<SOLVED> test page prints OK, won't print from file (LM 19.1 cinnamon)

[hayseed]

I installed Linux Mint 19.1 Cinnamon from DVD to blank SSD, everything works fine except printing. Printer is a Brother HL-L2320D, which is recognized by my Acer Aspire E5 575. Test print comes out great. I can open a LibreOffice Writer page,type anything, that prints out great. But, when I try to print from file, the job icon shows "printing to HL-L2320D" and then "printing complete", and the printer light flashes and then stops.
I tried copying file contents to a LibreOffice page, and same thing happens.
I installed from the same DVD to my wife's HP Pavilion G (clean install, no shared HD) (got her away from Win7-Yay!) and the print problem is identical. Just now she was able to print a web page with no difficulty.
Where can I go for help? I have 5 days to fix this before giving her back her Win7 HD to print airline boarding passes.
And, I don't know the command line, so please be gentle?

[rene]

But, when I try to print from file [ ... ]

For at least me you are going to need to explain what you mean by that. "From file"? "From the file menu in a browser"? Supposedly not, since that seems to be working for your wife at least. As in, err, what?

[hayseed]

As in Home--documents--downloads---where stuff is stored. Files.

[rene]

Sort of imagined you were talking about the file manager, but in neither Cinnamon nor Xfce is there any such thing as a print command. Not on the File menu or anywhere else. Not on 19.1. That is, I still have no idea what you are talking about, nor do I think (m)any others will. You may need to post a screenshot if you feel the question valid.

[EDIT]

If we are here talking about for example .pdf files which you doubleclick so as to open and then print we are talking about them having opened in the "xreader" program (by default) and the issue being that xreader doesn't like your PDFs. Although it's been a while for me personally, yes, PDFs created on Windows can be an issue with PDF readers on Linux. For an alternative PDF viewer you can first of all try opening them in Firefox and printing from the toolbar you upon doing that get; Firefox these days has an embedded PDF viewer. If that still doesn't help, I expect installing Foxit Reader might: https://www.foxitsoftware.com/downloads/.

But note then I'm now just guessing around as to what the problem you are seeing is. If not already helped by the above you are going to need to be a lot clearer.

[qbit]

" But, when I try to print from file, the job icon shows "printing to HL-L2320D" and then "printing complete", and the printer light flashes and then stops."
I don't know to highlight the quote.

May be printing a simple file without libreoffice, in old days one input was on a console: lp [filename], but attention if the file worries the
printer, you can produce tons of paper, so check it with a simple very small textfile.

[hayseed]

Thank you rene, "file Manager" was the correct term.
The files in question are .jpg's that were scanned and loaded on a memory stick,then loaded onto Mint 19. The scanner is 32-bit, so I use a win-xp unit to scan, then transfer to either Mint 19.1 unit. The images show just fine in file manager. But won't print. The same happens with pdf files.

[rene]

You are still not specifying how you (try to) print them. I will assume you are double-clicking a file and then trying to print from the File menu of whatever application it opened in. In current Mint JPGs by default open in the program xviewer and PDFs in the program xreader by which we now have the information that printing fails over multiple applications.

Not all apparently, with Libre Office working for basic documents; Libre Office does indeed own automatic printer discovery through zeroconf which other applications do not... and I would as such have been content to have somewhat understood the problem had it not been for the fact that apparently still something happens for you when you try to print from xviewer or xreader ("the printer light flashes").

I am therefore still not certain to have the correct picture of what you are doing or experiencing there but let's not dwell on it. How did you install the printer? DID you install the printer? If you look in Menu -> Administration -> Printers do you then see your printer installed there?

If so, please remove it; right-click -> Delete. Then head on over to https://support.brother.com/g/b/downloa ... &type3=625 and download their Driver Install Tool. You'll be presented a list of steps to perform to in fact install it which, yes, need the terminal. If it's not "gentle" enough for you please holler; I myself am off to bed in 10 minutes but someone should be able to help.

I have of course also no experience with that particular printer so can't guarantee anything but should seemingly work.

[hayseed]

And Thank You again rene, that did the trick. On my computer, at the end of install, I opted 'yes' for a test print, but no printing. The terminal had something about 'no file found'. I opened a .jpg image and hit print. The printer was listed twice, once with the computer name after printer name, the other just the printer name. That 2nd one has a message 'waiting for printer to become available'. The 1st one (with computer name) printed the image.
On my wife's install, I opted 'no' for the test print, and when ready to print an image found just one printer listing, without the computer name. That also showed 'waiting for computer' message.
I uninstalled the printer driver and re-installed, this time opting 'yes' for test print, and have the same 2 entries as my computer, with the one with computer name being operable.
2 hours later, the printer entries without the computer name still are 'waiting for printer', and the terminals tell me 'a process is still running'and quitting the terminal will kill it. I suppose if I kill it and the driver malfunctions I can uninstall and re-install.
Now to a terminal tutorial-- the amount of anguish on the install was worth the joy at success.

[rene]

OK... seems a bit of a mixed result what with the multiple instances but let's settle for it. The ones "with computer name" sound like possible automatically through Zeroconf detected instances had it not been for the fact that "computer name" would then generally be (some configurable form of) "printer name". Don't know Brother or its software though. Good to hear it's largely functional