# how to make my printer works



## ericbsd (Mar 14, 2009)

I have a new brother printer i have install gnome-cups-manager and cups but gnpome cups dont ha the drivers for brother.
I have read a lot info on google but I cant print. my printer is a
brother HL-2140


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## Mel_Flynn (Mar 15, 2009)

Driver.
Several hints and tips


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## Oko (Mar 15, 2009)

Mel_Flynn said:
			
		

> Driver.
> Several hints and tips



Call me crazy but I thought this was a FreeBSD forum. You posted
link to the proprietary binary driver for Linux. Would you be so 
kind now to post one simple howto get Linux binary driver work on BSD kernel. 

The funny thing is that Google does return couple web-pages on which people actually claim that it is possible to do exactly that.


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## platanthera (Mar 20, 2009)

To access a local printer via CUPS

 Get the appropriate ppd file. Either download it from linuxprinting.org or the vendor's homepage, or install the *print/foomatic-db* port. (I use the Brother-HL-2060-hl1250.ppd file from linuxprinting.org for my HL-2030, but don't know what is applicable for yours.)

 Install the *print/foomatic-filter* port.

 Install the *print/cups* port.

 Install the *print/ghostscript* port.

 Add the following lines to /etc/devfs.rules:

```
[local_ruleset=10]
add path 'unlpt*' mode 0660 group cups
add path 'ulpt*' mode 0660 group cups
add path 'lpt*' mode 0660 group cups
```

 Add the following lines to /etc/rc.conf (I'm not sure whether the first line is really necessary):

```
devfs_rulesets="/etc/defaults/devfs.rules /etc/devfs.rules"
devfs_system_ruleset="local_ruleset"
cupsd_enable="YES"
```

 Restart devfs: /etc/rc.d/devfs restart

 Start cupsd: /usr/local/etc/rc.d/cupsd forcestart

 Access the CUPS administration interface at http://localhost:631 with a web browser to add and configure your printer.

Hope that helps..


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## Oko (Mar 20, 2009)

platanthera said:
			
		

> Hope that helps..


No, it doesn't help! Unless you can tell me exactly the name of the driver from GhostScript which supports this printer I still claim that the printer is paper weight and that it works on Linux because of the proprietary binary blob driver. 

Have a nice day.


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## roddierod (Mar 20, 2009)

Oko said:
			
		

> No, it doesn't help! Unless you can tell me exactly the name of the driver from GhostScript which supports this printer I still claim that the printer is paper weight and that it works on Linux because of the proprietary binary blob driver.
> 
> Have a nice day.



Are you Theo? He said he used the ppd from linuxprinting.org. You should know how it show up under the web interface as that is how he configured it.


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## Oko (Mar 20, 2009)

roddierod said:
			
		

> Are you Theo? He said he used the ppd from linuxprinting.org. You should know how it show up under the web interface as that is how he configured it.


No, I am not Theo. I was his roommate in college.

You even do not know what the PPD is, don't you. Here is the link
to linuxprinting.org with the report for the printer in question.

http://www.openprinting.org/show_printer.cgi?recnum=Brother-HL-2140


Do you see any PPD? That is what I thought. There is no open source driver for that printer. What can PostScipt Printer Description file popularly PPD describe to a printer for which there is no driver that can speak its native proprietary language. Nothing.
He might have better luck getting PostScript module from a used Brother printer which does speak PostScript language like most Brothers in series
5000 and try to wire that thing in. He will need no driver then at all.


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## DutchDaemon (Mar 20, 2009)

Oko, the way you are responding to people who are genuinely trying to help you (whether they actually succeed in helping or not) is, well, "not very nice". There's no need to bite someone's head off just because they don't fully understand a problem or come up with an answer that fails to solve your problem. Count to ten, and stay cool.


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## DrJ (Mar 20, 2009)

He does this once in a while.  Yes, it sometimes sounds bad, but he is pretty knowledgeable and a decent fellow.


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## Oko (Mar 20, 2009)

DutchDaemon said:
			
		

> Oko, the way you are responding to people who are genuinely trying to help you (whether they actually succeed in helping or not) is, well, "not very nice". There's no need to bite someone's head off just because they don't fully understand a problem or come up with an answer that fails to solve your problem. Count to ten, and stay cool.



Dutch body, I apologize to everybody. I over reacted. I just could not take anymore to read answers of the people who do not know what they are talking about. The point of this forum is that people are trying to get help for their problems. There is no shame in not being able to help but giving outright wrong advices is big NONO in BSD community. 95% of time I can not help people and I keep my mouth shut.

I am very sorry for my reaction.


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## DutchDaemon (Mar 20, 2009)

@DrJ: I know. Sometimes a small reminder is needed, though.
@Oko: Fine, as you were.
@Rest: Solve this already, damn.


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## Oko (Mar 20, 2009)

DutchDaemon said:
			
		

> @Rest: Solve this already, damn.



The problem is that there is no solution.
Brother has locked the hardware and Linux people are contempt with it because Brother released binary blobs for Linux including brscan
and brscan2 drivers for scanners.

Actually, I tried to port the so called "open source" Brother printer driver and realized that something was wrong after repeated failures. I talked to their technical staff in Japan and they told me that there are hidden binary blob libraries used in the driver which where Linux kernel specific. 

Epkawa (scanner drivers) the same story. It pisses me off so much. 
There is an Italian guy who ported older version of Epkawa to FreeBSD but without proprietary plug-ins. Those plug-ins is what makes them actually useful on scanners not supported by sane-backends.

Somebody reported being able to get the damn thing working via Linux comp. I am all ears and eyes. I would really like to see that.


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## Oko (Mar 20, 2009)

DrJ said:
			
		

> He does this once in a while.  Yes, it sometimes sounds bad, but he is pretty knowledgeable and a decent fellow.


Thanks Doc. I cooled of now


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## DrJ (Mar 20, 2009)

You're welcome, Oko.  

I've not spent much time on this board, and -- how do I saw this delicately -- there are a lot of questions and answers here that have little experience behind them and can be rather misguided.  So I do understand your frustration, particularly since you have worked directly in the area.

Yes, we have all been there once, and I remember my struggles with system administration early on even though I knew user-level BSD pretty well.


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## roddierod (Mar 20, 2009)

I'm sorry. I assumed that since the driver was gnu'd it was as open sourced as anything else on linuxprinting. My brother works fine with a ppd from linuxprint that isn't supplied from brother.

I know Oko knows what he's talking about as he's helped me on other forums with OpenBSD...I'm just having a bad day and that binary blob thing gets to me everytime :r


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## DutchDaemon (Mar 20, 2009)

(( group hug ))


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## jasonbstubbs (Jun 14, 2009)

I followed the guide at http://vodka-pomme.net/glop-blog/archive/2007/06/02/using-the-brother-printer-drivers-with-freebsd to get my mfc-490cw to work. Summary of steps:

1. Set up Linux compatibility
2. Install print/psutils-a4 or print/psutils-letter
3. Download Debian LPR and CUPS drivers for your printer
4. Extract and alter paths in scripts as necessary
5. Run the LPR postinst script followed by the CUPS postinst script

There was one change I needed to make to the psconvertij2 script and was to remove the \< from the following line:

RESOLUTION=`sed -n '/\<Resolution/p' $RC_FILE`


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