Two weeks ago I switched from Windows to Linux Mint on a new PC, with the OS and Home on partitions on my SSD. I have spent days trying to get my old Brother DCP-J140W to print. After installing the latest Brother drivers, version 2.2.1-1, Document Print Status shows : Idle - Directory "/usr/lib/cups/filter" has insecure permissions (040777/uid=0/gid=0). In /var/log/cups/error_log, two dozen such errors relate to directories below /usr/lib/cups/. I’ve spent hours on Google for not much return.

I do have this DCP-J140W printer working fine under Linux Mint 18.3 on an old, unused 64-bit PC, having installed using the previous driver release 2.2.0-1, a couple of years ago for fun. However, installing that release on my new PC, running LINUX Mint 19.3, produced the same error: Idle - Directory "/usr/lib/cups/filter" has insecure permissions. I did correct a couple of errors in both the bash install scripts except for cups-deviced failed to execute, but I doubt these script errors matter.

Setting up dcpj140wcupswrapper:i386 (1.1.3-6) ...
Restarting cups (via systemctl): cups.service.
lpinfo: cups-deviced failed to execute.

Incidentally, Add Printer on the old PC shows both the LPT1 and my network printer, but nothing shows on my new PC.

Following advice from Google (e.g. https://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-1313291.html), I used various chown, chgrp and chmod commands to change permissions. Most made no difference but one combination almost worked. So now Document Print Status shows Idle and Connected to local host.

When I print I see a fleeting Printing popup but Document Print Status now shows Held. If I Release, a popup shows printing but the status shows Processing but soon returns to Held. (After USB printer installation, I see Processing: Waiting for printer to become available with nothing printing.)

Does this DCP-J140W printing issue likely relate to the Linux kernel, Linux Mint distro, or something else? Am I likely to find a solution? What else can I try?

Here is current lpstat output:

ian@PC-2020:~$ lpstat -t
scheduler is running
no system default destination
device for DCPJ140W: socket://192.168.178.33
DCPJ140W accepting requests since Mon 20 Apr 2020 13:54:32 AEST
printer DCPJ140W is idle. enabled since Mon 20 Apr 2020 13:54:32 AEST

ian@PC-2020:~$ lpinfo -v
lpinfo: cups-deviced failed to execute.

ian@PC-2020:~$ lpstat -l -e
DCPJ140W permanent ipp://localhost/printers/DCPJ140W socket://192.168.178.33

The only errors now in the CUPS error log at /var/log/cups/error_log, are:

D [20/Apr/2020:19:12:11 +1000] [Client 3] cupsdSendHeader: code=200, type="application/ipp", auth_type=0
D [20/Apr/2020:19:12:11 +1000] [Job 13] execv failed: Permission denied

D [20/Apr/2020:10:38:23 +1000] [Job 10] PID 3586 (/usr/lib/cups/backend/socket) stopped with status 113 (Permission denied)

----------------------------

I’ve just found my old DCP-J140W printer will actually scan. After seeing the CUPS error-log message: Directory "/usr/lib/cups/daemon" has insecure permissions (040777/uid=0/gid=0), I decided to experiment with chmod 755 * /usr/lib/cups/daemon and, wonder of wonders, the DCP-J140W now prints!

I am curious why no one replied to my initial post. As a two-week-old Linux Newbie, should I have posted this thread in the Linux-Newbie forum, rather Linux-Hardware or should I have, instead, posted in a Linux Mint forum? Or, did no one reply because the matter I raised is not so easy to solve — and I have been blessed with beginners luck?

Well, I didn't know the solution, rather my HL-2040 sometimes threw the same error. It vanishes then after some time via the usual updates (I run openSUSE tumbleweed). I just hoped to learn something. Now I'm curious whether this will help me too when the error recurrs .

Oh, btw. it was not so much a hardware as a software question. And I don't think it is specific for mint. Anyway, congratulations for finding a solution on your own .

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I am marking the thread "Solved". Unfortunately I cannot be certain which commands resolved my printer errors and I expect the same issues, around Christmas, with Linux Mint 20. I suspect cups permissions somehow changed between Linux Mint 18 and 19.

Here is how I would approach this in future:

• Create Timeshift snapshot just in case.
  
  
• Check for obvious errors installing driver and correct the bash install script as necessary.
  
  
• lpstat -t && lpstat -l -e && lpinfo -v
  
  
• cat /var/log/cups/error_log | less
  
  
• cat /var/log/cups/error_log | grep "permissions\|errors"
  
  
• sudo chmod 755 * <any directory with permissions errors>
  
  
• If the DCP-J140W icon appears in Printers, repeat the above steps after trying to print.
  
  
• If still no printing, consider chown and chgrp issues.

And, of course, fingers crossed.

I didn't have a solution either. My Brother MFC-5440cn never gave me this issue with any Debian based distro.

If no one have had the issue, there may not be an answer or someone just will not reply.

1 members found this post helpful.