I recently installed Ubuntu 12.04 LTS after not using any Linux distro for several years. My Canon MP280 worked perfectly as far as printing goes and I was even able to set it up on a Samba share and print from a Windows 7 machine.

However when I open Simple Scan it does not detect a scanner. I did find some instructions online but the scanner is still not recognized in Simple Scan even after installing a couple .deb packages from the Canon site.

I also couldn't seem to find the ScanGear package after installing those .deb packages as well but I haven't had a chance to delve fully into it. Thanks for your time!