CUPS 4 Noobs -- installed but can't print (Brother HL-2270DW on Armbian on Orange Pi)

mc510 · 11-30-2019, 11:30 PM

My first ever attempt to install and configure CUPS. Hasn't gone as well as I hoped.

I installed CUPS with the armbian-config utility, which appears to do apt-get -y install cups lpr cups-filters, then I added my user account to lpadmin group.

In CUPS web interface I select my wireless printer; there are no Brother drivers listed, but it says "or select a PPD file" so I used the HL-1660e PPD from openprinters.org which is said to work perfectly with my HL-2270DW. But when I try to print a test page from CUPS, I get "Unable to locate printer "BRN30055C070BA1.local"." I tried changing the URI to the printer's static IP; fixes the error message, but now printing test page just gives "processing" forever and never prints.

Brother provides proprietary linux lpr and cups-wrapper drivers for this printer; they are described as being for i386 architecture (my device is arm) but I've seen comments claiming that there is no architecture-specific code in these drivers. I've not tried anything with them.

CUPS describes printer as

Code:

Description:    Brother HL-2270DW (CUPS)
Location:   
Driver: Brother HL-1660e Foomatic/hl1250 (recommended) (grayscale, 2-sided printing)
Connection: dnssd://Brother%20HL-2270DW%20series._pdl-datastream._tcp.local/
Defaults:   job-sheets=none, none media=na_letter_8.5x11in sides=two-sided-long-edge

I don't know what this here output means, but I saw a thread where it was requested:

Code:

$ lpstat -t
scheduler is running
no system default destination
device for Brother_HL-2270DW_series: dnssd://Brother%20HL-2270DW%20series._pdl-datastream._tcp.local/
Brother_HL-2270DW_series accepting requests since Sat Nov 30 11:45:03 2019
printer Brother_HL-2270DW_series is idle.  enabled since Sat Nov 30 11:45:03 2019
$ sudo egrep -i "name|model|filter" /etc/cups/ppd/*
/etc/cups/ppd/Brother_HL-2270DW_series.ppd:*% "foomatic-rip" backend filter script of Foomatic 4.0.0 or newer. This 
/etc/cups/ppd/Brother_HL-2270DW_series.ppd:*PCFileName: "HL1250.PPD"
/etc/cups/ppd/Brother_HL-2270DW_series.ppd:*cupsModelNumber:  2
/etc/cups/ppd/Brother_HL-2270DW_series.ppd:*cupsFilter: "application/vnd.cups-postscript 100 foomatic-rip"
/etc/cups/ppd/Brother_HL-2270DW_series.ppd:*cupsFilter: "application/vnd.cups-pdf 0 foomatic-rip"
/etc/cups/ppd/Brother_HL-2270DW_series.ppd:*ModelName:     "Brother HL-1660e"
/etc/cups/ppd/Brother_HL-2270DW_series.ppd:*ShortNickName: "Brother HL-1660e hl1250"
/etc/cups/ppd/Brother_HL-2270DW_series.ppd:*NickName:      "Brother HL-1660e Foomatic/hl1250 (recommended)"
/etc/cups/ppd/Brother_HL-2270DW_series.ppd:*driverName hl1250: ""
/etc/cups/ppd/Brother_HL-2270DW_series.ppd.O:*% "foomatic-rip" backend filter script of Foomatic 4.0.0 or newer. This 
/etc/cups/ppd/Brother_HL-2270DW_series.ppd.O:*PCFileName:       "HL1250.PPD"
/etc/cups/ppd/Brother_HL-2270DW_series.ppd.O:*cupsModelNumber:  2
/etc/cups/ppd/Brother_HL-2270DW_series.ppd.O:*cupsFilter:       "application/vnd.cups-postscript 100 foomatic-rip"
/etc/cups/ppd/Brother_HL-2270DW_series.ppd.O:*cupsFilter:       "application/vnd.cups-pdf 0 foomatic-rip"
/etc/cups/ppd/Brother_HL-2270DW_series.ppd.O:*ModelName:     "Brother HL-1660e"
/etc/cups/ppd/Brother_HL-2270DW_series.ppd.O:*ShortNickName: "Brother HL-1660e hl1250"
/etc/cups/ppd/Brother_HL-2270DW_series.ppd.O:*NickName:      "Brother HL-1660e Foomatic/hl1250 (recommended)"
/etc/cups/ppd/Brother_HL-2270DW_series.ppd.O:*driverName hl1250: ""

I'm having a difficult time finding and noob-oriented troubleshooting info for CUPS, or even any configuration guides that go beyond "select your driver from the dropdown and whammo it works!" Thanks for any assistance

ferrari · 11-30-2019, 11:43 PM

Quote:

In CUPS web interface I select my wireless printer; there are no Brother drivers listed, but it says "or select a PPD file" so I used the HL-1660e PPD from openprinters.org which is said to work perfectly with my HL-2270DW.

Are you sure about that. This page suggests no such thing. I'd be surprised if anything but the vendor-supplied driver would work here (but open to correction).

Quote:

Brother provides proprietary linux lpr and cups-wrapper drivers for this printer; they are described as being for i386 architecture (my device is arm) but I've seen comments claiming that there is no architecture-specific code in these drivers. I've not tried anything with them.

Yes, forget using the Brother (proprietary) drivers - nothing available for ARM architecture.

Do you have a PC with Linux installed (or a MAC) that you could perhaps configure as a CUPS server? This approach would allow you to print from the Pi without requiring a CUPS printer driver.

mc510 · 12-01-2019, 12:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ferrari

Are you sure about that. This page suggests no such thing. I'd be surprised if anything but the vendor-supplied driver would work here (but open to correction).

Yeah, it was actually described in Disqus comments on that very openprinting.org page until yesterday, when all of the Disqus comments disappeared from openprinting. Others have cited printing to it using the hl1250 driver, which seems to be the one that is used by the PPD that I loaded (looking at /etc/cups/ppd/Brother_HL-2270DW_series.ppd:*driverName hl1250: ""). The thing is, I don't understand anything about how CUPS works, so my troubleshooting abilities are weak!

ferrari · 12-01-2019, 12:06 AM

I'm not sure if this will work, but I note that the Brother HL-2270DW specs suggest that the printer offers PCL6 emulation. With luck, you might try configuring CUPS with a 'Generic' model, and choose 'Generic PCL 6 Printer wide margin' (or similar). No promises though.

BTW, is your printer USB-connected to the Pi or connected as a network printer (via wired ethernet or wifi)?

mc510 · 12-01-2019, 12:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ferrari

I'm not sure if this will work, but I note that the Brother HL-2270DW specs suggest that the printer offers PCL6 emulation. With luck, you might try configuring CUPS with a 'Generic' model, and choose 'Generic PCL 6 Printer wide margin' (or similar). No promises though.

BTW, is your printer USB-connected to the Pi or connected as a network printer (via wired ethernet or wifi)?

It's wifi. Others have reported successfully using a generic PCL6 driver, so I'll try that ... though I suspect it won't support duplex printing, which is one of the reasons that I was hoping to make it work with a more Brother-specific driver.

I take it there's nothing in the output that I pasted above that points towards an obvious problem?

ferrari · 12-01-2019, 12:12 AM

Quote:

The thing is, I don't understand anything about how CUPS works, so my troubleshooting abilities are weak!

In general, one can review what is logged to the CUPS error_log (/var/log/cups/error_log), but some experience/knowledge is needed to interpret some issues. CUPS can be put into debug mode using

Code:

sudo cupsctl --debug-logging

That increases the logging verbosity which can help when trying to diagnose a printer issue.

If you want to learn more about CUPS I suggest reading the following guides...
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/How_t...nting_problems
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingPrintingProblems
Even thought they are aimed at particular distros, they contain a lot of universal CUPS troubleshooting information.

In your case though, any failure to print will be down to an incorrect driver, which means that the resulting printer stream output will be unintelligible to the target printer.

ferrari · 12-01-2019, 12:18 AM

Quote:

It's wifi. Others have reported successfully using a generic PCL6 driver, so I'll try that ... though I suspect it won't support duplex printing, which is one of the reasons that I was hoping to make it work with a more Brother-specific driver.

Brother printers are generally well supported as far as x86 architecture goes, but that doesn't help those using Pi (or other ARM devices). In general, HP printers are well supported by HPLIP drivers and that includes the Raspberry Pi. Otherwise, look for PostScript compatible printers (usually high-end laser printers). The PCL 6 driver is worth a shot though.

Quote:

I take it there's nothing in the output that I pasted above that points towards an obvious problem?

The lpstat output is as expected, and the PPD information you've shared just shows the print filter you've configured. I doubt that the foomatic-rip driver will produce output intelligible to your printer.