Dear Linux users,

I am a new user running PCLinuxOS, which I really like.
However, I have not yet found a way of getting the software to install the drivers for my Brother MFC5840CN – which is rather limiting in using the OS!!

Any assistance would be much appreciated.

Thus far I have downloaded the rpm files from Brother and installed them using Konsole: “rpm -ivh xxxx.rpm”

One helpful forum member pointed me in the direction of “usr/local/Brother” to locate the downloaded files.

In this directory there are 3 folders: cupswrapper, inf and lpd
The cupswrapper folder has just one file: cupswrapperMFC5840CN-1.0.0 shell script.

The inf folder has several files: brio04aa.bcm, brio04ab.bcm, brio04ac.bcm, bMFC5840CNfunc (plain text doc), brMFC5840CNrc (plain text doc), brPrintListij2 (plain text doc), paperinfij2 (plain text doc), setupPrintcapij (Shell Script)

The lpd folder has 3 files: filterNFC5840CN (Shell Script), psconvertij2 (plain text doc), rastertobrij2 (executable file).

I have attempted to install the printer using CUPS and LPD options on the configuration manager but the printer does not appear on the list. If I attempt to install manually none of the above files are recognised as driver formats.

If anyone can point me in the direction of a driver file (I have the rpm files from the Brother website) I would be grateful. There may be some command or instruction that I have omitted or typed in wrong – please advise. I have attempted most of the instructions I've located from various forums but obviously I'm missing something! (Probably so basic I'll be really embarrassed when I find out!).

I would really like to adopt PCLinuxOS in preference to Windows. If I can't get it to print it is of no use to me at all.

Any advice would be appreciated. My e-mail address is mjkempson.hotmail.com

Regards,

Mark

According to this page the script should be run to produce the PPD profile and a brlpdwrapper (though that could be for the MFC3820CN only). Read the first lines of the script to find out if it's a regular BASH script or a C-shell one. Read the bottom of the page too, it's got some stuff to try (dunno if necessary) like copying files to a location CUPS recognises (/usr/share/cups, makes sense). BTW, posting your e-mail address isn't necessary: ask a question here, get replies here.

I attempted to reinstall the drivers using the "--force" command.
The lpd driver appears to have loaded properly but the cupswrapper came back with the following:
META_CLASS: undefined variable
error: %post (cupswrapperMFC5840CN-1.0.0-1.i386.rpm) scriplet failed, exit status 1

I was advised by another forum member to edit file "etc/profile.d/10pclinuxos-release.csh" so that the line "setenv META_CLASS $META_CLASS" reads "setenv META_CLASS"

I have attempted reinstallation with the the line in both scripts but with the same result.

Any clues?

Regards,

Mark

The only caveat wrt "META_CLASS: undefined variable" I can remember is that setenv stuff in 10pclinuxos-release.csh will only be read in if you open up a *new* csh shell. If you open a terminal with csh and you type 'setenv', does it show a line "META_CLASS="? What happens if you type 'csh -x /usr/local/Brother/cupswrapper/cupswrapperMFC5840CN-1.0.0 -i'?