HOWTO_Brother_Printer/Scanners

Requirements / Resources

You need to have udev, hal,(and possibly coldplug for a USB connection) in your system. And a kernel of 2.6.x probably too.

Brother's general 'Linux solutions center'

has useful information http://solutions.brother.com/linux/en_us/

Brother Linux FAQ

http://solutions.brother.com/linux/sol/printer/linux/linux_faq-2.html

2008.09.25 If you have already installed and still can't print, note Brother's Linux FAQ at # I'm using Gentoo Linux and I receive the following error mssage:" Filter "brlpdwrapperXXXXX" for printer "XXXXX" not available: No such file or directory" where it helpfully states:

When you use printer in a Gentoo environment, make a symbolic link to "/usr/libexec/cups/filter/brlpdwrapper[printer name]" after the driver installation.

# ln -s /usr/lib/cups/filter/brlpdwrapper[printer name] /usr/libexec/cups/filter/brlpdwrapper[printer name]

Install Printer

All users download the LPD driver rpm install matching your printer model from Brother's website.

You may also want to check Brothers instruction's if any thing changes.

If you'll be using CUPS, you probably want to get it up and running first.

Install the rpm package

where xxxx.rpm is the name of the RPM file.

 # rpm -ihv --nodeps xxxx.rpm 

If complaints about a missing directory, eg /var/spool/lpd, make the directory and rerun the installing, with the force option.

Install the CUPS Wrapper driver

If using CUPS do this. If using the LPD print system, see below. You can use cups with Network, USB,...

Refer to Brother's CUPS drivers page for model/series specific instructions and download the appropriate CUPS warpper driver for your model.

In general

 # rpm -ihv --nodeps xxxx..rpm

make a symbolic link to "/usr/libexec/cups/filter/brlpdwrapper[printer name]" after the driver installation.

# ln -s /usr/lib/cups/filter/brlpdwrapper[printer name] /usr/libexec/cups/filter/brlpdwrapper[printer name]

If complaints about /etc/init.d/cups not present, it is probably safe to ignore. If installation fails, you may need to symlink /etc/init.d/cups to /etc/init.d/cupsd.

Also for a 64 bit system it was necessary to move some files from /usr/lib to /usr/lib32. exact file names may vary for your printer

#  mv /usr/lib/libbrcompij2.so* /usr/lib32/

In some cases you have to execute the Binarays to get /usr/lib/cups/filter/.... in my Case I had to execute the executables in the Dir: /usr/local/Brother/cupswrapper/

Configure CUPS

• Go to your local CUPS Administration interface, e.g. http://localhost:631
• Add or Configure printer as needed
  • For the Device setting, you can use "LPR/LPD Host or Printer" or "AppSocket/JetDirect", but you must modify the access uri accordingly
  • set the uri e.g.: lpd://192.168.1.99/binary_p1 or socket://192.168.1.99:9100 with the ip address of your printer
  • uri for usb like USB://Brother/[MODELNAME]
  • select Brother as the manufacturer. If not there, restart cups, e.g. # /etc/init.d/cupsd restart
  • select your model

Using the LPD print system for USB, Parallel,or network connected printers (without CUPS )

edit /etc/printcap with you favorite editor

I dont know what all these lines do, taken from

DCP540CN:\
        :mx=0:\
        :sd=/var/spool/lpd/dcp540cn:\
        :sh:\
        :lp=/dev/usb/lp0:\ 
        :if=/usr/local/Brother/Printer/dcp540cn/lpd/filterdcp540cn:

DCP540CN:\
        :mx=0:\
        :sd=/var/spool/lpd/dcp540cn:\
        :sh:\
        :rm=192.168.3.3\
        :rp=lp\
        :if=/usr/local/Brother/Printer/dcp540cn/lpd/filterdcp540cn:

HL1440:\
        :mx=0:\
        :sd=/var/spool/lpd/HL1440:\
        :sh:\
        :lp=/dev/lp0:\
        :if=/usr/local/Brother/lpd/filterHL1440:

Verify

Verify you can print. If not research you problem and add any missed steps to the wiki.

Install Scanner

The instructions at http://solutions.brother.com/linux/en_us/ worked for me with no hassle on my amd64, using brscan2 on a MFC-5440CN. I don't use the scankey tool.

emerge sane-backends sane-frontends and xsane if desired

# emerge sane-backends sane-frontends xsane -av

Note from amd64 user

This (the older, below) instructions did not work at all for me, neither with my printer or scanner, and by reading brothers instructions it is obvious why-- because several steps are missing. Steps that were missing included creating device files for the scanner.

My recommendation is to emerge rpm and then follow Brothers instructions very carefully - they are correct, but badly laid out so that you have to carefully read them to not miss important details.

- To add to this, I (a non 64bit user) agree; this HOWTO does not correctly set up scanning on my DCP-130C.

- - A link to the installation instructions would be nice. I have found only .deb and .rpm driver packages...

-  Check out driver selection and download and instructions.

old how-to

These are older instructions, and left here in case they are useful to anyone. Please help migrate any working instructions from here to the new sections of Printer and Scanner

Printer/Scanner Instructions

• You need to have tcsh, file-roller and rpm support enabled on your machine first.

 # emerge -av app-arch/file-roller app-arch/rpm app-shells/tcsh

• Find and install the drivers for your Brother printer/scanner from Brother's web site. You will probably need to use file-roller to extract the files from the appropriate .deb (right column) or .rpm (left column). Put the files in the appropriate place (/usr/local/Brother/* and other directories, depending on your printer).
• Install these Files following the Instructions on the Brother Page
• You need to run /etc/init.d/cupsd restart (the cupswrapper uses /etc/init.d/cups which does not exist)

• Make sure the permissions in /usr/local/Brother/* are set properly. I had print jobs shoot through CUPS, thinking they were printed when they weren't, because lpr wasn't able to access the directories. Start by setting everything rwx and then pull back from there... (or let RPM set it up-- I extracted the files manually and set up the symlnks manually, so the permissions weren't set properly.)

(older) Scanner Installation

• Now emerge sane-backends and sane-fronteneds and xsane and CUPS.

 # emerge sane-frontends sane-backends xsane cups

• Figure out the product id and vendor id for your model by running /usr/bin/sane-find-scanner.

Another way for USB-printers would be to run lsusb

• Add a udev rules file as follows: /etc/udev/rules.d/51-libsane.rules.

  
# Brother|DCP 7020
SYSFS{idVendor}=="04f9", SYSFS{idProduct}=="0183", MODE="660", GROUP="scanner"
# Brother|MFC 5100C
SYSFS{idVendor}=="04f9", SYSFS{idProduct}=="010f", MODE="660", GROUP="scanner"
# Brother|MFC 6800
SYSFS{idVendor}=="04f9", SYSFS{idProduct}=="0111", MODE="660", GROUP="scanner"
# Brother|MFC 210C.
SYSFS{idVendor}=="04f9", SYSFS{idProduct}=="0161", MODE="660", GROUP="scanner" 
# Brother|DCP-120C.
SYSFS{idVendor}=="04f9", SYSFS{idProduct}=="0190", MODE="660", GROUP="scanner"
 

• Add some lines to /etc/hotplug/usb/libsane.usermap for your Brother so that it looks like this:

 
# Brother|DCP 7020
libusbscanner             0x0003      0x04f9   0x0183    0x0000       0x0000   0x00         0x00            0x00            0x00            0x00   0x00               0x00000000
# Brother|MFC 5100C
libusbscanner             0x0003      0x04f9   0x010f    0x0000       0x0000   0x00         0x00            0x00            0x00            0x00   0x00               0x00000000
# Brother|MFC 6800
libusbscanner             0x0003      0x04f9   0x0111    0x0000       0x0000   0x00         0x00            0x00            0x00            0x00   0x00               0x00000000
# Brother|MFC 210C
libusbscanner             0x0003      0x04f9   0x0161    0x0000       0x0000   0x00         0x00            0x00            0x00            0x00   0x00               0x00000000
# Brother|DCP-120C
libusbscanner             0x0003      0x04f9   0x0190    0x0000       0x0000   0x00         0x00            0x00            0x00            0x00   0x00               0x00000000
 

• Next, restart hal:

 
# /etc/init.d/hald restart
  

• Then go to the CUPS daemon CUPS via your browser (http://localhost:631). Add your printer via the web interface and try printing a test page.

• Make sure that the user you wish to use the scanner is in the "plugdev" and "scanner" groups. In GNOME, this can be set in the Desktop->Administration->Users and Groups menu option.

• Next, try running xsane from the terminal. First as root, and then as a regular user. It should work.