Has anyone with this printer model had the same experience as me? How did they get around it?

I go to the Brother website, follow their installation instructions, Sudo and the command in the terminal and then download the recommended lpr and cupswrapper drivers. By default they go to Ubuntu Software Centre but when I try to install them I receive a warning that "the package is of bad quality, serious problems will occur if I continue". The options offered are cancel or ignore and install anyway.

Being a cautious newbie I cancel. Should I just risk it and install? Brother say they have never heard of this problem with Linux and are really no help.

You have to follow the Brother web site instructions to install their drivers. The whining you are getting is from buntu's package manager. The .deb packages from Brother are not know to software center.

So, you have two options. 1. Follow Brothers instructions and install the drivers.

2. Don't follow their instructions, and don't install the drivers.

Be sure to look at the pre-recs if you have a 64 bit system.

Is Cups installed? To find out, in a web browser, enter http://localhost:631 and press enter. If cups is running, you will get the main page of the cups server. Once the drivers are installed, and any pre-reqs, you install and configure the printer through this interface.

I don't have your model, however I do have an older HL2040. Installed is drivers as Brother said, and its been working ever since.

Cliff,

Thanks for your prompt reply. I thought we had it cracked when it printed out a test page, but no such luck, it wouldn't print a document.

I am obviously doing something wrong. This is the first time I have typed a command in a Terminal. Do I have to use "sudo" every entry I type into the Terminal. I didn't do that after the first line. Right at the start it says type in sudo mkdir/usr/share/cups/model which I did, but received a message saying the it couldn't create directory mkdir because usr/share /cups/model already exists. Is that usual, or should I have put DCP125 instead of the word model?

Brother's installation page showed examples of how entries should look, presumably in the terminal, but mine just remained the same as what I had typed in after clicking "enter" (no further information there)???

To further confuse me, the Software Centre didn't list the downloaded drivers in the installed list, only when I typed DCP125 in the search box did they show up as installed. One of the drivers gave a code to run in the Terminal which I copied and inserted, this gave a long readout so I reckon that bit was OK.

Now the difficult bit. It says open a Terminal (easy,already open) then go to the directory where the drivers are?? What does that mean...the Software Centre, if so what action do you have to take to use them?? Sorry to appear so thick for something everyone else finds easy. I really need the solution, if there is one, spelled out. Regards, Alan.

The question to ask yourself, is, "does the command you are going to run require root privileges?"

If yes, then you may have to enter sudo in front of the command. It has been some time since I used Ubuntu. I never liked their philosophy of forcing the user to use 'sudo'. My approach was always to enable root log in. Once I did a 'su -' and provided the root password, I was logged in as root. I did as many commands as the task required, then logged out of root.

That said, I believe you can enter more than one command as root, without re-entering 'sudo' for each command. The way to do that is; enter 'sudo su' press enter, and provide the root password, once. That should ( I think ) give you root access, and allow you to enter several root commands. Give that a try, look at the command prompt. If it remains as a '$' sign, then no go, if it changes to a '#' symbol, you should be able to enter several commands as root. I can not tell you for sure just how Ubuntu is fudged up, this is one reason I dumped it a while back.

With a message like this, you have the directory created, no need to make it again.

It won't, since the driver is not a Ubuntu supplied package. Not a problem at all. If this printer will print 'Test Page', any problem now, will have something to do with getting the files you want to print, into and out of the print queue.

Can you give me a reference to where this instruction is? I'm guessing this is in the install instructions for the driver, on Brothers site? Not sure why we are there, since the printer will print test page.

Some things to look at. Is the printer set as the default printer on the system? What name did you give it? When you tried a print job, did you send it to the printer name you installed? ( you have to look in the application you are trying to print from ).

If you look in cups; http://localhost:631 in a browser, does the job get to the print queue?

1 members found this post helpful.

I went to this Brother website and found this.

http://welcome.solutions.brother.com...rn.html#f00104

I'm finding it difficult to install the printer driver.


We have created a tool to help you easily install the printer driver. Follow these instructions to download and use the tool:

Note:


This tool will install the printer driver automatically, changing the install directories, links and system settings without notice.

For USB Users:
Connect your Brother machine to the PC before starting to follow the instructions.



Click here to download the tool.(linux-brprinter-installer-1.0.4-1.gz, ver.1.0.4-1, 14 KB)
The tool will be downloaded into the default "Download" directory. (The directory location varies depending on your Linux distribution.)

e.g. /home/(LoginName)/Download


Open a terminal window and go to the directory you downloaded the file to in the last step.


Enter this command to extract the downloaded file:
Command: gunzip linux-brprinter-installer-1.0.4-1.gz


Get superuser authorization with the "su" command or "sudo su" command.


Run the tool:
Command: bash linux-brprinter-installer-1.0.4-1 Brother machine name


The driver installation will start. Follow the installation screen directions.
When you see the message "Will you specify the DeviceURI ?",

For USB Users: Choose N(No)
For Network Users: Choose Y(Yes) and DeviceURI.

I'm trying to help but not sure if these are the instructions your following?
If these are not the instructions your using I'm sorry.
I had trouble with my printer also. I know how you feel-

Cliff and Ztcoracat,

Thank you both for your help in solving my problem.

I actually sent you both lengthy replies earlier, but they haven't joined the thread for some reason. Seems I can't even get this right. Think I should have clicked on Post Quick Reply rather than Post Reply button.

Printer now working. Tip for others struggling:- On the Brother solutions site when you select the correct drivers (deb) you are asked to agree their terms and conditions, right click on the agree button, chose "send to link", this places the drivers in the Download Folder where you can highlight them and install via Terminal command. I stuck mine in the Software Centre first time which didn't work.

Your Welcome And; I'm glad to hear that your printer is working! Bet your smiling!

Glad you got it working. Thank-you for the update.