using a Brother MFC 495CW printer with CUPS
 

this is my first time installing a printer with Linux, and I'm not sure where I'm messing up here.

I did chmod +x /whatever the cups directory was, it said cups server OK or something like that.

Printer is plugged in via USB
added the printer via localhost:631 (the browser interface for cups)

Installed the relevant driver from the Brother website.

After this, I tried to print a picture and a text document. The display on the printer lights up and says Receiving Data for a few seconds, then just goes back to idle. The cups web interface says the job was completed. The printer has paper and ink and is otherwise working fine. The display just lights up, then goes away again, no printing sounds or whatever else.
Anyone know what might be causing this?

Since nobody else steps in: In my experience it is always well to follow Brother's README or installation guide to the letter. What caught my eye first: I somehow doubt that the sequence of actions you describe in your post is acceptable to the software. In particular you say you added the printer first and then installed the driver. I'm surprised that this is possible at all and I do doubt that this would work. Again, do it exactly as Brother says you should do it. HTH.

Idd. I can confirm the printer is there in the list and won't work if you have it in the wrong order. In most cases just removing the printer and adding it again will solve the problem.

Didn't mean to be so long in getting back to this.

I installed everything down to the letter, and the printer itself seems to be recognized in cups, but when I try to set the exact printer model, the MFC-495CW is not among the choices (about 20-30 Brother printers are listed). I've quadruple checked that I installed the driver specified by Brother to be for my printer.

However, the drivers are apparently only available in .deb and .rpm, and I used rpm2tgz to convert the RPM packages to .tgz and install it (I use Slackware). Could this be the issue? If so, anyone know a way around it?

Hello Cultist,

normaly the drivers for cups are *.ppd files. I found a list of downloadable ppd-files here http://www.openprinting.org/download/PPD/Brother/
I think you'll have to try out which of the ppds works for you.

Markus

http://welcome.solutions.brother.com...tion_prn1.html

these are the models that have .ppd files available, and mine isn't in your list either.

I've read on other forums that people get my printer to work without any problems, but its always for ubuntu or debian or something, no threads anywhere about slack

I downloaded the rpm package and unzipped it. There are two files, one is a Script cupswrappermfc495cw, you may look at the code, I did not find a solution but maybe it gets you further.

I have installed a Kyocera Printer with a downloaded ppd-file for a similar Kyoceraprinter, that worked very well. The question is, which of the listed models is similar to your's.

Markus

Hi, I think I found the solution. The script I mentioned above creates a the needed ppd-file in the /usr/share/cups/models directory. Try that out. Unpack the tgz-file and execute the cupswrappermfc495cw script as root, then you'll find the ppd file in /usr/share/cups/models.
You'll have to configure cups to use this ppd.

Good luck

Markus

I've tried the .deb and .rpm and the only distros seems to work for my Brother MFC-5440cn is Mandriva & Fedora. I always get the same message quoted using Debian or Ubuntu. I haven't tried any other distros with the printer. Just a thought!

ahhhhh beautiful! it worked! printer won't work right wirelessly but I'm sure that's a different issue. I can now print through USB at least :)

had to use rpm2cpio to unpack it

Well, nice to read that it worked for you.I used "tar xf" on the output of rpm2tgz.

Markus

Ahh, a second solution like "rpm2cpio". Now, isn't thal like linux? ;) Thanks, markush.

OK, Which driver download worked
 

I, too, have a Brother MFC 495cw machine which I cannot install, and read the above posts with interest. I hve an older homebuilt machine with a 2.66 MHz Pentium Dual Core Chip, 2 Gigs of RAM and a 320 Gig HDD. And am running Linux Mint Debian Edition.(I have a dual boot with LMDE and Windows XP, and the MFC works with Windows, so I'm certain of the USB connections.

Which driver download worked?

Thanks,
tlcmd (aka Dick)