How to use Brother wireless laser printer in FriendlyFossa/FossaPup 9.5?

[loldigox]

Hi again. Sorry to have to ask for so much help, but I think I’m getting close to being functional with FriendlyFossa/FossaPup64 9.5.

Now my issue is with setting up my printer. My printer is a wireless network printer, a Brother MFC-L2700DW B&W laser printer/scanner/fax. I don't use the fax capability, but would like to be able to print and scan.

I have followed the CUPS installation instructions as best I could, including setting read/write permissions on /tmp (which was a link to /initrd/mnt/tmpfs/tmp, which had all write permissions), as well as /dev/null, /var/tmp, and /dev/random. The only one I had to change was /var/tmp, which didn’t have write permissions for Group and World. I checked those on, so they had Write permissions.

I couldn’t figure out PeasyPort, but from my router I determined my printer’s IP is 192.168.1.112.

I couldn’t follow the forum firewall discussion, but checked on the “CUPS - Printer server” box in Firewall Setup. I’m the first to admit I don’t know a thing about firewalls, except that I should turn it on.

Here’s what my printer configuration looks like in CUPS:
BRWE89EB42FA864
BRWE89EB42FA864 (Idle, Accepting Jobs, Not Shared)
Description:
Brother Printer
Location:
Upstairs
Driver:
Brother MFC-9600 - CUPS+Gutenprint v5.3.3 (grayscale)
Connection:
socket://192.168.1.112:9100
Defaults:
job-sheets=none, none media=na_letter_8.5x11in sides=one-sided

I’ve tried all four Brother MFC drivers, and none of them work. (Note none of them are for my MFC-L2700DW). All behave the same way when I try to print a test page. CUPS shows the job status initially as “Printing Page 1 7%” (or 35% for one of them), but then after about 10-15 seconds, the status switches to “The printer is not responding”.

Any ideas what is wrong? Is there some way to find and load the proper driver for my printer?

Thanks for any help you can give.

[wizard]

Have no experience with wifi printers, but thought this might help.

https://support.brother.com/g/b/downloa ... _as&os=128

wizard

[loldigox]

Thanks @wizard! That certainly seems promising.

I followed the directions that came up after downloading, here: https://support.brother.com/g/b/downloa ... &type3=625

It went well, until the last step, running the installer bash script. I got a bunch of errors like this:
dpkg: error: failed to open package info file '/var/lib/dpkg/status' for reading: No such file or directory

Also, there were a few errors like this:
apt-get: command not found

There was a lot more in the terminal window, but I can't figure out how to copy/paste text into or out of the terminal window.

It does seem to have installed a printer, that looks like this in CUPS:
Description: MFCL2700DW
Location:
Driver: Local Raw Printer (grayscale, 2-sided printing)
Connection: socket://192.168.1.112
Defaults: job-sheets=none, none media=unknown
Jobs

Search in MFCL2700DW:

Jobs listed in print order; held jobs appear first.
ID Name User Size Pages State Control
MFCL2700DW-10 Test Page anonymous 1k Unknown processing since
Sun 13 Mar 2022 05:16:01 AM XXX
"The printer is not responding."

As you can see, however, it is not working.

I suspect the bash installer script is expecting some things that aren't where they normally are in Puppy? I confirmed that there is no /var/lib/dpkg/status file or directory.

Thanks again.

[mikewalsh]

Hi again. Sorry to have to ask for so much help, but I think I’m getting close to being functional with FriendlyFossa/FossaPup64 9.5.

Heh. Trust me, you haven't asked a fraction of the questions I asked 8 years ago when I started with Puppy..!

i'll leave you in the capable hands of others for the printer stuff. The only ones I have practical experience of are Epsons; been using them for nearly 35 years. Wouldn't want to lead you astray.....

Mike.

[wizard]

but I can't figure out how to copy/paste text into or out of the terminal window.

The terminal in fossapup64 is Urxvt.
Copy & Paste from Urxvt:
--use mouse to highlight Urxvt text = automatically copies to clipboard
--use: ctrl v = paste into another application or forum msg

Copy & Paste into Urxvt:
--use mouse to highlight appl text, press: ctrl c = copies to clipboard
--use: ctrl alt v = paste into Urxvt

Send the bash script if you can.

wizard

[mikewalsh]

but I can't figure out how to copy/paste text into or out of the terminal window.

The terminal in fossapup64 is Urxvt.
Copy & Paste from Urxvt:
--use mouse to highlight Urxvt text = automatically copies to clipboard
--use: ctrl v = paste into another application or forum msg

Copy & Paste into Urxvt:
--use mouse to highlight appl text, press: ctrl c = copies to clipboard
--use: ctrl alt v = paste into Urxvt

Send the bash script if you can.

wizard

.....or,

• highlight to copy

• middle-click to paste

Either method works. Puppy does try to retain some familiarity for Windows "refugees"..!

Mike.

[wizard]

@mikewalsh

middle-click to paste

Try that on a laptop trackpad

wizard

[mikewalsh]

@mikewalsh

middle-click to paste

Try that on a laptop trackpad

wizard

Point taken, Wiz. With a trackpad, you don't even get the option of clicking both buttons for middle-button emulation, do ya?

Every technological advance comes with drawbacks.....

Mike.

[loldigox]

Thanks @wizard and @mikewalsh!

I hate those trackpads! I always brush it with my hand while typing, and it moves my cursor and makes a mess of what I'm typing. I plan to turn it off once I get a good wireless mouse set up. (But then I'll live in fear that someday the mouse will die and then how will I navigate the menus to turn the trackpad back on? Oh well, I'll cross that bridge when/if I come to it.)

Anyway, the bash script from Brother is 3000+ lines long, so I'm sure you don't want it in the forum. Here's the link, again: https://support.brother.com/g/b/downloa ... &type3=625

I'll paste below the terminal dialog from running it, but will remove all the license agreement stuff to make it more readable. At the end, I'll include a couple ls commands to show you what's in the download directory and /var/lib/dpkg, and show that indeed apt-get does not seem to be in the path.

Code: Select all

root# cd download
root# gunzip linux-brprinter-installer-2.2.3-1.gz
root# ls
linux-brprinter-installer-2.2.3-1
root# bash linux-brprinter-installer-2.2.3-1 MFC-L2700DW
You are going to install following packages.
   mfcl2700dwlpr-3.2.0-1.i386.deb
   mfcl2700dwcupswrapper-3.2.0-1.i386.deb
   brscan4-0.4.11-1.amd64.deb
   brscan-skey-0.3.1-2.amd64.deb
OK? [y/N] ->y


=========================================
Brother License Agreement

... yada, yada...

=========================================
Do you agree? [Y/n] ->Y

wget -T 10 -nd --no-cache https://download.brother.com/pub/com/linux/linux/packages/mfcl2700dwlpr-3.2.0-1.i386.deb
--2022-03-12 13:51:10--  https://download.brother.com/pub/com/linux/linux/packages/mfcl2700dwlpr-3.2.0-1.i386.deb
Resolving download.brother.com (download.brother.com)... 184.26.81.100
Connecting to download.brother.com (download.brother.com)|184.26.81.100|:443... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 35580 (35K) [text/plain]
Saving to: ‘mfcl2700dwlpr-3.2.0-1.i386.deb’

mfcl2700dwlpr-3.2.0 100%[===================>]  34.75K  --.-KB/s    in 0.02s   

2022-03-12 13:51:10 (1.62 MB/s) - ‘mfcl2700dwlpr-3.2.0-1.i386.deb’ saved [35580/35580]


=========================================
GPL License Agreement

... yada, yada...

=========================================

Do you agree? [Y/n] ->y

wget -T 10 -nd --no-cache https://download.brother.com/pub/com/linux/linux/packages/mfcl2700dwcupswrapper-3.2.0-1.i386.deb
--2022-03-12 13:51:18--  https://download.brother.com/pub/com/linux/linux/packages/mfcl2700dwcupswrapper-3.2.0-1.i386.deb
Resolving download.brother.com (download.brother.com)... 184.26.81.100
Connecting to download.brother.com (download.brother.com)|184.26.81.100|:443... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 18994 (19K) [text/plain]
Saving to: ‘mfcl2700dwcupswrapper-3.2.0-1.i386.deb’

mfcl2700dwcupswrapp 100%[===================>]  18.55K  --.-KB/s    in 0.006s  

2022-03-12 13:51:18 (2.94 MB/s) - ‘mfcl2700dwcupswrapper-3.2.0-1.i386.deb’ saved [18994/18994]

dpkg-query: error: failed to open package info file '/var/lib/dpkg/status' for reading: No such file or directory
dpkg-query: error: failed to open package info file '/var/lib/dpkg/status' for reading: No such file or directory
linux-brprinter-installer-2.2.3-1: line 2211: apt-get: command not found
linux-brprinter-installer-2.2.3-1: line 2215: apt-get: command not found
dpkg-query: error: failed to open package info file '/var/lib/dpkg/status' for reading: No such file or directory
linux-brprinter-installer-2.2.3-1: line 2219: apt-get: command not found
dpkg -x mfcl2700dwlpr-3.2.0-1.i386.deb /
dpkg -x mfcl2700dwcupswrapper-3.2.0-1.i386.deb /
dpkg-query: error: failed to open package info file '/var/lib/dpkg/status' for reading: No such file or directory
dpkg-deb: building package 'mfcl2700dwlpr' in 'mfcl2700dwlpr-3.2.0-1a.i386.deb'.
dpkg -b ./brother_driver_packdir mfcl2700dwlpr-3.2.0-1a.i386.deb
dpkg-deb: building package 'mfcl2700dwcupswrapper' in 'mfcl2700dwcupswrapper-3.2.0-1a.i386.deb'.
dpkg -b ./brother_driver_packdir mfcl2700dwcupswrapper-3.2.0-1a.i386.deb
dpkg -i --force-all mfcl2700dwlpr-3.2.0-1a.i386.deb
dpkg: error: failed to open package info file '/var/lib/dpkg/status' for reading: No such file or directory
dpkg -i --force-all mfcl2700dwcupswrapper-3.2.0-1a.i386.deb
dpkg: error: failed to open package info file '/var/lib/dpkg/status' for reading: No such file or directory
###############################ls: cannot access '/usr/share/ppd/*.ppd': No such file or directory
#
dpkg-query: error: failed to open package info file '/var/lib/dpkg/status' for reading: No such file or directory
dpkg-query: error: failed to open package info file '/var/lib/dpkg/status' for reading: No such file or directory

0: beh
1: cups-brf:/
2: ipp
3: ipps
4: http
5: pdf-writer:/dev/null
6: https
7: socket
8: lpd
9: smbw
10: serial:/dev/ttyS0?baud=115200
11 (I): Specify IP address.
12 (A): Auto. (usb://dev/usblp0)

select the number of destination Device URI. ->11

 enter IP address ->192.168.1.112
lpadmin -p MFCL2700DW -v socket://192.168.1.112 -E
Test Print? [y/N] ->y

wait 5s.
lpr -P MFCL2700DW /usr/share/cups/data/testprint
You are going to install following packages.
   brscan4-0.4.11-1.amd64.deb

=========================================
Brother License Agreement

... yada, yada...

=========================================
Do you agree? [Y/n] ->y

wget -T 10 -nd --no-cache https://download.brother.com/pub/com/linux/linux/packages/brscan4-0.4.11-1.amd64.deb
--2022-03-12 13:54:22--  https://download.brother.com/pub/com/linux/linux/packages/brscan4-0.4.11-1.amd64.deb
Resolving download.brother.com (download.brother.com)... 184.26.81.100
Connecting to download.brother.com (download.brother.com)|184.26.81.100|:443... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 111246 (109K) [text/plain]
Saving to: ‘brscan4-0.4.11-1.amd64.deb’

brscan4-0.4.11-1.am 100%[===================>] 108.64K  --.-KB/s    in 0.04s   

2022-03-12 13:54:22 (2.45 MB/s) - ‘brscan4-0.4.11-1.amd64.deb’ saved [111246/111246]

dpkg -i --force-all brscan4-0.4.11-1.amd64.deb
dpkg: error: failed to open package info file '/var/lib/dpkg/status' for reading: No such file or directory
You are going to install following packages.
   brscan-skey-0.3.1-2.amd64.deb

=========================================
Brother License Agreement

... yada, yada...

=========================================
Do you agree? [Y/n] ->y

wget -T 10 -nd --no-cache https://download.brother.com/pub/com/linux/linux/packages/brscan-skey-0.3.1-2.amd64.deb
--2022-03-12 13:54:29--  https://download.brother.com/pub/com/linux/linux/packages/brscan-skey-0.3.1-2.amd64.deb
Resolving download.brother.com (download.brother.com)... 184.26.81.100
Connecting to download.brother.com (download.brother.com)|184.26.81.100|:443... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 71758 (70K) [text/plain]
Saving to: ‘brscan-skey-0.3.1-2.amd64.deb’

brscan-skey-0.3.1-2 100%[===================>]  70.08K  --.-KB/s    in 0.03s   

2022-03-12 13:54:29 (2.00 MB/s) - ‘brscan-skey-0.3.1-2.amd64.deb’ saved [71758/71758]

dpkg -i --force-all brscan-skey-0.3.1-2.amd64.deb
dpkg: error: failed to open package info file '/var/lib/dpkg/status' for reading: No such file or directory

root# ls -l
total 452
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 111246 Mar  8 22:08 brscan4-0.4.11-1.amd64.deb
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  71758 Mar  8 22:08 brscan-skey-0.3.1-2.amd64.deb
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 143001 Mar 12 13:40 linux-brprinter-installer-2.2.3-1
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  17496 Mar 12 13:51 mfcl2700dwcupswrapper-3.2.0-1a.i386.deb
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  18994 Mar  8 22:09 mfcl2700dwcupswrapper-3.2.0-1.i386.deb
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  26340 Mar 12 13:51 mfcl2700dwlpr-3.2.0-1a.i386.deb
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  35580 Mar  8 22:09 mfcl2700dwlpr-3.2.0-1.i386.deb
-rwxr--r-- 1 root root     96 Mar 12 13:54 uninstaller_brscan4
-rwxr--r-- 1 root root     43 Mar 12 13:54 uninstaller_brscan-skey
-rwxr--r-- 1 root root   1297 Mar 12 13:54 uninstaller_MFCL2700DW
root#  apt-get
bash: apt-get: command not found

root# ls -l /var/lib/dpkg
total 0
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 3 Mar 23  2020 alternatives
-rw-r----- 1 root root 0 Mar 12 15:29 lock
-rw-r----- 1 root root 0 Mar 12 15:29 lock-frontend
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 3 Mar 23  2020 parts
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 3 Mar 23  2020 updates

[wizard]

3000 lines, UGH.

This is one of those "almost" situations. Take a look here for a way to maybe get apt-get working:
viewtopic.php?t=3500

It looks like you might have drivers now. If it were me, I'd test it in steps:

1. connect using USB cable, if that works
2. connect using ethernet
If you can make those work you know the wifi is just a matter of drivers and configuration

wizard

[dogcat]

Maybe look at this post and information from ETP on how he/she got their Brother Laser going in Fossa Pup64

viewtopic.php?p=12301#p12301

The known to work list has a version of your model, the 2710, which should maybe be close enough.

Good luck.

[Marv]

Brother printers require a line in /etc/hosts. Taking numbers from your post, append the following to the end of that file:
192.168.1.112 BRWE89EB42FA864

I apologize if you already have done that, I didn't see it in the thread above. The first part of the line is the printer IPaddress and the second part is from the printer description in CUPS, connection line IIRC.

[mikewalsh]

See, this is why I stick with Epsons.

They may not be as "fancy"/all-singing, all-dancing/whizz-bang/feature-packed as others - they've even been termed "agricultural" by some! - but what they ARE is dead reliable.....and just keep chugging away, for year after year.

Did y'all know that over the course of nearly 40 years - and I don't know HOW many hundreds (if not thousands) of models, in all that time Epson have produced perhaps a dozen 'generic' drivers that cover the lot?

They CAN initially seem a bit awkward to set-up under Linux, though once you know the routine, it's a piece of cake.

Mike.

[loldigox]

It looks like you might have drivers now. If it were me, I'd test it in steps:

1. connect using USB cable, if that works

I tried that, and it did indeed have the driver. However, when printing the test page, the printer began spewing blank sheets of paper as fast as it could, until I turned it off. I tried a couple other files/programs, with the same results.

I think at this point, I'm ready to give up on printing with this computer. I'll keep a Windows machine in the house for the foreseeable future; we can use that for printing and scanning.

I've got another laptop I use as my daily driver. I'm thinking I'll make that a dual-boot Windows and full FossaPup system (with the "FriendlyFossa" help files copied over), and use FossaPup as much as I can. I've still got a handful of Windows apps I need on an occasional basis, and that laptop can still handle Windows. (We'll see for how long... it says it's not able to upgrade to Windows 11.)

Thanks again @wizard and others for all your help. We'll see how setting up my dual-boot system goes; I may be back for more help!

[wizard]

@loldigox

Might try sharing the printer on the MS Win computer and connecting to that.

wizard

[loldigox]

Somehow when I last posted that I was giving up on getting this printer installed, I missed a few other posts, including @dogcat's pointer to @ETP's information on the brprinter driver available through PPM. Sorry, everyone!

It was my first experience with PPM (yes, I'm that new), but it went amazingly well. I was then able to install the printer using @wizard's suggestion to start with a USB cable connection. Success! The USB printer install worked without a hitch. If nothing else, I can take the laptop to the printer, plug in the USB cable, and print.

I tried @Marv's suggestion to put a line in /etc/hosts for the printer, but so far I haven't been able to get it to work as a network printer. I've got a couple ideas to try, though. As I get time I'll try those ideas, and will update this post if I get it working. (One of those ideas is the printer goes into "deep sleep" mode, to save power. Perhaps I need to "wake it up" to do the install. I'll have to dig into the printer docs to figure out how to do that.)

Anyway, I've got an OK solution now with the USB cable. Thanks everyone for your help. The Puppy community is awesome!

[bigpup]

If it has one.
Shouldn't pressing the on switch wake it up

Should be something about this in the printers manual.

I know, you are like all of US.
We do not need no stinking manual!

MFC‑L2700DW manual
f your wireless LAN access point/router supports automatic wireless (one-push) setup (WPS/AOSS™), you can set up your machine without using a computer.

For Wireless Network Connection We recommend preparing a USB cable to use temporarily during the wireless setup.
Follow the on-screen instructions to continue installation.
NOTE:
If connection is unsuccessful, repeat this step.One-push wireless setup for mobile devicesWireless Network Connection[Recommended]Select this option if you have a USB cable to use temporarily for wireless setup.

Maybe something here is needed:
https://support.brother.com/g/b/downloa ... _as&os=128
Maybe the cups wrapper is needed

You probably have already done this to WIFI connect in Windows, but this seems to be general how to, somewhat.
https://support.brother.com/g/b/faqend. ... 100429_002
Like always, no company ever really provides specific good info for Linux.