Mike Beach

Recently Lexmark published drivers for many of its all-in-one printer/scanner/faxes. Here’s how to get them working on Lucid (NOT Karmic). I’ve tested this on a X5650 on Lucid, 32-bit. It should work for X5070 Series, X7600 Series, X6600 Series, X5600 Series, Z2400 Series, X4900 Series, X4600 Series, and X3600 Series as well.

1. Download and Extract the Lexmark Driver Installation Script

Here is the driver file for the printers listed above:

http://www.downloaddelivery.com/downloads/cpd/lexmark-08z-series-driver-1.0-1.i386.deb.sh.tar.gz

Based on the comments, you might also find it here:

http://downloads.lexmark.com/downloads/cpd/lexmark-08z-series-driver-1.0-1.i386.deb.sh.tar.gz

After the file has completed downloading, extract the script to your home folder. You can do this by double-clicking the file. Then click the Extract button near the top of the new window. On the left select your home folder (it will be your user name). Then click the Extract button at the bottom. Then click Quit at the prompt.

2. Install the Drivers and Printer

The easiest way I have found to do this is to switch to root in the terminal, and then run the script from there. For some reason if you don’t do this the script will keep asking for the root password, but it will not accept it.

Go to Applications > Accessories > Terminal. In the terminal type:

sudo sh

Then type:

sh lexmark-08z-series-driver-1.0-1.i386.deb.sh

Follow the instructions in the prompt, making sure not to plug in the printer until instructed. Most likely you will end up with two printers installed, but thats ok. During the installation you will install the printer and Ubuntu will also detect it. Most likely the one Ubuntu detected and installed will work.

Once the installation has finished, you can close the terminal window.

3. Test

You should now test to see if your printer works (or to see which out of the two installed works). Go to System > Administration > Printing. Right-click one of the printers you just installed. Push the Print Test Page button. If it does not print, try the other installed printer. One of them should work.

Scanning should work automatically now. Go to Applications > Graphics > Simple Scan. Try to scan something, and it should show up.

Based on http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1444847 [April 22, 2010]
[Edited for updates and formatting]