Day 112: the old printer seems to be having print-head trouble, so time to buy a new printer. Of course the folks at the shop had no idea about Linux. Myself I would have recommended an Epson or HP model, since I have first-hand experience with those brands, but he wanted another Canon. Took it home, unpacked it and plugged it in. Saw a message on the screen that Linux Mint had detected a “Canon MG2500-series” printer. Went into the CUPS printer-management screen; selected the newly-added printer, tried printing a test page. It worked. That was it. No need to go hunting for drivers or anything. By the way, the printer, a Pixma MG2560, was $39.99 at Noel Leeming. Replacement ink cartridges (of the “standard” capacity, same as those that came with the printer) would have added up to over $70. Seems like they would really rather you didn’t bother buying the ink, just get a new printer when the ink runs out...