Canon PIXMA IP4200 printer now working with Linux drivers on Ubuntu

I have already covered using the Cannon ip4200 printer using Fedora / Suse Linux in my Hardware review of Canon IP4200 printer (with Linux drivers). When I left it I did not have the printer working with Linux, but I have now got it working without having to resort to the commercial printer drivers. This was one of the few problems I was having with Ubuntu, so it’s nice for this to be resolved.

I found the solution at: Ubuntu Wiki (Canon IP4200 page). It turns out the problem is due to a the printer driver being unable to find the libtiff.so.3 library. The solution is therefore to create a link to /usr/lib/libtiff.so.4.

The printer now works really well, and even allows duplex printing, which I didn’t get working when I was using Fedora (I think due to the way they use an external link into the cups driver, rather than installing it directly into cups).

The only feature lacking is the ability to print directly onto a printable CD (not available in the US version of the printer). To have that feature would mean buying the commercial driver from TurboPrint, although hopefully someone will be able to work out the changes needed to the driver and release it to the public. Unfortunately I don’t really know much about writing Linux Hardware drivers, and I still have a load of other things I want to do anyway.

There were a couple of very minor errors in the Ubuntu Wiki (Canon IP4200 page), which I have updated on the site. One of the great things about communities helping each other out! If you spot an error or omission you can go and make the change, so that others can benefit.