Can't get printer Brother HL-2030 working

[WilliamK]

Hi there.

First off its great to be on this forum and hopefully I will get the answers to my problem. Also just to let you know I am not so computer technical and totally new to Kubuntu. So please bare with me.

I own a Lenovo Thinkpad T450 and recently got rid of Windows and changed to Kubuntu. I was still content with W7, but I heard so many bad things about W10 that I refused to upgrade. One more reason is, that MS announced they won't support W7 any more in the near future. So I guess it was time to make a move.

Anyway. So far so good. Everything on my T450 works fine. Sound, WiFi, card reader and so forth. But I still have and old Brother printer (model HL-2030) that I got from this awesome site http://www.used.forsale/australia which when I bought it, it was used for a few years and now I just can't get it to work under Kubuntu. So can you please give me some advice? I Don't want to by a new one. It just serves my needs perfectly fine. So any feedback is highly appreciated.

BTW. I'm using the Kubuntu LTS 16.04 1 64 Bit.

Wil.

[wizard10000]

Hi -

Linux support for Brother printers is generally pretty good (I have one). This might help -

http://www.openprinting.org/printer/...rother-HL-2030

good luck!

[oshunluvr]

This might help as well: http://tutorialforlinux.com/2015/01/...sty-lts-linux/

Since you're new, it's useful to know the Kubuntu is Ubuntu+KDE( aka Plasma ). Often, by searching for Ubuntu solutions you can find one that works for our "flavor" as well. The different desktops you might encounter are Gnome, Unity (both Ubuntu), Cinnamon, Mate and a few others. Just keep in mind as you read that if the instructions say they specifically apply to one of the other desktops, they might not work for Kubuntu. This isn't very common though.

For example, the link I posted above clearly shows the default Ubuntu Unity desktop, but all the instructions are given on the command line - so it should work for you.

[WilliamK]

Thank you for the links. Now I found a driver for the printer but I don't know which one to download.

http://support.brother.com/g/b/downl...rod=hl2030_all

Do I have to get the *RPM or *DEB file? And what is the difference.

Thanks for your support.

Wil.

[Snowhog]

The .deb file (Ubuntu). .rpm files are for Red Hat Linux.

[WilliamK]

The .deb file (Ubuntu). .rpm files are for Red Hat Linux.

OK. Thanks. I'll give it a try.

[WilliamK]

I downloaded two drivers. One was called LPR and the other one CUPS. The first one didn't work but finally the latter one did.

So what is the difference between LPR and CUPS-driver?
Sorry. I'm new to Ubuntu and sometimes I'm still struggling a bit. But I would like to understand things better.

[Snowhog]

Some info on LPR vs CUPS: http://nzgeek.org/topic/23962/linux-...se-cups-or-lpr