Guaranteed to save you headaches. I did the dirty work.
If anyone wants to make this a one-stop sticky in the Brother printers forum, feel free.
Brother MFC-420CN USB Printer/Scanner Setup for Ubuntu 7.04
In advance I would like to say that I am still a noob and did not make any of this up myself. This is a compilation of resources with information gathered from
LQ, the Gentoo Linux Wiki,
Ubuntu Forums, and Brother's
website. Any credit for this goes to the community, not me. I am going to be graduating with a degree in Technical Management / Computer Information Systems (Windows most likely, :( ) sometime in March, and this is what I do when I'm not doing schoolwork or working.
Brother Linux LPR Drivers
http://solutions.brother.com/linux/sol/printer/linux/lpr_drivers.html
Detailed Installation Instructions if I've left something out.
http://solutions.brother.com/linux/sol/printer/linux/lpr_install.html
Make a temporary directory on your HDD and download the LPR driver to that directory.
Brother Linux CUPS Drivers
http://solutions.brother.com/linux/sol/printer/linux/cups_drivers.html#de
Detailed Installation Instructions if I've left something out.
http://solutions.brother.com/linux/sol/printer/linux/cups_wrapper_install.html
Download the CUPS driver to the same directory.
Go to your temporary directory.
Install the LPR driver FIRST.
Remove any previous installations. I am doing this from scratch just to make sure I can still do it :)
This will remove any previous installations or files.
rm /usr/lib/libbrcompij2*
Next,
sudo dpkg -i --force-all --force-architecture mfc420cnlpr-1.0.2-1.i386.deb
*where xxxx.rpm/xxxx.deb is the name of your RPM/DEB file.
Install the CUPS driver NEXT.
sudo dpkg -i –force-all –force-architecture cupswrapperMFC420CN-1.0.2-3.i386.deb
Check your installation...
Open a browser, go to “http://localhost:631”
Click on “Manage Printers”
Confirm the the printer is listed. If not, click on “Add Printer” and follow the instructions
Shoot a test fire and all should be good (I hope)....Mine is.
Now, on to the scanner.
[STOP READING HERE AND SEE BELOW]or keep reading if you want to feel my pain.
This has been my biggest headache over the last few days. After noting that I had the latest version of Xsane (0.991) and nothing I had been trying would work, I hit the LQ streets again to find answers. It seems the driver that Brother provides has been recently upgraded and won't work. (Thanks here go to NosLycn at LQ...not sure if he's still here or not).
First, get the older driver...
http://www.chumpco.com/~dave/brscan2-0.2.1-0.i386.deb
And if you are doing this after several failed attempts, clear out any prior installs.
brsaneconfig2 -r MFC420CN
Next, install it...
sudo dpkg -i --force-all --force-architecture brscan2-0.2.1-0.i386.deb
[Use user password here]
Make sure you have your model listed.
brsaneconfig2 -q
Now, you need to configure it for USB access. I am using a 2.4 kernel, so next is
echo 'none /proc/bus/usb usbdevfs auto,devmode=0666 0 0 >> /etc/fstab
Here's where it gets really tricky...
The next commands you must run are the following...
umount /proc/bus/usb
mount /proc/bus/usb
mknod -m 666 /dev/usbscanner c 180 48
Try it.
umount: it seems /proc/bus/usb is mounted multiple times
It seems you have to unplug all your usb stuff to run this command. Great, everything I have is USB. What to do now? Check the back of my box. Wait a minute. My mouse isn't USB. What if???????
Here's where you can start doing some stuff with your mouse. I took the easy way out at this point. Create a text file with the above three umount, mount, and mknod commands in it. Nothing more, nothing less. Save it to your desktop as usbfixr.sh Right click the file and click on Permissions. Check the box that says “Allow executing file as a program” Click close. Now, unplug all of your USB stuff. Turn your MFC-420CN off. Double click the file you just created and click on “Run. ”
Still doesn't work. !#*@$^%& Brother!!!!!!!!!
[START READING HERE, HEADACHES ARE GONE]
Apparently, this thing doesn't work as a scanner under USB.
suDo a (sorry, I'm tired of fighting with this thing) network setup. This will be easier if you setup your printer first.
Hit the Menu/Set button, then press down, 5, 1. Press 2, then Menu/Set, then enter the IP addy you want to use.
Next, Hit Menu/Set go to Lan, go to Ethernet, and make sure it is set to auto. (Assuming you use DHCP)
1. Plug in your MFC420CN to your router.
2. Run brsaneconfig -a name=MFC420CN model=MFC-420CN ip=192.168.0.5 (or whatever yours is)
3. Start Xsane. Make sure you click on the NET (yes, NOT the one that says USB) device.
4. Place your documents and click scan.
5. Have a beer.
6. Thanks to
LQ, NosLycn at LQ, Changeling at LQ, zBrain at LQ, DaveL at answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu, the whole Gentoo Linux
WIKI, and
LinuxPrinting.org for the help. Also thanks to the whole community.
