security > Security > Click “Open Anyway” button).
The installer ran, but at the end, it said “The Installer encountered an error that caused the installation to fail. Contact the software manufacturer for assistance.”
You might try seeing if the MG5150 will work by sharing it from your older MPB. Another thing to try would be installing Gutenprint, which is 64bit and apparently supports the MG5150. I haven’t tried Gutenprint in years, so I can’t promise anything.
I did see that the open source Gutenprint project has the MG5100-series on its list of supported printers, but I don’t know of a current port of Gutenprint to macOS.
The official Gutenprint macOS page only supports macOS 10.2 through 10.14. According to it’s FAQ, macOS support was dropped in mid-2024 and hasn’t had a maintainer for several years before that.
One potential workaround, requiring a second computer, would be to install Linux on a cheap computer (a Raspberry Pi would probably be sufficient). Connect your PIXMA to that, configured to print via Gutenprint (which is supported on Linux), and configure CUPS to act as a print server. Then configure your Mac to use a generic color PostScript driver, sending its print jobs to that computer.
You won’t have the same high quality that the Canon drivers provide (so photos may not look quite right), but that may work.
You can probably use your old MBP (which you say can print) in that fashion as well. Configure it for printer sharing and see if your new Mac can send PostScript jobs to it.
One other thing. In your initial message, you wrote:
That is a truly ancient version of the driver.
According to the Canon download page, the most recent driver for macOS 10.7 through 10.13 is version 16.20.
Version 3.4 is likely a non-CUPS driver intended for old PowerPC builds of Mac OS X. That would explain why it requires Rosetta.
CUPS-based drivers (like the latest versions) may or may not include executable code. If they consist of only scripts and data files, they may work on a modern version of macOS, even if they are not supported. If they do have code, but that code is 64-bit (which is quite possible), then it may work on Apple Silicon via Rosetta 2.
Again, I’d say give it a try. The worst that can happen is that it won’t work.
Thank you, @Shamino , for your answer.
The idea with a second computer is too complicated. AS I still use my MacBook Pro I might send the files I need to print to this computer. And in case with MacOS 27 everything is broken, then it is sad that Canon produces lots of trash by not supporting such devices with software.
I wonder, is it so difficult to rewrite a driver so it works on a newer Macs/MacOS?
All that is true, but while I had the OS26 virtual machine up and running, I decided to try to install Gutenprint, and installed and ran without any obvious issues. That’s not to say that it will actually work with the MG5150, but at least it made it past the initial hurdles.
It’s a disappointing answer, but unless @clausimausi is a tinkerer, the easiest solution probably is to buy a new printer. At least the old one can be used with the old MBP.
Setting up a Linux PC to act as a print server may be too much if you haven’t done anything like that before. But connecting the printer to your old Mac and turning on printer sharing should be pretty easy. Again, worth a try.
That MG5150 is a 15-year-old model. It’s a lot to expect a company to continue supporting equipment that old. At some point, the number of customers still using it is so small, that it’s not worth the engineering effort.
If current printers are still using a compatible command-set, then it might not be hard to do. If not, then it could be a significant engineering effort.
This is one of the reasons that I recommend people buy printers that use industry-standard languages like PostScript (or to a lesser extent, PCL). It pretty much ensures that you’ll have driver support (generic, if not model-specific), even when the manufacturer stops providing support. If the printer uses something proprietary, then users are left with little recourse when the inevitable occurs.