I cannot find a driver for the Brother MFC-490CW printer anywhere. I tried using the CD that came with the printer itself but that doesn´t have any PPD files on there... Apparently they deemed it unthinkable that a Linux user might want to use their equipment.

Can anyone help me?

Thanks a bunch,

Verori

Hi,

have a look here:
http://welcome.solutions.brother.com...html#MFC-490CW

And here are the instructions to install the driver:
http://welcome.solutions.brother.com.../en/index.html

There might be some errors because of some missing directories. But it should be OK if you create them and run the install command again. Post again if you are having trouble with it.

Hope this helps.

Brother site acts weird at times when it comes to linux drivers
here some more links, just in case if you need more on top of what crts gave you.

http://solutions.brother.co.jp/suppo...1.2-2.i386.deb
http://solutions.brother.co.jp/suppo...1.2-2.i386.deb

Those are CN and not CW drivers (not sure if there's a huge difference)
But its confirmed that they work with MFC-490CW in Ubuntu, which i'm assuming you're using.

Good luck

assuming you are using Ubuntu? I have had some of the same problems with Brother drivers...

Yes, I´m using Ubuntu, and as much as I appreciate the amazing responses, you are definitely assuming I know waaay more than I do :S
After unsuccessfully trying to make sense of the information available from the links in the crts´ response (how the, I opened the links in deeh514´s and both said the same thing: wrong architecture ´i386´.

Am completely at a loss...

Hello verori,

you will find the solution in this thread: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...h-cups-846633/ (hopefully )

Good luck

Markus

Hi,

what exactly are you having trouble with? The first link leads you to the download location.
Download the lpr driver and cupswrapper driver (first column). You will need the deb format, see the second column for that.
Installation instructions are here:
http://welcome.solutions.brother.com...ion_prn1a.html

The prerequisites might be outdated. So start at step 4. If you get an error then post the exact command that you issued and the exact error message. We will walk you through then.
You will probably have to install the package (synaptic)
ia32-libs

But try without it first.

hmm...unless, he's using a 64bit version and forgot to mention it =/

I AM using a 64BIT version!!!

Hi verori,

as far as I remember, you can download the cupswrapperdriver here: http://welcome.solutions.brother.com...nload_prn.html

It is afaik independent of 32 or 64 bit since it is only a script which generates a ppd-file for your printer (which is a script as well).

Download the rpm file, there is an rpm2tgz or an rpm2cpio tool in order to unpack rpm. Then execute the script which creates the ppd-file in the /usr/share/cups/models directory.

Afterwards you can configure cups with this ppd file.

It is described in the thread with the link in my post #6 above.

Good luck

Markus

Ok so I'm actually trying this out now, following the instructions on the Brother website (as recommended). I have a question regarding Step 4:

4-2. Open the terminal and go to the directory where the drivers are.

By "going to the directory" I assume they mean using the terminal... how do I do that?


P.S.: I really appreciate your patience guys

mh, open a terminal and change the directory with the cd command. For example changes into the /usr/share/cups directory.

Markus

So I should use the rpm file as opposed to the deb file (as suggested in post#7)? What is the difference?

You can install the deb-file with your package manager, but I don't know where you will end up then. What I mean is, if you unpack the package manually, you'll find the wrapperdriver in your current working-directory and can execute the script. If you install the deb-package, you'll have to find out where the wrapperdriver has been installed.....

But probably it will work also as described on the brother-site

You may try the deb-package first, if you don't get it working, try the rpm-package as I described above.

Markus

Why would you want to do that?? I see the Ubuntu icon on the left side of you posts. So I guess you want to install the drivers on Ubuntu, too. Ubuntu is a debian based distribution. Hence you will need the "deb" format. There are no 64bit drivers. So to install the 32bit drivers you will have to use the "force-all" switch as in the instructions.
And you *might* have to install "ia32-libs". I am not sure if they are preinstalled by default on your Ubuntu. As I already said, follow the instructions and paste any error message you get. When I installed my brother drivers there were some issues with missing directories.