[opensuse] Brother printer drivers (rpm) and SuSE

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Stan Goodman

25 Nov 2008 25 Nov '08

12:48

I have bought a new Brother printer (MFC-465nc). In trying to install it through YaST, I find that this model number is not in the list of recognized printers. But the Brother Linux site has a set of drivers for the print, fax, and scanner functions; all these are downloadable in the form of RPMs. There is no indication of whether these files are Red-Hat RPMs or SuSE RPMs, or whether they are suitable for both distributions (agnostic? ambidextrous?) Can I install these drivers in my openSuSE v10.3 system? -- Stan Goodman Qiryat Tiv'on Israel -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

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Ken Schneider

25 Nov 25 Nov

13:03

Stan Goodman pecked at the keyboard and wrote:

...

I have bought a new Brother printer (MFC-465nc). In trying to install it through YaST, I find that this model number is not in the list of recognized printers.

But the Brother Linux site has a set of drivers for the print, fax, and scanner functions; all these are downloadable in the form of RPMs. There is no indication of whether these files are Red-Hat RPMs or SuSE RPMs, or whether they are suitable for both distributions (agnostic? ambidextrous?)

Can I install these drivers in my openSuSE v10.3 system?

Your can download the rpm files and look at the contents using less (less xxx.rpm). Then you could at least see where it would install the contents -- Ken Schneider SuSe since Version 5.2, June 1998 -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

Rodney Baker

13:06

On Tuesday 25 November 2008 23:18:10 Stan Goodman wrote:

...

I have bought a new Brother printer (MFC-465nc). In trying to install it through YaST, I find that this model number is not in the list of recognized printers.

But the Brother Linux site has a set of drivers for the print, fax, and scanner functions; all these are downloadable in the form of RPMs. There is no indication of whether these files are Red-Hat RPMs or SuSE RPMs, or whether they are suitable for both distributions (agnostic? ambidextrous?)

Can I install these drivers in my openSuSE v10.3 system? -- Stan Goodman Qiryat Tiv'on Israel

Stan, I had the Brother drivers for my mfc-665cw installed on 10.3 with no probs. I haven't tested it since I upgraded to 11.0 so I don't actually know if it still works (in fact, had you not mentioned it I may not even have thought of it until I tried to use it). Cheers, Rodney. -- =================================================== Rodney Baker VK5ZTV rodney.baker@iinet.net.au ===================================================

Rodney Baker

13:27

On Tuesday 25 November 2008 23:36:04 Rodney Baker wrote:

...

On Tuesday 25 November 2008 23:18:10 Stan Goodman wrote:

...
I have bought a new Brother printer (MFC-465nc). In trying to install it through YaST, I find that this model number is not in the list of recognized printers.

But the Brother Linux site has a set of drivers for the print, fax, and scanner functions; all these are downloadable in the form of RPMs. There is no indication of whether these files are Red-Hat RPMs or SuSE RPMs, or whether they are suitable for both distributions (agnostic? ambidextrous?)

Can I install these drivers in my openSuSE v10.3 system? -- Stan Goodman Qiryat Tiv'on Israel

Stan, I had the Brother drivers for my mfc-665cw installed on 10.3 with no probs. I haven't tested it since I upgraded to 11.0 so I don't actually know if it still works (in fact, had you not mentioned it I may not even have thought of it until I tried to use it).

Cheers, Rodney.

Just tested - all still working on 11.0. Incidentally, their drivers are GPL'ed although I haven't found source code for them yet... Just make sure that you read the install instructions on the web site; for some drivers specific pre-installation steps are required on different distros - they give pretty good distro-specific info on the web site. Regards, -- =================================================== Rodney Baker VK5ZTV rodney.baker@iinet.net.au ===================================================

Carlos E. R.

13:06

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On Tuesday, 2008-11-25 at 14:48 +0200, Stan Goodman wrote:

...

I have bought a new Brother printer (MFC-465nc). In trying to install it through YaST, I find that this model number is not in the list of recognized printers.

Look up your printer here: http://www.openprinting.org/printer_list.cgi - -- Cheers, Carlos E. R. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.9 (GNU/Linux) iEYEARECAAYFAkkr+EsACgkQtTMYHG2NR9VkPgCaAyDhg3oRQSBCYHsAXkLqyiuT L3EAnRWfIDvgvI56DNelrMa1nQW0L322 =towD -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

Stan Goodman

14:41

At 15:06:17 on Tuesday Tuesday 25 November 2008, "Carlos E. R." wrote:

...

On Tuesday, 2008-11-25 at 14:48 +0200, Stan Goodman wrote:

...
I have bought a new Brother printer (MFC-465nc). In trying to install it through YaST, I find that this model number is not in the list of recognized printers.

Look up your printer here:

http://www.openprinting.org/printer_list.cgi

Cheers, Carlos E. R.

The site is not as useful as it might be. In the top window, it shows only five (5) printers for Brother; if you ask for all Brother printers, you get a very long list, of which some of the printers marked "Paperweight" do have drivers on the Brother Linux website. My printer isn't mentioned at all, although it too has drivers on the Brother site. To answer Rodney's question, I do not see anything on the B site to associate the RPM files with either Red Hat or SuSE; there is a separate set of drivers marked "Debian", but that's it for distros. The easiest thing to do is to install the RPMs and hope that they work. Thanks all... -- Stan Goodman Qiryat Tiv'on Israel -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

Rodney Baker

20:00

On Wednesday 26 November 2008 01:11:10 Stan Goodman wrote:

...

At 15:06:17 on Tuesday Tuesday 25 November 2008, "Carlos E. R."

wrote:

...
On Tuesday, 2008-11-25 at 14:48 +0200, Stan Goodman wrote:

...
I have bought a new Brother printer (MFC-465nc). In trying to install it through YaST, I find that this model number is not in the list of recognized printers.

Look up your printer here:

http://www.openprinting.org/printer_list.cgi

Cheers, Carlos E. R.

The site is not as useful as it might be. In the top window, it shows only five (5) printers for Brother; if you ask for all Brother printers, you get a very long list, of which some of the printers marked "Paperweight" do have drivers on the Brother Linux website. My printer isn't mentioned at all, although it too has drivers on the Brother site.

To answer Rodney's question, I do not see anything on the B site to associate the RPM files with either Red Hat or SuSE; there is a separate set of drivers marked "Debian", but that's it for distros.

The easiest thing to do is to install the RPMs and hope that they work.

Thanks all... -- Stan Goodman Qiryat Tiv'on Israel

Stan, Look more carefully... On this page - http://solutions.brother.com/linux/en_us/download_prn.html#MFC-465CN click Install Instructions: cupswrapper driver, which leads to... http://solutions.brother.com/linux/en_us/instruction_prn1a.html Click on For openSUSE, you'll see... http://solutions.brother.com/linux/en_us/before.html#001 Keep reading down the page - there is more than one relevant instruction for openSUSE (although not all may be relevant to you printer). -- =================================================== Rodney Baker VK5ZTV rodney.baker@iinet.net.au ===================================================

Stan Goodman

28 Nov 28 Nov

16:53

At 22:00:08 on Tuesday Tuesday 25 November 2008, Rodney Baker wrote:

...

On Wednesday 26 November 2008 01:11:10 Stan Goodman wrote:

...
At 15:06:17 on Tuesday Tuesday 25 November 2008, "Carlos E. R."

wrote:

...
On Tuesday, 2008-11-25 at 14:48 +0200, Stan Goodman wrote:

...
I have bought a new Brother printer (MFC-465nc). In trying to install it through YaST, I find that this model number is not in the list of recognized printers.

Look up your printer here:

http://www.openprinting.org/printer_list.cgi

Cheers, Carlos E. R.

-----snip-----

...

Stan,

Look more carefully...

On this page - http://solutions.brother.com/linux/en_us/download_prn.html#MFC-465CN

click Install Instructions: cupswrapper driver, which leads to...

http://solutions.brother.com/linux/en_us/instruction_prn1a.html

Click on For openSUSE, you'll see...

http://solutions.brother.com/linux/en_us/before.html#001

Keep reading down the page - there is more than one relevant instruction for openSUSE (although not all may be relevant to you printer).

I have worked through installation of the printer drivers, and then of the printer's configuration screen, including a static IP address. The printer is connected o a LAN. The printer is now visible in the CUPS list. The two status buttons are both red, as they should be, and "Printer State: processing, accepting jobs, published". So the installation appears to be complete. But next to the name of the printer, it also says "Printer not connected; will retry in 30 seconds...". I can ping the IP address of the printer, so it would seem to be connected somehow, but pinging it involves a round-trip journey of 500ms (for a few meters of LAN cable, which can't be right. And of course, it doesn't print. What's missing? -- Stan Goodman Qiryat Tiv'on Israel -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

Carlos E. R.

19:50

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On Friday, 2008-11-28 at 18:53 +0200, Stan Goodman wrote:

...

But next to the name of the printer, it also says "Printer not connected; will retry in 30 seconds...". I can ping the IP address of the printer, so it would seem to be connected somehow, but pinging it involves a round-trip journey of 500ms (for a few meters of LAN cable, which can't be right.

And of course, it doesn't print. What's missing?

About the 500ms thing, I would start looking with "traceroute", to find out if the packets are going the sightview route. About the not working thing, I wonder if there is a firewall in the route :-? - -- Cheers, Carlos E. R. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.9 (GNU/Linux) iEYEARECAAYFAkkwS54ACgkQtTMYHG2NR9VqDACeLgHE43S7A7Ew5razKh4dBhNW TiEAnR3M62gD9WxsfYtjpNaWloIidPYd =07pS -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

Stan Goodman

21:44

At 21:50:51 on Friday Friday 28 November 2008, "Carlos E. R." wrote:

...

On Friday, 2008-11-28 at 18:53 +0200, Stan Goodman wrote:

...
But next to the name of the printer, it also says "Printer not connected; will retry in 30 seconds...". I can ping the IP address of the printer, so it would seem to be connected somehow, but pinging it involves a round-trip journey of 500ms (for a few meters of LAN cable, which can't be right.

And of course, it doesn't print. What's missing?

About the 500ms thing, I would start looking with "traceroute", to find out if the packets are going the sightview route.

About the not working thing, I wonder if there is a firewall in the route :-?

Shortly after I wrote my earlier message, the printer began to make rumbling noises, and then, at a glacially slow pace began to spit out the half-page file I had tried to have it print. That took several minutes, on top of the long interval since I gave it the Print instruction. At about the same time, I also noticed that the PING experiment (500ms) had also reported 73% packet loss. One of the "pre-required" steps in the driver-installation process involved use of YaST to open the firewall to UDP port 54925, so I think (hope) the firewall is not involved. -- Stan Goodman Qiryat Tiv'on Israel -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

Carlos E. R.

23:39

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On Friday, 2008-11-28 at 23:44 +0200, Stan Goodman wrote:

...

...
About the 500ms thing, I would start looking with "traceroute", to find out if the packets are going the sightview route.

About the not working thing, I wonder if there is a firewall in the route :-?

Shortly after I wrote my earlier message, the printer began to make rumbling noises, and then, at a glacially slow pace began to spit out the half-page file I had tried to have it print. That took several minutes, on top of the long interval since I gave it the Print instruction.

At about the same time, I also noticed that the PING experiment (500ms) had also reported 73% packet loss.

You do have a serious network problem. I'd start with the cable. And a traceroute would be good, too, to make sure it is going direct. - -- Cheers, Carlos E. R. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.9 (GNU/Linux) iEYEARECAAYFAkkwgT8ACgkQtTMYHG2NR9UPAgCffER771Z9vniupwJvqIPkso/5 3RMAn2YIOFXqIqigCGqR+EEAR6gi8x7+ =t7si -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

Andrew Joakimsen

29 Nov 29 Nov

03:49

On Tue, Nov 25, 2008 at 07:48, Stan Goodman wrote:

...

I have bought a new Brother printer (MFC-465nc). In trying to install it through YaST, I find that this model number is not in the list of recognized printers.

But the Brother Linux site has a set of drivers for the print, fax, and scanner functions; all these are downloadable in the form of RPMs. There is no indication of whether these files are Red-Hat RPMs or SuSE RPMs, or whether they are suitable for both distributions (agnostic? ambidextrous?)

Can I install these drivers in my openSuSE v10.3 system?

I have an "MFC-465cn" .. you might have mixed up the last 2 letters. It works perfect in 10.3 and 11.0 with the RPMs from the Brother site for both the CUPS printing and scanning with any SANE application. You need to install both the LPR and CUPS drivers. By default the printer will be setup for USB, so if you are using it on the LAN go to http://localhost:631 and edit the printer with the correct URL. For scanning you need to add the scanner using a Brother commandline utillity. For multi-page scanning Kooka does not support it. I think "gScanToPDF" does but I don't recall if it is in 11.0. The commandline tool "scanadf" also needs to be installed if you want to scan multiple pages through the ADF... otherwise it will scan the first page and feed the remaining through the ADF. Not the best MFC, the inkjet printing isn't great (then again, I've gotten used to the crisp text my Lexmark laser produces) and the scanner is nothing to write home about. But the scanner is quick and not bad for B&W or grey scanning for archivial, the fax works and is not too bad if you only use the printer for color every now and then. And of course Brother offers pretty good Linux support. The aftermarket ink on eBay is very cheap, too.... but then again, what do you expect for the $90-120 the thing costs? -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

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Andrew Joakimsen
Carlos E. R.
Ken Schneider
Rodney Baker
Stan Goodman