[SOLVED] Brother MFC-L2700DW driver question

[lcharles]

I have a Brother MFC-L2700DW printer/scan etc. Kubuntu 18.04 had a driver for it in /etc/cups and the connection is given as "ipp://BRN30055CF69ECC.local:631/ipp/print"
in the configure screen for system settings, printer.
It takes forever to print a page and the scanner doesn't work.

In Kubuntu 16.04 I installed a driver from Brother in a Konsole that seems to work a lot better and it also
had a driver for the scanner included in the package.

I can run the driver install like I did in 16.04, but how do I get 18.04 to use this driver downloaded from the Brother site rather than the one it has already installed?

[GreyGeek]

https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2365945

Also, since you appear to be connecting to your printer by wifi, I'd suggest configuring your wifi router to supply it an address below or above the range your wifi normally dispenses IP addresses. So, if your wifi starts handing out addresses at 192.168.1.100, for example, you could use your printer's MAC address to have your wifi hand out 192.168.1.99 for that MAC address.

I also do that for my IPv6 Hurricane Tunnel, having my wifi dispense 192.168.11.100 to my laptop via its MAC address so that I can have a static IP for it.

[woodsmoke]

Brother, when it is configured produces absolutely wunnerful results.
TUP GG
woodGGis sooo smart smoke

[lcharles]

The printer is connected through a cable, no wifi

[GreyGeek]

Brother MFC-L2700DW driver question

The printer is connected through a cable, no wifi

Did you connect your PC to your router via an Ethernet cable as well?

No matter, you can still use your printer’s MAC address to have the router assign a specific IP. Ditto for your PC too. Does that model of printer allow for a USB connection? My experience has been that if I connect a printer using a USB cable the printer is often recognized and configured automatically. You’ll still have to install xsane.

Before you install the driver from the Brother’s site uninstall any Brothers driver you installed (purge) from the repository.

[lcharles]

When you mention purge the driver I'm not sure how to proceed. When I installed 18.04 it detected the printer and installed a cups driver automatically. So do I purge cups from my installation? How would I purge the one driver for my model of Brother?

[GreyGeek]

I gathered from "I installed a driver from Brother" that you downloaded a driver from the Brother's website and installed it. Did you?
If you did, it may have overwritten your cups driver, or it may have added a second version, I can't say unless I looked at the install script.
People are successfully installing this printer using both the driver from Brothers and the default CUPS driver ("Brother DCP-7010")by using CUPS with an ipp (Internet) connection.
Here is how one guy did it: https://notebook.thriftechs.com/2017...ter-on-ubuntu/

[lcharles]

A more general question. I'm not quite sure what you mean by "you can still use your printer’s MAC address to have the router assign a specific IP. Ditto for your PC too" I assume the printer and the PC have a unique IP address. I'll have to read a bit to see how to set that up in the router. And here I show my ignorance, a MAC address.

But what is the advantage of using a static IP address for the two of them as opposed to getting a DNS address? And finally why would all of that make the scanner work? The printer already prints, why would a static IP address fix the scanner problem?

I hope this isn't to muddled to answer. Thanks for the links. I'll read and give it another shot.

[mr_raider]

The kde printer tool should let you choose which driver to use. Try installing the packages from brother, remove the printer and then re add it.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A5010 using Tapatalk

[GreyGeek]

A more general question. I'm not quite sure what you mean by "you can still use your printer’s MAC address to have the router assign a specific IP. Ditto for your PC too" I assume the printer and the PC have a unique IP address. I'll have to read a bit to see how to set that up in the router. And here I show my ignorance, a MAC address.

But what is the advantage of using a static IP address for the two of them as opposed to getting a DNS address? And finally why would all of that make the scanner work? The printer already prints, why would a static IP address fix the scanner problem?

I hope this isn't to muddled to answer. Thanks for the links. I'll read and give it another shot.

When you attach a printer to the USB port of a computer running Kubuntu it usually automatically configures itself almost immediately. That's what my duplex HP LaserJet P1606dn did. This is what "sudo lshw" shows:

*-usb:0 UNCLAIMED
description: Printer
product: HP LaserJet Professional P1606dn
vendor: Hewlett-Packard
physical id: 2
bus info: usb@3:2
version: 1.00
serial: 000000000*************
capabilities: usb-2.00 bidirectional
configuration: maxpower=98mA speed=480Mbit/s

When you attach it via a router's Ethernet port or by a wireless router then configuration is up to you. This you probably already know. Either way, the router's DHCP assigns the IP address and CUPS handles the printer driver. (If you plug it into an Ethernet port on your laptop you'll have to run dhcpd and configure it yourself.)

You can access the CUPS help file on IPP by browsing to:
http://127.0.0.1:631/help/network.html#IPP

The router's base address varies by manufacturer, but it is always in one of the three reserve areas:

What IP Addresses Are Private? (I.E., are not visible from the Internet side of the router)

The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) reserves the following IP address blocks for use as private IP addresses:

• 10.0.0.0 to 10.255.255.255
• 172.16.0.0 to 172.31.255.255
• 192.168.0.0 to 192.168.255.255

The first set of IP addresses from above allow for over 16 million addresses, the second for over 1 million, and over 65,000 for the last range.

The router DHCP firmware assigns an IP address to any device attached to it based on rules set up in the router by the user. Default rules are used if the user does not modify the factory settings. Usually the rule is to start dispensing IP addresses starting with, for example, 192.168.1.100 Routers vary as to their gateway address, which is the first three of the quad address. It is first come, first served. Say you plug your printer into a USB port. Both it and your computer are on. CUPS sees it, reads its firmware and established a USB connection. For printers connected to a router via an Ethernet cable or by wireless you browse to http://127.0.0.1:631 and click on "Adding Printers and Classes". On the next page you can click either "Add Printers" or "Finding New Printers".
During the setup you can assign an IP address one or more less than the beginning IP address the router assigns. In my case, that would be 192.168.11.99 were I setting up a network printer. Since that is below the starting address for the router's DHCP to start dispensing IP addresses is 192.168.11.100, the DHCP will never conflict with the printer's assigned address.

When setting up your router for a MAC address control of the dispensed IP address you have to enter the section of the router's HTML firmware that allows such configurations and assign your MAC address to the IP address you want the DHCP to dispense. Here is my setup for my laptop:

Once you set it you save it and reboot your router to create the connection. You can usually query your printer control panel to find out what its MAC address is. If you issue
ifconfig
in a Konsole the listing will give two Hwaddr addresses, one for your Ethernet chip and one for your wifi chip on your laptop. That's what you use to create a static IP address in your router's settings for either device. Ditto for the Hwaddr that your printer displays on its panel or in its configuration printout.

[lcharles]

Your information helped me work this out. Thanks.

After a bit of reading and work I got a unique IP address assigned to my printer through my TP-Link router.

Then Brother support provided me with a couple of links one of which gave a step by step guide to installing the driver: "https://sites.google.com/site/easylinuxtipsproject/15"

Both the printer and scanner work now. There is a bit of weirdness as a previous version of a driver install keeps reappearing after I purge it.

Anyway it works!

[jlittle]

There is a bit of weirdness as a previous version of a driver install keeps reappearing after I purge it.

I struck this "weirdness" last year. I was baffled. The printer connects via the LAN.

Then, I had to do a clean install of 18.04. Without even going into printers in system settings, the printer reappeared!

I concluded that some part of Kubuntu checks the LAN and sets up printers it sees. It seems it's not smart enough to see the printer is already installed. I couldn't find any explanation or documentation of this process, but I didn't look hard. I don't even know what part of the OS or DE is responsible; but it has a systemd feel about it.

The scanner hasn't reappeared, though. I haven't needed Kubuntu to talk to it, I've just scanned to a USB stick. But xsane gives a lot more control than the Brother's little panel, so I'll likely get to it eventually.

Regards, John Little

[GreyGeek]

Dittos, Jlittle!
I did some re-arranging of my HDs and reformatted them before re-installing KDE Neon User Edition from scratch.
After I completed the install, the first thing I usually do is plug in and install the printer driver. I plugged it into a USB 2.0 port and almost immediately a printer icon (spooler) appeared in the system tray! I opened Kate and printed a text file and it went through perfectly, even duplex was enabled.

Normally, I'd install hplip and hplip-gui. When I checked the system had already installed hplip and hplip-data. All I did was install hplip-gui and then call it from the menu and set it to show an icon in the system tray. All five tabs in the GUI were active and set as I would have set them from a base install.

[woodsmoke]

Being an old hardware kinda guy...

this has been an EXTREMELY interesting thread.

My absolute best OUTPUT by a printer was by a Brother about 10 years ago. A "two part driver" kind of a "general driver" and then a 'specific" driver and ONLY from Brother...but it worked on "linux"...

VERY interesting thread.
woodlikesitsmoke