[Solved] USB printers (Canon & Brother) worked under 18.3 but do not work on 19.1

Forum rules
Before you post read how to get help. Topics in this forum are automatically closed 6 months after creation.
Locked
kyle5434

[Solved] USB printers (Canon & Brother) worked under 18.3 but do not work on 19.1

Post by kyle5434 »

I have an older Canon D530 monochrome laser and a newer Brother HL-3170 color laser. I have the respective linux drivers for both (downloaded from Canon & Brother), and both installed and worked fine on Mint 18.0 and 18.3.

I just upgraded to 19.1 and now neither is working. The drivers appeared to install just fine, and they both appear in CUPS as if everything is working. But when printing (from any application), although it looks like it's going to work, no data is actually sent to either printer.

Aside from going back to 18.3 and hoping that this might eventually get resolved in Linux Mint 20.x, does anyone have suggestions?

Thanks.
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 2 times in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
kyle5434

Re: USB printers (Canon & Brother) worked under 18.3 but do not work on 19.1

Post by kyle5434 »

CUPS sees the devices - here's the results of lpinfo -v:
network beh
file cups-brf:/
network ipps
network socket
network https
network ipp
network lpd
network http
direct usb://Brother/HL-3170CDW%20series?serial=U63478M7J601014
direct usb://Brother/PT-1230PC?serial=D3Z189227
direct usb://Canon/D530/D560?serial=1147Q3602046&interface=1
direct usb://DYMO/LabelWriter%20450?serial=01010112345600
direct parallel:/dev/lp0
direct hp
direct hpfax
KBD47
Level 7
Level 7
Posts: 1836
Joined: Fri Jul 29, 2011 12:03 am

Re: USB printers (Canon & Brother) worked under 18.3 but do not work on 19.1

Post by KBD47 »

I had the same issue with a Brother laser printer. Installing the debs did nothing. I had to use the terminal to install the driver and get it working.
User avatar
AndyMH
Level 21
Level 21
Posts: 13616
Joined: Fri Mar 04, 2016 5:23 pm
Location: Wiltshire

Re: USB printers (Canon & Brother) worked under 18.3 but do not work on 19.1

Post by AndyMH »

I assume your upgrade from 18.3 to 19.1 was a fresh install (it's what I did). Didn't have any problems with my HL-4140CN (case looks identical to yours - but hardwired network printer with a static IP, no wireless). There were two debs for it downloaded ages ago from brother, the main driver and the cups wrapper - did the usual thing, double-clicked on them to install. My notes said do the cups wrapper second and it took a long time. After that did the normal add printer in mint (in fact I think it did it automatically). Still running 19.0 cinnamon not 19.1.
Thinkcentre M720Q - LM21.3 cinnamon, 4 x T430 - LM21.3 cinnamon, Homebrew desktop i5-8400+GTX1080 Cinnamon 19.0
kyle5434

Re: USB printers (Canon & Brother) worked under 18.3 but do not work on 19.1

Post by kyle5434 »

Well, I was finally able to get the Brother laser going, by reinstalling 19.1 (had done a fresh install the first time), then using the "Driver Install Tool" (a command line script) from Brother before installing the 2 deb files. On Mint 18, I could just use the 2 deb files.

The script brought in a whole bunch of other files, one or more of which - in combination with the deb files - got the printer to work.

Still no joy with the Canon D530, unfortunately. I used the latest install.sh script from Canon's site, and everything appears to install OK. When I send a test page, the "Processing/Data" led on the printer blinks once briefly, but the printing engine never starts up and nothing prints out.
KBD47
Level 7
Level 7
Posts: 1836
Joined: Fri Jul 29, 2011 12:03 am

Re: USB printers (Canon & Brother) worked under 18.3 but do not work on 19.1

Post by KBD47 »

Sorry to hear the Canon is not working, but glad the Brother Printer now works.
kyle5434

Re: USB printers (Canon & Brother) worked under 18.3 but do not work on 19.1

Post by kyle5434 »

So both printers are now working. It turns out that the solution was the essentially the same for both, but I hadn't realized that it had worked for the Canon.

In both cases, simply running the deb files to install the drivers had worked on Mint 18, but not Mint 19. No printing from LibreOffice, PDF reader, anything. Going back to a fresh install of Mint 19.1, running the available installation script from the command line (from Brother's website), then running both deb files was the solution for the Brother. It turned out that the installation script from Canon's website had actually worked. Where I got tripped up was that after running that script, trying to print a test page from CUPS for the Canon failed, and I (incorrectly) assumed that this failure was system-wide. But finally, on a whim, I tried printing from the text editor, and lo and behold, it worked. Then I tried printing a PDF, and that worked. Turns out that, for whatever reason, the only thing that doesn't work is printing a test page from CUPS to the Canon. (Printing a test page from CUPS works fine for the Brother).

Next time I'll be more rigorous in my post-installation testing of printer drivers.
KBD47
Level 7
Level 7
Posts: 1836
Joined: Fri Jul 29, 2011 12:03 am

Re: [Solved] USB printers (Canon & Brother) worked under 18.3 but do not work on 19.1

Post by KBD47 »

That's awesome that you got them working :)
chopsui101
Level 1
Level 1
Posts: 42
Joined: Thu Nov 21, 2019 10:23 pm

Re: [Solved] USB printers (Canon & Brother) worked under 18.3 but do not work on 19.1

Post by chopsui101 »

is it possible to post how to add the cannon d530? Newbie here
Locked

Return to “Printers & Scanners”