Brother printers

[dave8671]

I installed Linux mint 20.1 xfce for my friends dads thinkpad t400. His dad likes laser printers and staples and best buy are out of stock of HP models. They do not like amazon.

I found a website
https://haydenjames.io/finding-linux-co ... -printers/

On this site was a Brother HL-L3290CDW his dad wants a color laser printer and this is the only one I found. How difficult is installing a brother all-in-one? I never had a brother printer.

[rossdv8]

It should not be too difficult as long as you read the instructions carefully a few times (because it is the forst time you are doing it).

You can either download all the individual driver bits, then install them manually and set up CUPS, which is the way I used to do it.

Or you can download an installation script to run in a Terminal (which is how I've done it the last few times).

Again - READ EVERYTHING before you DO ANYTHING..

There WILL be times you have to enter answers during the running of the script, so once it starts - keep the Terminal OPEN, and watch for questions, then read and understand the question before you hit Y or n etc..

Preferably read it several times, and PRINT it out, so it is beside you to check off each step!

This is the link to the tool for his printer and for the install tool (script) to use with Mint:

https://support.brother.com/g/b/downloa ... 006893_000

[AndyMH]

Installing brother printers is normally trouble free, just follow the instructions provided by rossdv8. I usually do a manual install, downloading the debs for the printer driver and cupswrapper from brother and installing them before adding the printer. Currently have an old HL4140CN and a HL-L8260CDW.

[dave8671]

I did see the driver install tool. has brother printers been reliable? I have always used HP.

[AndyMH]

Yes, I wouldn't buy anything else, excellent linux support, but...
viewtopic.php?f=58&t=341588&p=1964586&h ... r#p1964586
I don't think they are any better or worse than other suppliers in this regard.

[majpooper]

I just recently installed a Brother HL_L3270CDW for my wife as a network printer on LM 19.3 Cinnamon - mint found it with no problem and it runs with no issues. The 3270 does not have a scanner function so I cannot speak to that.

[rossdv8]

I did see the driver install tool. has brother printers been reliable? I have always used HP.

Brother printers are pretty robust. I usually get more than ten years of hard work out of them, The main problems I've had were when I spent a lot of time in hospital and nozzles got clogged. I solved it (for myself at least) in two ways.
I stopped ever using pigment inks. The Brother inkjets are designed specifically for DYE ink - NOT for Pigment inks. I was doing experimental work that needed pigment and sometime solvent inks, and was happy enough to simply dispose of A3 printers regularly, since they were only about $270 back then (about 10+ years ago).
I wrote a shell script that prints a small test page that uses a small about of every colour ink very time I boot the computer.

When I am away for extended periods I just tell the computer's BIOS to boot the system every day at a set time. then shut down every day at a set time. The test print runs on boot. Linux can be told to shut down cleanly at a set time also, usually an hour or so before BIOS does a clean exit.

Prior to switching to Brother (because they worked better on Linux than any of the others - FOR WHAT I WAS DOING - I had excellent results under Linux with Epson and HP. Support wise, HP have always been best since the early days of desktop Linux. Brother were the first Epson based machines to come close. Canon may have improved these days, but when I was a Canon reseller (my first Canon priter sale was a BJ200) and service tech, their Linux support was awful, and we dropped them.

Brother uses Epson technology rather than HP, and I have often used the same ink in either.

[AZgl1800]

I did see the driver install tool. has brother printers been reliable? I have always used HP.

just a comment:

I have learned to hate HP printers with Linux.
I would never, ever, buy one for myself.
have tried to keep them running other folk's PCs and it is a struggle...

they run fine, and then they don't.

[majpooper]

I did see the driver install tool. has brother printers been reliable? I have always used HP.

just a comment:

I have learned to hate HP printers with Linux.
I would never, ever, buy one for myself.
have tried to keep them running other folk's PCs and it is a struggle...

they run fine, and then they don't.

Interesting - my experience has been just the opposite. HP is pretty good in providing drivers for the linux kernel. I have had a few HP printers and a few are on the systems on which I have installed Mint for others. I do absolutely nothing and like magic after the install the HP printers are just there. I did help someone on this forum last year with installing the HP scanner plugin but never needed a scanner plugin for the HP printers/scanners I have dealt with personally.

[dave8671]

I seen this plugin on many new HP models now days. Seems to be laser printers for now. I did read that HP may require inkjets to have plugins in the future.