How to Install Brother Printers and Scanners

Problems and successes with specific brands/models of printers
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WoodLark
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#101 Post by WoodLark »

I downloaded the .pet from this thread, then I clicked on the .pet. It asked if I wanted to install so I clicked on ok. After a few seconds a dialogue box popped up saying the .pet had failed to install.

Thinking the .pet might have been damaged in the download, I tried to install directly from the thread. Got same result.

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rcrsn51
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#102 Post by rcrsn51 »

I tried this in Slacko 5.5 using its default Firefox browser and the install worked fine.

What browser are you using? Could you try this in a different Puppy? Maybe your setup has gotten corrupted.

I was going to make a driver PET for your MFC-7860DW and save you the trouble of running debbi. But you need to resolve this issue first.

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WoodLark
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#103 Post by WoodLark »

I am using Seamonkey 2.20, but I do not see what the browser would have to with whether or not a .pet would install as the browser is not even open during the installation.

I have installed other software from .pet packages and have had no problems.

Here is the exact message I get from the Puppy Installer:

"Error, package debbi-1.1.pet failed to install."

This is the first time I have ever seen the message.

If the browser does somehow affect the process, I think Firefox is still somewhere on my system and could be reactivated.

I currently, sort of, have the printer working. I selected the driver for the Brother DCP-8045D from the list already on the system. This works mostly, except that the last page does not always print on multipage documents.

Thank you for all the help you are giving me!

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WoodLark
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#104 Post by WoodLark »

I just noticed that you suggest I try a different Puppy.

I would really like to be using Puppy Precise, but that Puppy does not see my hard drives; I suspect that it is missing the drivers for my HD controller.

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rcrsn51
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#105 Post by rcrsn51 »

Boot off the Slacko CD. At the initial 5-second pause, type "puppy pfix=ram". This will give you a temporary clean install.

Try to download and install debbi.

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WoodLark
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#106 Post by WoodLark »

That worked! I booted of the CD with "puppy pfix=ram", ran debbi-1.1.pet, then moved the file debbi to a location outside of my pupsave file. I rebooted in my normal manner, and moved debbi back into the /root/my-applications/bin folder.

I then proceeded to follow the thread instructions. Installation went great.

I did notice that the top margins on some pages appeared to slip, but I suspect that is in the mechanics of the printer and has little to do with the drivers.

Thanks again for your help!

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rcrsn51
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#107 Post by rcrsn51 »

Excellent.
I did notice that the top margins on some pages appeared to slip,


The brMFC7860DWrc file has the PaperType set to A4. Have you changed this to Letter? See the instructions on Page 1.
Last edited by rcrsn51 on Fri 26 Feb 2016, 16:28, edited 1 time in total.

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WoodLark
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#108 Post by WoodLark »

Thank you for the .pet. I tried it as you suggested, and it works fine.

I had changed the paper size from A4 to Letter as you recommended.

After you brought it up, I even tried going back to A4 to see if it would help, but it made no difference.

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earl
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Brother Printer HL-2170W

#109 Post by earl »

@rcrsn51

I have migrated to 5.7.1 on a Dell Inspiron laptop, since the last time I posted. I owe you a over due thank you for your help on installing my Brother printer on an old gateway that finally gave up the ghost...

I - this time - followed your detailed instructions on how to build a HL-2170W.ppd file and was quite successful.

My next project is to build a printer / scanner ppd.

I continue to run off a thumb drive, on a switched usb expander where I also have a wireless mouse and a panda wireless wifi thingy.

If anyone needs the HL-2170W.ppd or when I'm succussful with creating a MFC-J4410DW.ppd, just let me know!

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rcrsn51
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#110 Post by rcrsn51 »

@earl: Glad to hear that you got your HL-2170W working.

Just to be clear, the "debbi" procedure does more than create a PPD file. It also installs all the printer driver content that you downloaded in the .DEB packages. A PPD file is just a configuration text file used by CUPS. It is only one part of the driver installation.
Last edited by rcrsn51 on Fri 26 Feb 2016, 16:29, edited 1 time in total.

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WoodLark
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#111 Post by WoodLark »

I installed Puppy Precise 5.6.1 on my computer yesterday. I installed my two Brother printers using rcrsn51's Debbi program (HL-5250DN and .pet (MFC-7860DW). Both printers worked perfectly.

Today, I tried to print both a document (to both printers in turn) from openoffice writer and a test page from CUPS (1.4.8). In all cases, the printer activity lights come on and there are clicking sounds, but nothing comes out of the printer. CUPS reports the jobs completed.

I set the CUPS reporting level to debug, restarted CUPS, and tried again. Results were the same, and the log reports no errors.

Although, something must have changed, I can't imagine what. I did correct a problem with GRUB, and I installed the .SFS for Skype.

This is a real head-scratcher for me!

I also tried installing the MFC-7860DW as a usb printer. The results were the same.

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rcrsn51
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#112 Post by rcrsn51 »

WoodLark wrote:and I installed the .SFS for Skype
Uninstall this and try again. This is a not-uncommon problem where some badly constructed package alters the Puppy filesystem permissions and causes CUPS to fail.

Where did you get the Skype package?

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WoodLark
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#113 Post by WoodLark »

I unloaded the .SFS for Skype and tried printing again. Still no luck.

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rcrsn51
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#114 Post by rcrsn51 »

There are two strategies.

1. Start a clean install and add packages one-by-one until you find the culprit.

2. Go through your filesystem and look for changes. All folders should be owned by root:root and have permissions rwx r-x r-x. Check /usr, /usr/lib, /usr/bin, /usr/sbin, etc.

Have you tried uninstalling OpenOffice?

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WoodLark
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#115 Post by WoodLark »

Thanks for the tip that it was a permissions issue.

/tmp was owned by "nobody". I think this must have been related to the LHMP package. I changed owner to root, and set the permissions to 777. This seems to have solved the printing problem. Hopefully it didn't create other issues.

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greengeek
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#116 Post by greengeek »

Is it theoretically possible to install CUPS as an sfs, so that it would be easier to recover from this sort of permissions corruption?

If a CUPS sfs could be unloaded, then reloaded, it would seem more simple to resolve such a problem.

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rcrsn51
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#117 Post by rcrsn51 »

WoodLark wrote:/tmp was owned by "nobody". I think this must have been related to the LHMP package. I changed owner to root, and set the permissions to 777. This seems to have solved the printing problem. Hopefully it didn't create other issues.
Nice work. The best setting for /tmp is 1777 - ie. set the "sticky" bit.
Is it theoretically possible to install CUPS as an sfs, so that it would be easier to recover from this sort of permissions corruption?
Not really, the problem wasn't with CUPS - it was with some other package.

researcher
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Brother printers

#118 Post by researcher »

I tried to download the brother_mfcj220-1.1.pet but all I get is general error. Is there anyone who could possibly fix this or upload it again? I would be very grateful.

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rcrsn51
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#119 Post by rcrsn51 »

Fixed. To conserve space on the Murga server, many large (1 MB !!) attachments were deleted. So I have posted it externally.

Go here again.

researcher
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Brother printers

#120 Post by researcher »

Got it. Thanks

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