brother MFC420cn

Problems and successes with specific brands/models of printers
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vientito
Posts: 83
Joined: Sun 17 Sep 2006, 23:22

brother MFC420cn

#1 Post by vientito »

looks to me brother website provides CUPS and SANE driver for this piece of hardware for debian and redhat users. I wonder in general how to go about adpating to puppy environment?

vientito
Posts: 83
Joined: Sun 17 Sep 2006, 23:22

#2 Post by vientito »

just a description of some rough experimentation i have tried today on this printer.

download that linux driver from brother website. I have practically unwrapped the debian package of LPR and CUPS wrapper drivers on a debian system. Grab the resulting PPD file generated during the process. Copy a few files over to puppy. That includes a cups wrapper file, a inf file that includes a few configuration data for the printer and a lpd filter file.

On puppy side, i have modprobed usblp to mount the necessary module to connect the printer via USB printer port.

Put the PPD file on /root and use the cups-install dotpup to install all the cups stuffs. I was not able to follow thru the installation all the way to the end because of lack of free memory (on a 128MB budget). However, it stopped somewhere in the browser for setting up cups. So on reboot i start the browser and connect to port 631and proceed to add the printer. It adds ok and seems to find the model and make. Here comes the moment of truth. Send a test print to the printer. Hear a few crank of the HD. See on the printer LCD indicator a brief display of a message "Receiving data"... then nothing! No jobs indicated for both completed or active. Dunno why and how. But I am going to test it again on a full debian system to see if that works.

Oh, that printer is able to print uner windows98SE so it is in good health.

vientito
Posts: 83
Joined: Sun 17 Sep 2006, 23:22

#3 Post by vientito »

on second trial get it to print test page. the only difference is that this time I increase my 3fs file size to give it a larger budget. so the cups install program seem to copy over a few more gems. somehow after that I am able to make it to work. Dun ask me why. It just seems like by increasing my disk capital i have generated enough space for the install program to copy over some more system files for it to function.

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BarryK
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#4 Post by BarryK »

CUPS is built-in to the upcoming 2.17alpha, so it would be good if you can test that, and if it works maybe make a little howto for installing the Brother drivers.

In 2.17, the PPD file has to be placed at /usr/share/cups/model/ (which is where pakts dotpup copies it to from /root anyway).

vientito
Posts: 83
Joined: Sun 17 Sep 2006, 23:22

#5 Post by vientito »

i tested with 2.17 alpha on the printer. unfortunately i hit a snag once i realized that the cups it contains is version 1.2. my PPD generated is a version 1.1. It should not matter but i could not get it to print. It detected the printer but refused to do anything. I had to revert back to 2.16 to get it working again. I have not got much time to investigate the issue.

anyway, i was able to get Xsane working for this scanner with debian partition. It worked without a hitch. However, i was not getting any luck under puppy 2.16. It detected the scanner but it won't prescan or scan. Prescan will get the scanner working halfway and it will hang with scan lamp shining but no data coming thru. Then software will indicate a READ I/O error. Scanning is worse since it will segfault the application altogether.

I notice that my debian has scsi_mod but puppy does not. I don't know if it makes any difference.

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BarryK
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#6 Post by BarryK »

vientito wrote:i tested with 2.17 alpha on the printer. unfortunately i hit a snag once i realized that the cups it contains is version 1.2. my PPD generated is a version 1.1. It should not matter but i could not get it to print. It detected the printer but refused to do anything. I had to revert back to 2.16 to get it working again. I have not got much time to investigate the issue.

anyway, i was able to get Xsane working for this scanner with debian partition. It worked without a hitch. However, i was not getting any luck under puppy 2.16. It detected the scanner but it won't prescan or scan. Prescan will get the scanner working halfway and it will hang with scan lamp shining but no data coming thru. Then software will indicate a READ I/O error. Scanning is worse since it will segfault the application altogether.

I notice that my debian has scsi_mod but puppy does not. I don't know if it makes any difference.
NO 2.17alpha has not yet been released, only 2.17exp1, and the release notes for that state that CUPS is broken! It works in 2.17alpha, which is not yet released -- in a day or two.

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