How to install the Canon MP610 Printer drivers on 64-bit Ubuntu Lucid Lynx 10.04 (Amd64)

This article outlines in simple steps how to install the Canon MP610 printer drivers and get up and running on a 64-bit Ubuntu Lucid Lynx 10.04 platform.

The Canon MP610 is an excellent printer and several previous versions of Ubuntu supported this printer right-out of the box, plug and play style. Unfortunately, the 64-bit Ubuntu Lucid Lynx 10.04 does not have plug and play support for this printer and thus, it does not install by default.  Furthermore, the 64-bit pre-built drivers for this printer are not available. However, the 32-bit pre-built drivers are available.  Lastly, there is also a dependency failure for the libcupsys2 package in the 32-bit version of the driver (the libcupsys2 package has been superseded with the libcup2 package). The situation suddenly appears quite technical and does not look very good.

There are several websites and forums that propose solutions to the above problems.  These solutions vary from compiling the printer drivers from source, to moving around several library files from one folder to another and so on.  Although these solutions work, they are not satisfactory in my eyes because they are prohibitive for all but advanced users of Linux.  A good solution should be as simple as possible but no simpler.

To that end, I will outline below several simple commands that may be run from a terminal (cut-and-paste) which will successfully install the Canon MP610 printer drivers on a 64-bit Ubuntu 10.04 platform. I will then finish this article by outlining how to setup the printer and print a test page.

6 Simple Steps to install the Canon MP610 Printer Driver on 64-bit Ubuntu Lucid Lynx 10.04

1. Ensure the prerequisite packages are installed. Open up a terminal (From the Ubuntu Desktop Menubar, Select:
   Applications | Accessories | Terminal)
   and run the following command:
   sudo apt-get install ia32-libs cups libcups2 libcups2-dev build-essential
2. Download the Canon MP610 32-bit printer driver package from the Canon Website.  The driver package is called MP610_debian.tgz (<7MB).  Note: I have linked to the European Canon website, you may obtain the driver from the Canon website appropriate to your location.
3. Extract the contents of the package MP610_debian.tgz to a folder of your choice.  It should contain the following three files:
   1. cnijfilter-common_2.80-1_i386.deb
   2. cnijfilter-mp610series_2.80-1_i386.deb
   3. cnijfilter-common-2.80-1.tar
4. Install the cnijfilter-common driver using the following command:
   sudo dpkg -i --force-architecture --ignore-depends=libcupsys2 cnijfilter-common_2.80-1_i386.deb
5. Install the cnijfilter-mp610 driver using the following command:
   sudo dpkg -i --force-architecture --ignore-depends=libcupsys2 cnijfilter-mp610series_2.80-1_i386.deb
6. Lastly, restart the CUPS service.
   sudo /etc/init.d/cups restart

Wait a few moments to allow CUPS to restart before continuing on to the next section.

5 Simple Steps to Setup the Canon MP610 Printer and Print a test page.

1. From the Ubuntu Desktop Menubar, Select:
   System | Administration | Printing
2. Select Add to add a printer.
3. Select Canon MP610 when prompted for a device.
   The Installer will attempt to locate a driver for the printer.  This may take a few minutes.
4. A dialog box containing details of the printer will be presented.  Select:
   Apply
5. You will then be asked if you wish to print a test page.  Select:
   Yes.

Congratulations!!!  You may now print using the Canon MP610 printer.