How to Install Brother Printers and Scanners

Problems and successes with specific brands/models of printers
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bones01
Posts: 371
Joined: Mon 11 Aug 2008, 07:47
Location: Melbourne, Aus

#61 Post by bones01 »

Hi RCRN

I've got Precise Puppy up and running, but can't get the printer working. It's a Brother HL-2130. I've tried following your instructions on the front page, and found the relevant .deb files for the printer, but nothing else seems to be working.

Could I trouble to make a .pet for this if possible?

Thanks for all you do to keep the community connected and working.

Bones
Dell Latitude D630 running Puppy 5.2.8 frugal, Macpup 525 frugal (if I can get it working again. Sadly, I couldn't get it fixed :? )
Precise Puppy 5.4 live DVD
Precise 5.7.3 on USB

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rcrsn51
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#62 Post by rcrsn51 »

bones01 wrote:Could I trouble to make a .pet for this if possible?
Can do. But first, I would like to find out what went wrong with your install. As a test:

1. I downloaded and installed the "debbi" pet.

2. I downloaded the two HL-2130 debs.

3. I ran

Code: Select all

debbi hl2130lpr-2.1.0-1.i386.deb
debbi cupswrapperHL2130-2.0.4-2.i386.deb
4. I checked in CUPS. An HL-2130 printer had been created for me that looked OK.

When you looked in CUPS, did you not see the printer? If it was there, did it not work?

bones01
Posts: 371
Joined: Mon 11 Aug 2008, 07:47
Location: Melbourne, Aus

#63 Post by bones01 »

Thanks rcrsn, I'll try it when I'm home tonight.

Cheers.
Bones
Dell Latitude D630 running Puppy 5.2.8 frugal, Macpup 525 frugal (if I can get it working again. Sadly, I couldn't get it fixed :? )
Precise Puppy 5.4 live DVD
Precise 5.7.3 on USB

bones01
Posts: 371
Joined: Mon 11 Aug 2008, 07:47
Location: Melbourne, Aus

It works

#64 Post by bones01 »

Thanks for the extra instructions rcrsn. They worked a treat.

When I tried to follow the instructions on the first post, the only results I got in the console were "File could not be found" - or something similar. Anyway, these further instructions were very helpful.

So, for the benefit of others, and myself at some later stage, this is what I did:
D/L the .deb files and saved in 'root'
D/L the debbi.pet and installed
Opened a console and typed "debbi hl2130lpr-2.1.0-1.i386.deb" and 'enter'
Next, typed " debbi cupswrapperHL2130-2.0.4-2.i386.deb" and 'enter'.

Then Menu>Setup>Cups Printer Wizard>Yes
When the CUPS page opened, clicked on "Adding Printers and Classes">Add Printer and followed the prompts from there. My printer (Brother HL2130) was shown, so everything flowed simply from there, with the driver listed in the options.

Thanks again for your help and guidance. I'm a happy Puppy oncee again :D

Enjoy the day.

Bones
Dell Latitude D630 running Puppy 5.2.8 frugal, Macpup 525 frugal (if I can get it working again. Sadly, I couldn't get it fixed :? )
Precise Puppy 5.4 live DVD
Precise 5.7.3 on USB

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rcrsn51
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#65 Post by rcrsn51 »

Deleted.
Last edited by rcrsn51 on Fri 26 Feb 2016, 16:24, edited 1 time in total.

bones01
Posts: 371
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Location: Melbourne, Aus

#66 Post by bones01 »

rcrsn51 wrote:Excellent. For your convenience the next time you need to set up this printer, I have attached a PET below. It will not auto-install the printer in CUPS, so you will need to run the Add Printer procedure.
Thanks again for your patient help. You are greatly appreciated.

Bones
Dell Latitude D630 running Puppy 5.2.8 frugal, Macpup 525 frugal (if I can get it working again. Sadly, I couldn't get it fixed :? )
Precise Puppy 5.4 live DVD
Precise 5.7.3 on USB

Sage
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Joined: Tue 04 Oct 2005, 08:34
Location: GB

#67 Post by Sage »

More Brother printer grief with a friend's HL2240 in Slacko 5.4.
Followed the destructions on page-the-first. The Brother website recommended using the 2170w driver. Everything worked like a dream. Printer shows in all the panels (as HL2240) along with it's usual options. It's even in lsusb as itself (2240). Hit print, the usual faint click prior to actual printing emits from the printer. Then silence.....
Seem to have done everything that bones did and some, without success. For the record, Mint recognised and installed it without hassle, first attempt.
Appreciate any comments, suggestions. Please be advised that my access to this system is severely limited due to friend still working for his living.
Thanks.

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rcrsn51
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#68 Post by rcrsn51 »

Sage wrote:More Brother printer grief with a friend's HL2240 in Slacko 5.4.
I couldn't find any other reports from you about this printer.
The Brother website recommended using the 2170w driver.

???
I checked the Brother site and there were packages for the HL2240.

However, I did some testing and there are definitely problems with the Brother drivers in Slacko 5.4.

1. I tested my Brother HL2070N using the driver built from the Brother sources and it failed. There were no error messages anywhere. This driver works in every other Puppy, including Slacko 5.3

2. I then installed it in Slacko 5.4 as a Gutenprint HL-2060. This worked fine.

3. I then downgraded Ghostscript using this PET. It worked!

So there is something slightly different about the version of Ghostscript in Slacko 5.4 that the Brother drivers don't like. However, it works fine with other printer models that I have tested.
Last edited by rcrsn51 on Fri 26 Feb 2016, 16:25, edited 2 times in total.

Sage
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Location: GB

#69 Post by Sage »

Thanks for your prompt response, rc.
'More' didn't refer to mine, but other folks' issues!
Yes, the 2240 is indeed there, but when clicked it showed 2170w !
Interested to learn that even you experienced problems - not much hope for YT, then!
Most grateful for your intervention and kind effort to produce a .pet. I will endeavour to contact friend at the weekend when they release him from bondage...
Hope I can manage to uninstall the present files.

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rcrsn51
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#70 Post by rcrsn51 »

Sage wrote:Yes, the 2240 is indeed there, but when clicked it showed 2170w !
Where are you seeing this?
Hope I can manage to uninstall the present files.
You shouldn't need to. Just install the new PET and Ghostscript.

Then delete the old printer from CUPS and let it auto-detect the printer again.

Sage
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Joined: Tue 04 Oct 2005, 08:34
Location: GB

#71 Post by Sage »

Where are you seeing this?
I think it was direct from the Brother site, but I am not able to confirm from this location. I remember there were three or four printers listed under LPR(?) for the 2240.
The first was undesignated, the second was 2240D and I forget the other(s). I chose the first and 2170w popped up as the Brother (recommended) choice. When I installed it, it came up as detecting the 2240, whereas it didn't detect anything prior.

Ghostscript? Where from?

I will try what you suggest when I get access again. Many thanks.

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rcrsn51
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#72 Post by rcrsn51 »

Sage wrote:I think it was direct from the Brother site,
Could you get me a link to this site? Maybe the GB site is different from the US one.
Ghostscript? Where from?
From the link I provided above.

Sage
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Joined: Tue 04 Oct 2005, 08:34
Location: GB

#73 Post by Sage »

get me a link
Will do if I remember and when I can get access!
From the link
Ah! Misunderstood - thought that was specific to your HL2070N for a special font you required!
Ta, again.

linbie
Posts: 64
Joined: Sat 09 Jan 2010, 05:03

Thank You

#74 Post by linbie »

Just a quick note to say thank you

Followed your instruction I now have a Brother MFC7362N as a USB printer and a Brother HL-3040CN as a network printer running under Slacko 5.3.1.

Many thanks for clear instructions (some of the answers were in posts following the first post)

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rcrsn51
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#75 Post by rcrsn51 »

Excellent. Did you also get network scanning working with your MFC7362N? This model is the first one reported here that uses brscan4.

linbie
Posts: 64
Joined: Sat 09 Jan 2010, 05:03

MFC on USB

#76 Post by linbie »

Hi
The MFC is connected to the main PC (Slacko 5.3) via USB - I have not tried to connect it via network. The colour laser is used by everyone in the family hence networked

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earl
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Re: How to Install Brother Printers and Scanners

#77 Post by earl »

[quote="rcrsn51"]Some Brother printers can be installed using the drivers that are included with Puppy. However, the Brother website offers a large collection of Linux drivers for their models. Here are the steps to install one.

DEBBI

The Brother downloads are available in either DEB or RPM format, but you will use the DEB versions. To install the packages, you need the "Debian-Brother Installer". Download and install debbi-1.1.pet from the attachment below. It copies the file debbi to the folder /root/my-applications/bin.

This little program will extract the contents of a DEB package to your hard drive and run the post-install script. You will use it for both printer and scanner drivers.

Some older Brother models also require the "csh" shell instead of the "bash" shell used by Puppy. See the list here under Pre-required Procedure (6). If you have one of these printers, install the csh-6.16.00-i486.pet from below before continuing.

PRINTERS

Start the installation process with your printer turned ON.

Go to http://solutions.brother.com/linux/en_us and select Download Printer Driver.

Locate your printer. You will download two files - the LPR driver and the CUPS wrapper driver. Get the DEB versions. Select Save to Disk and store them in /root. As an example, let's assume that you downloaded the files mfc210clpr-1.0.2-1.i386.deb and cupswrapperMFC210C-1.0.2-3.i386.deb.

Go to your /root folder and press the ~ key. This opens a console window. To display a list of files, type:

Code: Select all

ls
Now type:

Code: Select all

debbi mfc210clpr-1.0.2-1.i386.deb
followed by

Code: Select all

debbi cupswrapperMFC210C-1.0.2-3.i386.deb
This procedure is an ideal situation for using Tab Completion to avoid having to type the whole filename. Try typing:

Code: Select all

debbi <space> mfc <tab> <enter>
In most cases, you can ignore any error messages from the debbi script.

The post-install script creates a PPD file for your printer and stores it in the folder /usr/share/cups/model. And depending on your model, it may also add a printer in CUPS attached to a USB port, ready to use.

However, before launching the CUPS Wizard, there is another step. The Brother driver keeps its own printer configuration settings separate from CUPS. In these settings, the default paper size may be set to A4. So if you are using Letter size, you must manually change it.

Go to /usr/local/Brother/.../inf and locate the file brxxxrc, where xxx is the name of your printer. Open the file and change the PaperType from A4 to Letter.

Run the CUPS wizard and go to Manage Printers. Try printing a test page for the new printer. If it works, you're done! If not, you may need to delete the printer, restart CUPS, let it rediscover the printer and then add it again. You will find the new PPD file in the Brother category.

For your convenience, the drivers for several Brother models are attached below as ready-to-use PETs. These packages do not automatically install a printer, so you will need to run the CUPS Find New Printers option. There is a second page of drivers posted farther down this thread.

NETWORK PRINTERS

If you are using a Puppy with CUPS 1.3 and let CUPS auto-detect your printer, the device URI will look like

Code: Select all

socket://192.168.2.15
However, in newer Puppies with CUPS 1.4, the URI may look like

Code: Select all

lpd://BRN_B7DD77/BINARY_P1
When you try to print, CUPS will fail with the error message "Unable to locate". This is because CUPS needs a way of looking up the IP address that matches the printer name.

To solve this problem, open the file /etc/hosts and add a line like

Code: Select all

192.168.2.15 BRN_B7DD77
___________________________________________________________________

For some reason my router changed the IP for the printer, so /etc/hosts went to the wrong place... and ping looked into the abiss! If I entered:

ping brw00242XXXXXXX, it responded with 192.168.1.25; what I told it!

In windows ping brw00242XXXXXXX, returned 192.168.1.44; so make sure your /etc/host is correct

All working now:

Gateway MX7120 and a Brother HL-2170W using Precise 5.4.3

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rcrsn51
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Re: How to Install Brother Printers and Scanners

#78 Post by rcrsn51 »

earl wrote:For some reason my router changed the IP for the printer, so /etc/hosts went to the wrong place
To prevent this from happening again, you need to give your printer a static IP address. There should be a setting for this in the networking section of your printer's control panel.

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earl
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Re: How to Install Brother Printers and Scanners

#79 Post by earl »

rcrsn51 wrote:
earl wrote:For some reason my router changed the IP for the printer, so /etc/hosts went to the wrong place
To prevent this from happening again, you need to give your printer a static IP address. There should be a setting for this in the networking section of your printer's control panel.
I'll have to read up on printer as its control panel is not physical but in software, so I'll probably do it in windows on my decktop as its connected to the router

Many thanks - great post...

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rcrsn51
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#80 Post by rcrsn51 »

You can probably get to your printer's control panel from Puppy. Start your web browser and enter the printer's IP address as the URL.

If your printer changes IP address again, here is a quick way to find it. Run PeasyPort and scan your network for Port 80 or 9100.

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