[SOLVED] Brother MFC-J5945DW printer driver installing problem -> network printer doesn't scan to pc

Aquas · 01-18-2021, 05:56 AM

Hi there,

I am kinda new to linux, running Ubuntu 20.04 now as my first experience with something other than Windows.

I tried to set up a brother MFC-J5945DW printer with my pc but it didn't really work. Before fully explaining what I did it's probably good to describe the 'before' situation, being:

-> My pc recognized the printer and I could print, but I could't scan to the pc. The printer did not find my pc on the network for scanning. I assume the printer drivers have been pre-installed or installed automatically. The printer is set up as a network printer via Wifi. On another windows-pc in the network (with the appropriate drivers installed) scanning and printing both works.

I tried installing the printer like described on the brother site (and this forum). Link: (download page for the driver, but also manual on how to install) http://support.brother.com/g/b/downl...ng=4&type3=625

In step 7 of the manual on the brother site, I entered 'y' because I want to use a network printer and number 14 corresponding to 'auto' (which another tutorial told me to select).

I got quite far in the installation process, BUT somewhere terminal asked me to enter the printer's ip-adress, which I at the time didn't know. So i exited terminal, and I guess interrupted the installation process that way.
Later on I found out the printer's ip-adress can be found through settings on the printer itself.

Here is the terminal output:

Code:

erik@erik-Inspiron-530:~/Downloads$ gunzip linux-brprinter-installer-2.2.2-1.gz
root@erik-Inspiron-530:/home/erik/Downloads# bash linux-brprinter-installer-2.2.2-1 MFC-J5945DW
You are going to install following packages.
   mfcj5945dwpdrv-1.0.0-0.i386.deb
   brscan4-0.4.9-1.amd64.deb
   brscan-skey-0.3.1-1.amd64.deb
OK? [y/N] ->y


License Agreement

.....

Do you agree? [Y/n] ->y

wget -T 10 -nd --no-cache http://www.brother.com/pub/bsc/linux/packages/mfcj5945dwpdrv-1.0.0-0.i386.deb
--2021-01-18 10:29:48--  http://www.brother.com/pub/bsc/linux/packages/mfcj5945dwpdrv-1.0.0-0.i386.deb
Resolving www.brother.com (www.brother.com)... 23.206.84.74
Connecting to www.brother.com (www.brother.com)|23.206.84.74|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 3195984 (3,0M)
Saving to: ‘mfcj5945dwpdrv-1.0.0-0.i386.deb’

mfcj5945dwpdrv-1.0.0-0.i 100%[=================================>]   3,05M   849KB/s    in 3,7s    

2021-01-18 10:29:52 (852 KB/s) - ‘mfcj5945dwpdrv-1.0.0-0.i386.deb’ saved [3195984/3195984]

Hit:1 http://nl.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal InRelease
Get:2 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-security InRelease [109 kB]
Ign:3 http://linux.dropbox.com/ubuntu disco InRelease                                             
Hit:4 http://nl.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates InRelease                                 
Get:5 http://linux.dropbox.com/ubuntu disco Release [6.598 B]                                     
Hit:6 http://nl.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-backports InRelease                               
Fetched 116 kB in 1s (110 kB/s)                                                           
Reading package lists... Done
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Package ia32-libs is not available, but is referred to by another package.
This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or
is only available from another source
However the following packages replace it:
  lib32z1

E: Package 'ia32-libs' has no installation candidate
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following package was automatically installed and is no longer required:
  libllvm10
Use 'sudo apt autoremove' to remove it.
The following additional packages will be installed:
  lib32gcc-s1 libc6-i386
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  lib32gcc-s1 lib32stdc++6 libc6-i386
0 upgraded, 3 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 3.296 kB of archives.
After this operation, 17,2 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y
Get:1 http://nl.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates/main amd64 libc6-i386 amd64 2.31-0ubuntu9.1 [2.721 kB]
Get:2 http://nl.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates/main amd64 lib32gcc-s1 amd64 10.2.0-5ubuntu1~20.04 [49,6 kB]
Get:3 http://nl.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates/main amd64 lib32stdc++6 amd64 10.2.0-5ubuntu1~20.04 [525 kB]
Fetched 3.296 kB in 5s (676 kB/s)     
Selecting previously unselected package libc6-i386.
(Reading database ... 189144 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../libc6-i386_2.31-0ubuntu9.1_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking libc6-i386 (2.31-0ubuntu9.1) ...
Selecting previously unselected package lib32gcc-s1.
Preparing to unpack .../lib32gcc-s1_10.2.0-5ubuntu1~20.04_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking lib32gcc-s1 (10.2.0-5ubuntu1~20.04) ...
Selecting previously unselected package lib32stdc++6.
Preparing to unpack .../lib32stdc++6_10.2.0-5ubuntu1~20.04_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking lib32stdc++6 (10.2.0-5ubuntu1~20.04) ...
Setting up libc6-i386 (2.31-0ubuntu9.1) ...
Setting up lib32gcc-s1 (10.2.0-5ubuntu1~20.04) ...
Setting up lib32stdc++6 (10.2.0-5ubuntu1~20.04) ...
Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.31-0ubuntu9.1) ...
dpkg -x mfcj5945dwpdrv-1.0.0-0.i386.deb /
dpkg-deb: building package 'mfcj5945dwpdrv' in 'mfcj5945dwpdrv-1.0.0-0a.i386.deb'.
dpkg -b ./brother_driver_packdir mfcj5945dwpdrv-1.0.0-0a.i386.deb
dpkg -i --force-all mfcj5945dwpdrv-1.0.0-0a.i386.deb
Selecting previously unselected package mfcj5945dwpdrv:i386.
(Reading database ... 189454 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack mfcj5945dwpdrv-1.0.0-0a.i386.deb ...
Unpacking mfcj5945dwpdrv:i386 (1.0.0-0) ...
Setting up mfcj5945dwpdrv:i386 (1.0.0-0) ...
Restarting cups (via systemctl): cups.service.
lpadmin -p MFCJ5945DW -E -v dnssd://Brother%20MFC-J5945DW._ipp._tcp.local/?uuid=e3248000-80ce-11db-8000-b42200005b06 -P /usr/share/cups/model/Brother/brother_mfcj5945dw_printer_en.ppd
lpadmin: Printer drivers are deprecated and will stop working in a future version of CUPS.
Restarting cups (via systemctl): cups.service.
#
Will you specify the Device URI? [Y/n] ->y


0: cups-brf:/
1: beh
2: socket
3: ipp
4: https
5: http
6: hp
7: ipps
8: lpd
9: hpfax
10: dnssd://Brother%20MFC-J5945DW._ipp._tcp.local/?uuid=e3248000-80ce-11db-8000-b42200005b06
11: lpd://BRWE86F3899BC36/BINARY_P1
12: ipp://Brother%20MFC-J5945DW._ipp._tcp.local/
13 (I): Specify IP address.
14 (A): Auto. (dnssd://Brother%20MFC-J5945DW._ipp._tcp.local/?uuid=e3248000-80ce-11db-8000-b42200005b06)

select the number of destination Device URI. ->14

lpadmin -p MFCJ5945DW -v dnssd://Brother%20MFC-J5945DW._ipp._tcp.local/?uuid=e3248000-80ce-11db-8000-b42200005b06 -E
Test Print? [y/N] ->y

wait 5s.
lpr -P MFCJ5945DW /usr/share/cups/data/testprint
You are going to install following packages.
   brscan4-0.4.9-1.amd64.deb

=========================================
Brother License Agreement

......
=========================================
Do you agree? [Y/n] ->y

wget -T 10 -nd --no-cache http://www.brother.com/pub/bsc/linux/packages/brscan4-0.4.9-1.amd64.deb
--2021-01-18 10:32:40--  http://www.brother.com/pub/bsc/linux/packages/brscan4-0.4.9-1.amd64.deb
Resolving www.brother.com (www.brother.com)... 23.206.84.74
Connecting to www.brother.com (www.brother.com)|23.206.84.74|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 109810 (107K) [application/x-troff-man]
Saving to: ‘brscan4-0.4.9-1.amd64.deb’

brscan4-0.4.9-1.amd64.de 100%[=================================>] 107,24K  --.-KB/s    in 0,1s    

2021-01-18 10:32:40 (876 KB/s) - ‘brscan4-0.4.9-1.amd64.deb’ saved [109810/109810]

dpkg -i --force-all brscan4-0.4.9-1.amd64.deb
Selecting previously unselected package brscan4.
(Reading database ... 189487 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack brscan4-0.4.9-1.amd64.deb ...
Unpacking brscan4 (0.4.9-1) ...
Setting up brscan4 (0.4.9-1) ...
This software is based in part on the work of the Independent JPEG Group.
You are going to install following packages.
   brscan-skey-0.3.1-1.amd64.deb

=========================================
Brother License Agreement

.........
=========================================
Do you agree? [Y/n] ->y

wget -T 10 -nd --no-cache http://www.brother.com/pub/bsc/linux/packages/brscan-skey-0.3.1-1.amd64.deb
--2021-01-18 10:32:54--  http://www.brother.com/pub/bsc/linux/packages/brscan-skey-0.3.1-1.amd64.deb
Resolving www.brother.com (www.brother.com)... 23.206.84.74
Connecting to www.brother.com (www.brother.com)|23.206.84.74|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 72004 (70K) [application/x-troff-man]
Saving to: ‘brscan-skey-0.3.1-1.amd64.deb’

brscan-skey-0.3.1-1.amd6 100%[=================================>]  70,32K  --.-KB/s    in 0,08s   

2021-01-18 10:32:54 (882 KB/s) - ‘brscan-skey-0.3.1-1.amd64.deb’ saved [72004/72004]

dpkg -i --force-all brscan-skey-0.3.1-1.amd64.deb
Selecting previously unselected package brscan-skey.
(Reading database ... 189538 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack brscan-skey-0.3.1-1.amd64.deb ...
Unpacking brscan-skey (0.3.1-1) ...
Setting up brscan-skey (0.3.1-1) ...
apt-get install libusb-0.1-4
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following package was automatically installed and is no longer required:
  libllvm10
Use 'sudo apt autoremove' to remove it.
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  libusb-0.1-4
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 17,4 kB of archives.
After this operation, 58,4 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 http://nl.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal/main amd64 libusb-0.1-4 amd64 2:0.1.12-32 [17,4 kB]
Fetched 17,4 kB in 0s (102 kB/s)      
Selecting previously unselected package libusb-0.1-4:amd64.
(Reading database ... 189558 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../libusb-0.1-4_2%3a0.1.12-32_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking libusb-0.1-4:amd64 (2:0.1.12-32) ...
Setting up libusb-0.1-4:amd64 (2:0.1.12-32) ...
Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.31-0ubuntu9.1) ...
 enter IP address ->

brsaneconfig4 -a name=MFC-J5945DW model=MFC-J5945DW ip=
Invalid IP address or NODENAME
root@erik-Inspiron-530:/home/erik/Downloads# 
root@erik-Inspiron-530:/home/erik/Downloads# brsaneconfig4 -a name=MFC-J5945DW model=MFC-J5945DW ip=
Invalid IP address or NODENAME
root@erik-Inspiron-530:/home/erik/Downloads# brsaneconfig4 -a name=MFC-J5945DW model=MFC-J5945DW ip=dnssd://Brother%20MFC-J5945DW._ipp._tcp.local/?uuid=e3248000-80ce-11db-8000-b42200005b06
Invalid IP address (dnssd://Brother%20MFC-J5945DW)
root@erik-Inspiron-530:/home/erik/Downloads# brsaneconfig4 -a name=MFC-J5945DW model=MFC-J5945DW ip=http://localhost:631
Invalid IP address (http://localhost:631)
root@erik-Inspiron-530:/home/erik/Downloads# 
root@erik-Inspiron-530:/home/erik/Downloads# brsaneconfig4 -a name=MFC-J5945DW model=MFC-J5945DW ip=192.168.1.71
root@erik-Inspiron-530:/home/erik/Downloads# 
root@erik-Inspiron-530:/home/erik/Downloads# exit
root@erik-Inspiron-530:/home/erik/Downloads$

What should I do now?
Maybe I should have deleted all drivers before installing the one from the Brother site?
So maybe I should first uninstall all drivers (how?), and then re-run the Brother driver installation tool. I guess I now know the correct ip-adress to put in.

Oh and it might be good to know that I tried something else which may be of influence:
Loosely guided by this tutorial https://tutorialforlinux.com/2018/12...d-and-install/ I got to something unknown to me: the localhost / CUPS-system. I tried to modify the printer, but sadly the tutorial was not clear on what to modify the printer to, except 'protocol'...
So I selected "Brother MFC-J5945DW (Brother MFC-J5945DW)" under "Discovered Network Printers".

Thanks in advance,
Erik

thomas.hedden · 01-18-2021, 12:39 PM

Hello Erik,
I suggest that you uninstall all the drivers and/or print drivers and/or scanner drivers for that printer. If you completed or even partially completed the installation, the installation tool might already have installed the uninstaller program in the directory in which the installer program was downloaded, so check that first. If you don't find it there, then go to the Brother website where you found the driver installer, there should be an uninstall tool available there, or a link to it. I just installed everything for a different Brother multifunction printer, and it was a breeze after I uninstalled everything and started over.

ronatartifact · 01-18-2021, 01:06 PM

The current state of your problem is a little unclear.
Can you print on the printer from Ubuntu? Windows?
Can you change the IP of the printer in Ubunto?
What software are you using to scan? What happens?
What do you see when you try to find the state of the printer connection?

It is usually harder to do forensic computer science (reconstructing the crime scene) than it is to fix the problem given its current state.

Uninstalling and reinstalling will not hurt.
If it does not fix the problem, try to document the new current state more clearly.
What works, what does not work and what software is involved and what error messages are produced.

business_kid · 01-18-2021, 01:16 PM

Not to be overlooked after you have tried all the good advice given is this:

Some printers think THEY are at the centre of the Universe and will hop into server mode, running as their own wifi access points. My neighbour has one, and reception is good, so I can easily end up on that channel instead of my own.

ferrari · 01-18-2021, 01:24 PM

Quote:

What should I do now?
Maybe I should have deleted all drivers before installing the one from the Brother site?
So maybe I should first uninstall all drivers (how?), and then re-run the Brother driver installation tool. I guess I now know the correct ip-adress to put in.

Use the brsaneconfig4 utility to remove the scanner config. (No need to remove the entire scanner package at all IMO.)

Remove existing config with

Code:

brsaneconfig4 -r name=MFC-J5945DW

More info...

Code:

brsaneconfig4 -h

cmcanulty · 01-18-2021, 03:55 PM

another thing to try is make sure the scanner user is in the scanner and sane groups. I also had a brother and needed to install xsane also to make it scan but that was years ago. I decided to just use HP printers and scanners to avoid all the headaches with brother in linux.

ferrari · 01-18-2021, 04:50 PM

That is not the usually the case these days, and was only for r/w access to USB device nodes anyway. Not applicable to network-connected devices.

Aquas · 01-19-2021, 02:55 AM

Wow, so many reactions! Thank you all very much. Never actually posted for help on a forum before, but this seems like a very helpful place

I'll go on and try to solve the problem with your advice!

ferrari · 01-19-2021, 03:15 AM

Let us know how you get on. There’s lots of fellow Linux users willing to help where they can.

Aquas · 01-21-2021, 04:42 AM

Well, the problem is solved, however not exactly the way I intended to:

While fiddling with the all-in-one/printer, I found out it simply has the option to scan to USB. That (indirectly) solves my problem: via an USB-stick I can also get the files to pc. It was just the directly scanning to pc which I did not get done. (Printing works fine btw)

I kinda enjoyed the problem solving though and tried to get the scanning directly to pc working. Uninstalled and reinstalled all drivers like mentioned and I guess this time it went like it should. I did the uninstalling with three uninstaller programs/sh-scripts created by the installation tool in the same directory)

So the scanner driver seems correctly installed, but I don't know how to get to it / use it. I expected some software to be installed so I could just use a GUI to 'click and scan' from pc, but that does't seem to be the case. Another option would be, like my colleague on the Windows computer, to go to the MFC-J5945DW all-in-one, select 'scan to computer', and select my Ubuntu-pc. That option is not available however: it defaults to my colleague's Windows pc and there's no way to change that via the MFC-J5945DW's touchscreen.

That being said, the problem is practically solved. From this point it's just my personal interest in how it should have worked. No biggie
And again thanks for all the previous help!

ronatartifact · 01-21-2021, 08:39 AM

Have you installed XSane which is the scanning software that talks to the printer defined on your workstation and tells it to actually scan a document?
XSane will automatically look for devices with scanning capability and should find your Brother printer if it is currently able to print without any problems.

The brother driver does not include scanning software.
It only has the capability of receiving commands from Ubuntu programs that want to use the printer and repackaging those requests into some instructions to the printer that cause the desired activities on the printer and returning the data that the printer generates and transforming that into a message to the Ubuntu application(XSane in the case of a scan)
Xsane does all of the user interaction to set the scan parameters - scan properties such as greyscale or color, ADF or flatbed,single or multipage, etc. as well as file specifications about where to store the scan,

ferrari · 01-21-2021, 11:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aquas

So the scanner driver seems correctly installed, but I don't know how to get to it / use it. I expected some software to be installed so I could just use a GUI to 'click and scan' from pc, but that does't seem to be the case. Another option would be, like my colleague on the Windows computer, to go to the MFC-J5945DW all-in-one, select 'scan to computer', and select my Ubuntu-pc. That option is not available however: it defaults to my colleague's Windows pc and there's no way to change that via the MFC-J5945DW's touchscreen.

It should be possible to use xsane or simple-scan (SANE front-end GUIs) to communicate with the scanner, (as opposed to pushing some button on the scanner itself to initiate the scanning function). You may need to install the scanning apps yourself via your package manager.

computersavvy · 01-21-2021, 12:33 PM

I have never used a brother AIO printer in linux. However I do know that HP and Canon (and I think Xerox) all package the scanner driver for linux as a proprietary bit that needs to be installed to use the scanner. Maybe Brother does the same.

ronatartifact · 01-21-2021, 01:19 PM

It appears that he has the driver installed and printing works.
Not sure if he has a scanner application (Xsane for example) installed.

Aquas · 01-22-2021, 03:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ferrari

It should be possible to use xsane or simple-scan (SANE front-end GUIs) to communicate with the scanner, (as opposed to pushing some button on the scanner itself to initiate the scanning function). You may need to install the scanning apps yourself via your package manager.

It works

. Simple-scan was actually a preinstalled application with Ubuntu 20.04 under the name 'Document Scanner'. It can be found from desktop under Applications (bottom left corner) -> Utilities (tile/folder) -> Document Scanner.

For anyone else reading this, you still need your printer's/all-in-one's drivers though.