I bought the MX860 printer because I knew it had Linux support but getting it setup was a bit harder than I had anticipated. The fist step was getting the proper drivers (since the CD that came with the printer only had Windows and MacOS drivers). Luckily the Linux drivers were available on the Canon Europe page at the following link.

The drivers are available in 3 formats: RPM package, Deb package, and the source code. After several failed attempts at getting the source code to compile, I tried installing the RPM package. Unfortunately, I run a 64-bit system and the packages were compiled for a 32-bit. The drivers essentially provide two CUPS backends: cnijnet and ncijusb. However, these files were placed in /usr/lib/cups/backend instead of in /usr/lib64/cups/backend where I needed them. Copying the files to the proper location allowed CUPS to see the drivers and I was pleasantly surprised that this actually worked. Similarly the RPM installed a CUPS filter pstocanonij into /usr/lib/cups/filter instead of into /usr/lib64/cups/filter so this file needs to be copied as well. Just make sure to restart the CUPS server using the following command before continuing to the next step: /etc/init.d/cups restart

Before playing with the CUPS configuration, I wanted to test that the drivers were installed properly and could find the printer on the network. To do this just run /usr/lib/cups/backend/cnijnet from the command prompt and it should return the device URI for the printer. If this works, just open to the CUPS config page in your browser of choice at http://localhost:631/ and add the new printer. The Canon MX860 series Ver.3.10 driver should be available in the pick-list. If the test page does not come out, check your firewall settings. You may also find other discussions on setting up the MX860 in Linux useful. Good luck.