I spent around an hour piecing information together about how to install this printer on Arch. It seems Canon’s support for this device is near non-existant. Their newer devices seem to be better supported. I recently installed a PIXMA 5350 on my parents Ubuntu 12.04 desktop within five minutes. Installing this older model on Arch Linux wasn’t as straightforward.
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Update April, 2010: I’m happy to report this pain is avoided with the latest (10.26.2) MP620 CUPS drivers from Canon when installing this printer on Snow Leopard. After installing the drivers, then adding a new printer, you have to wait a few minutes for SL to detect the printer before it displays it in the list.

This might seem like dumb thing to blog about but I spent an hour or more trying to get this to work. Partly due to my own stubbornness, I resent using driver installation CDs. The driver on them is typically out of date (certainly for graphics cards), and they’re loaded with bloatware crap you don’t need to operate your device / peripheral. Manufacturers love to re-invent the wheel, providing a utility for a service that already exists within the operating system.
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