I am very new to Linux so please forgive me if I ask very stupid questions.
Also, I would like to say that I did search for possible answers online, and I still can't get the damn thing to work. Therefore this post.
OK, so this is the config:
Linux: Linux Mint 19.3 Tricia
Printer: Brother DCP-L3550CDW
Connection: WLAN
Let me start off by saying that everything did work when I first installed it. And then *something* happened (I am definitely not ruling out human error), and now it doesn't.
So, in the beginning; I got this printer --> went online (here: https://support.brother.com/g/b/downloa ... _eu&os=128) --> got the driver package --> did the whole unpack and install thing --> specified printer's IP during the install --> everything installed beautifully!

Then I was doing something a couple of days later, and now when I open the "Printers" config, my printer is gone. Instead there is "Printing service not available. Start the service on this computer or connect to other server."
If I try and click "server" --> "connect" --> "Connect to CUPS server: /run/cups/cups.sock", I get a CUPS server error: There was an error during the CUPS operation: 'failed to connect to server'.
First thing I did was try and do a reinstall. I uninstalled the existing printing and scanning drivers, then tried to re-install. That didn't go well. The installation did finish, but with - what I believe to be - error messages during the install.
For example, there are these lines that don't sound too good:
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dpkg -i --force-all dcpl3550cdwpdrv-1.0.2-0a.i386.deb
Selecting previously unselected package dcpl3550cdwpdrv:i386.
(Reading database ... 319369 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack dcpl3550cdwpdrv-1.0.2-0a.i386.deb ...
Unpacking dcpl3550cdwpdrv:i386 (1.0.2-0) ...
Setting up dcpl3550cdwpdrv:i386 (1.0.2-0) ...
Restarting cups (via systemctl): cups.service.
lpinfo: Bad file descriptor
lpadmin -p DCPL3550CDW -E -v usb://dev/usb/lp0 -P /usr/share/cups/model/Brother/brother_dcpl3550cdw_printer_en.ppd
lpadmin: Unable to connect to server: Bad file descriptor
Restarting cups (via systemctl): cups.serviceJob for cups.service failed.
See "systemctl status cups.service" and "journalctl -xe" for details.
failed!
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lpadmin -p DCPL3550CDW -v socket://192.168.0.105 -E
lpadmin: Unable to connect to server: Bad file descriptor
Next idea I had was to remove and purge cups, re-install, the re-install the printer driver, and then everything would be great.
So that's what I did. I did both a
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sudo apt-get remove cups
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sudo apt-get purge cups
And I kinda had an idea that it wouldn't work, bc right after I ran the
remove
and purge
commands on cups, I checked the /etc/cups folder - the printers.config file looked the same as before, which is kinda funny, coz I thought that purge
was supposed to - well, purge - the config files as well? Anyways, now I'm kinda stuck.
I guess it's because I don't really understand the cups service and what it does? I have a strange feeling that all the pieces are there, I just can't put them together.
So yeah, would really appreciate some help.

Cheers,
- h