Brother HL-2130 printer - how to get it printing ? [SOLVED]

[ron_h]

LMDE 201403 Cinnamon.
I've looked in these forums for info about installing this printer. I then downloaded the installer package from the Brother website, and (after a couple of hiccups) got it to run. I asked for a test page as part of the install and this failed to print. At this point I went to look at the printer queue and found that there was no way to look at the printer queue ! In fact, there appeared to be no way to display any info about printers at all. I eventually decided to try to 'kick' the printing system by installing a new printer driver, the PDF one, and lo and behold, I could then display printer queues again. And, sure enough, the Brother HL-2130 is there just fine. So I tried again to send a test page to it. The print queue says the test page job is there, and the status is 'Processing', with 'Time submitted' as 2 hours ago. I've tried Hold and Release, nothing happens. Can anyone suggest where I look to see what the problem is, and then give some ideas as to how to fix it ? Please.

By the way, I plugged the printer back in to my Win XP system and it prints just fine there, so it appears it is not a problem with the printer itself.

Ron

[darethehair]

I am absolutely NOT an expert at printer setup in Linux, but I do own a Brother HL-2030 printer, which works fine for me -- in fact I currently have it plugged into my router, which has effectively turned it into a 'network' printer.

I do not recall installing ANY external drivers for it, and I would be suspicious as to what it may have done to confuse the situation for you. I can see printer info in one of two ways:

- Print Settings menu option
- CUPS webpage on localhost (i.e. http://127.0.0.1:631/printers)

The 'make and model' I am using is 'Brother HL-2030 Foomatic/hl1250 (recommended)'.

It looks like when I had it plugged into my USB port, the 'connection' was set to this: usb://Brother/HL-2030%20series?serial=F7J956202
Now that I have it plugged into my router, the 'connection' is this: lpd://192.168.1.1/LPRServer

[Zill]

ron_h: There should be no need to download anything from the Brother website so you may first need to remove anything you have manually installed.

With the HL2130 switched on and connected via a USB cable, simply open the Print Settings GUI and add a new printer. Select the correct driver from the list - the "Brother HL-2140 Foomatic/hpijs-pcl5e (recommended)". Print a test page and all should be well.

[ron_h]

Sorry to say that the HL-2130 is NOT recognised by LMDE when I plug it in. That is why after finding elsewhere in these forums there were people with similar problems with Brother printers, I ended up going to the Brother website which says (in effect) this printer is supported on Windows and Mac, but there is also a way to get it to work in Linux.

See http://support.brother.com/g/b/download ... &type3=625 to get the Linux-brprinter-installer script.

I had a look at the Properties for the HL-2130 after I had run the Brother installer script (and jobs sent to the HL-2130 didn't print). The field 'Device URI' did not reference the HL-2130, but instead the USB-connect HP inkjet printer I had installed first (the format of what was in the 'Device URI' field was not identical to the same field in the HP printer Properties, but it contained the same HP model number and serial number). I don't know enough to change the 'Device URI' field directly, so I decided a start-over would be a good idea. I thought (from the evidence) that it was possible the Brother installer script would only work correctly if the HL-2130 was the first USB printer to be installed. I deleted the HP printer, disconnected it, then deleted the HL-2130 printer. I then removed the packages for the HL-2130 using Synaptic Package Manager. Just to be cautious, I then rebooted. After restart, I re-ran the Brother installer script. The test page from the script processing failed, which was a bit of a worry. However when I looked at Printers again, there was the HL-2130 re-installed. The 'Device URI' field now referenced the HL-2130. And when I asked for a test page from Properties, it printed just fine. I then reconnected the HP, and printed a test page on it as well.

My suggestion to anyone having trouble installing a Brother printer using the Linux-brprinter-installer script from the Brother website, is to delete any other USB printer (and disconnect it) then re-run the script. YMMV

Ron

[pdc_2]

thanks for this Ron; well done to get the printer working

after I had run the Brother installer script (and jobs sent to the HL-2130 didn't print). The field 'Device URI' did not reference the HL-2130

The Brother instructions are a little tricky for beginners;

2 stages:

1) unpack the compressed package with Command: gunzip linux-brprinter-installer-*.*.*-*.gz ie as it is linux-brprinter-installer-2.0.0-1.gz

gunzip linux-brprinter-installer-2.0.0-1.gz

then Brother say:

2) Command: sudo bash linux-brprinter-installer-*.*.*-* Brother machine name

so as the unpacked installer is linux-brprinter-installer-2.0.0-1

the command is

sudo bash linux-brprinter-installer-2.0.0-1 HL-2130

I wondered if you could remember exactly what you did as the Brother's instructions ask one to detail the printer in the command

[ron_h]

> I wondered if you could remember exactly what you did as the Brother's instructions ask one to detail the printer in the command

I have to say that I stuffed that up at first. I thought the instructions meant to put the parameter 'Brother' before a second parameter 'HL-2130'. I eventually twigged there was only one parameter required, HL-2130 , and then the script worked instead of failing with words like 'no such model'.

I didn't use gunzip to unpack the installer : I used 'Files' to navigate to the folder that the .gz file was in, and double clicked it. That opened a window where 'Extract' was one of the options and it worked fine.

As best I remember 'bash linux-brprinter-installer-2.0.0-1 HL-2130' didn't work till I made it 'sudo bash linux-brprinter-installer-2.0.0-1 HL-2130' and supplied my password when requested.

Ron

[pdc_2]

you are absolutely right: it is sudo bash ............my apologies

you did very well to get it all installed