# Brother MFC-7340 printer



## srivo (Dec 11, 2010)

I'm trying to install the Brother MFC-7340 driver. Those driver are Linux feroda 10 driver. I'm following the instruction on the brother web site: http://welcome.solutions.brother.com/bsc/public_s/id/linux/en/instruction_prn1a.html

I get the following message!

```
package brmfc7340lpr-2.0.2-1 is for a different operating system
```
I saw somewhere that there is an information I can put saying the system is Fedora 10.


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## tingo (Dec 14, 2010)

You can't use Linux drivers on FreeBSD. Unless you can find another solution, your printer will be a paperweight. Brother only supplies Linux drivers. This Linux report talks about using the driver for the MFC-8440, perhaps there is a cups / foomatic driver for that printer, and perhaps it will work with your printer also. If not, perhaps Brother should be renamed bother?


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## phoenix (Dec 14, 2010)

From the openprinting.org page for the MFC-7320:
	
	



```
Black & White printer, this is a Paperweight
```

There's no entry for the 7340.

And the 7420 is listed as "works mostly".

Basically, you're screwed and need to find a new printer.


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## wblock@ (Dec 14, 2010)

tingo said:
			
		

> You can't use Linux drivers on FreeBSD. Unless you can find another solution, your printer will be a paperweight. Brother only supplies Linux drivers. This Linux report talks about using the driver for the MFC-8440, perhaps there is a cups / foomatic driver for that printer, and perhaps it will work with your printer also. If not, perhaps Brother should be renamed bother?



The Linux drivers might actually be made to work on FreeBSD.  Probably CUPS is required, but the filter binaries might run as Linux executables.  It might be a nontrivial job, too.


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## srivo (Dec 15, 2010)

Too bad I will need to use my old HP Laserjet 1000!


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## wblock@ (Dec 15, 2010)

srivo said:
			
		

> Too bad I will need to use my old HP Laserjet 1000!



Argh.  For the next time you buy a laser, please see Buying A Used Laser Printer.  Used office-class lasers are often cheaper than new "home" lasers, and a far better deal overall.


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## carlton_draught (Dec 15, 2010)

Wait up. I got my MFC-7420 working, maybe i can help... let me find my notes.


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## carlton_draught (Dec 15, 2010)

Here's what I did to print to another computer running Ubuntu and with an MFC7420. It should be similar if it was just connected locally. I'm running gnome, which I think you may have to do. Gnome is not working on my machine at the moment, so this is the best I can give you.


`# portmaster print/foomatic-filters print/foomatic-db-engine print/foomatic-db-hpijs`print/foomatic-db
Go to localhost:631 in your browser, put in your root login/pass.
Make it an ipp printer with following address: ipp://your_printer_ip:631/printers/MFC7420
Select Brother HL-5050 Foomatic/Postscript (en)

Here is the magic post that enabled me to figure it out. Perhaps this will also help you. Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't.


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## srivo (Dec 15, 2010)

I will try that! This was my plan to try to connect to a Ubuntu server with cup and use a print server instead of printing locally.


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## phoenix (Dec 15, 2010)

That won't work, for obvious reasons.


The printer is plugged into a Linux machine, using the Linux driver.
The printer is exported via CUPS using IPP.
The FreeBSD box is connecting to CUPS on the Linux machine via IPP.
No printer driver is installed on the FreeBSD machine.

Removing the Linux machine from the equation leave you ... an IPP link to nowhere.


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## carlton_draught (Dec 15, 2010)

phoenix said:
			
		

> That won't work, for obvious reasons.
> 
> 
> The printer is plugged into a Linux machine, using the Linux driver.
> ...


I thought he said (after the fact) that his plan was to connect to a Linux machine via IPP, that end of which is very easy to set up.

It may be possible (read that last link I posted) to get a driver working on FreeBSD. Note that I'm using a driver that is not marked MFC-7420 at all. It was trial and error that found the one that one worked for me. So it is potentially possible that with a bit of trial and error, it will print with the other drivers? It's worth a shot IMO. Read the link and realize what Brother does - 


> This is crazy! The rawtobr2 binary just somehow translates the postscript file to some GDI/PJL-language-file! And it seems that they used the same language as for the HL-XXXX series of printersâ€¦.this means, we could have full linux support without the proprietary Brother drivers. Which then meansâ€¦.my printer could run on my SPARC machines


My suspicion is that they don't just do this for one printer, they do this for many, and that with srivo's printer it's a case where Brother were either too lazy to make a Linux driver or for reasons of functional obsolescence or market segmentation decided not to make one.

I guess it's a question of how much is your time worth vs getting something that you can get going instantly, how much do you not want to throw out an otherwise perfectly working printer into a landfill. And that it may not work anyway.


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## teckk (Dec 15, 2010)

Here is quite a bit of info on Brother printers.
http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=nas1d1817a5251ba1e4b862569c100799559
------------------------------------------------------------
For a reference you can look at the specs for a Brother HL-5340D

I just printed to one with

```
pdf2ps myfile.pdf myfile.ps
```
Then

```
cat myfile.ps > /dev/ulpt0
```
It's a postscript printer.

Yours is listed as Windows GDI


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## carlton_draught (Dec 15, 2010)

teckk said:
			
		

> Here is quite a bit of info on Brother printers.
> http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=nas1d1817a5251ba1e4b862569c100799559
> 
> Yours is listed as Windows GDI


Good find. This is indicative that my method may work. I could not find the MFC-7420 exactly, but note that other MFC-74XX printers were also listed with the same identical specs as the MFC-7340. e.g. Windows GDI. Which gibes with the what I quoted from that web page I linked to. One more time:


> This is crazy! The rawtobr2 binary just somehow translates the postscript file to some *GDI*/PJL-language-file! And it seems that they used the same language as for the HL-XXXX series of printersâ€¦.this means, we could have full linux support without the proprietary Brother drivers. Which then meansâ€¦.my printer could run on my SPARC machines


From the IBM page you linked to:


> The terms Host-based, Host-based (GDI), Host-Based Printing , Proprietary (GDI) , and Windows GDI are generic terms that can refer to any Host-based or Windows-only printer, *which use a proprietary printer data stream rather than an industry-standard printer data stream* such as IBM Proprinter Data Stream (PPDS), Epson ESC/P2, HP Printer Control Language (PCL), or Adobe PostScript (PS). These printers support printing from Windows, and possibly from Macintosh or Linux, but will not print directly from IBM i, IBM i5/OS, IBM OS/400, UNIX or any other non-PC-based Operating System, even if the printers can be network-attached. Because these printers require a proprietary printer data stream, they will not work with Host Print Transform (HPT) or a PC5250 Printer Definition Table (PDT) File.


Well actually, it seems that in at least one case Brother do actually use industry standard data streams, it's just that they obfuscate it. And in that case you actually can print from Unix (FreeBSD), because that's how I got my printer to work. Key is to remember that IBM and openprinting.org aren't omniscient. In the former they are reliant on IBM employees trying to figure out how to get Brother's printers to work, and in the latter case they are reliant on people submitting stuff to them. A random hacker using a hex editor found what neither of them could.

If you can get it to work, srivo, consider giving openprinting.org a heads up and making it easier for someone else.


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## wblock@ (Dec 15, 2010)

Host Print Transform... I had successfully forgotten that until now.

As I've said before: please don't buy GDI printers, or printers that use proprietary PDLs.  It just encourages the manufacturers to make more.


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## carlton_draught (Dec 15, 2010)

wblock said:
			
		

> Host Print Transform... I had successfully forgotten that until now.
> 
> As I've said before: please don't buy GDI printers, or printers that use proprietary PDLs.  It just encourages the manufacturers to make more.


True. My MFC-7420 was bought in my Windows days, I would not make the same mistake again.


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## Bra1n0v3rfl0w (Dec 15, 2010)

If i'm not wrong, is not possible to install bin linux driver using linux compatibility? 

And such rpm can be opened with an archiver like X-archiver, i tested now on my linux box.

Inside there are binaries (of course) and lpr filter, and cups filter.

But i really don't konw how to use them.

Hope this will help to find a solution.


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## srivo (Dec 18, 2010)

Thanks for all the answer. The printer wasn't my choice! The lady at home liked is old brother printer and decide to buy a new one! I decide to check if I can network that printer with my Linux server and it work, but lots of problem with laptop using windows Vista Home edition!

Not sure yet about what I will do!


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