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Re: Does anyone know how to configure a Brother MFC-J5720DW with cups?



Den 08. mars 2016 10:05, skrev Sven Arvidsson:

On Tue, 2016-03-08 at 00:14 +0200, Jarle Aase wrote:

Hi all,

I read some good reviews about this network printer/scanner, and
noticed
that it can scan to email or FTP. So I made the flawed(?) assumption
that the printer would work independently without a software suite /
drivers from Brother.

I tried to install it with the kde "Print Settings" front-end to
cups.
"Print Settings" finds the printer and lists several interfaces -
however, I am unable to print anything no matter what configuration
(combination of network protocol / printer driver) I use.

I know that I can download a bash script from Brother.com and run it
as
root - and then the printer is supposed to work with Debian.
However,
I'm not comfortable doing that. Actually, I'll rather scrap the
printer
and get another one that support lpd/ps natively than risk
compromising
/ messing up my system.

So my question is really if anyone have experience with recent
Brother
network printers and know a cups configuration that works with one
of
the standard Debian/Linux drivers.

I'm using both Debian Testing and Debian Stable on different
machines
right now.

I think you can safely extract the mfcj5720dwcupswrapper-3.0.1-
1.i386.deb file and extract the PPD and install it manually.

There's also a bash script in there (looks like it just installs the
ppd and restart cups) and a binary, not sure what that does.

You might have better luck installing and configuring the printer from
the web GUI.


Thanks for the reply.
The printer is configured and receives the print jobs from my PC. However, it prints nothing.
I am very skeptical to installing 3rd party deb packages from hardware vendors. I don't think they have quite the same focus on security that I have. Basically, if a network printer require proprietary drivers to work - then it is broken by design. I have used lpd + postscript for around 20 years, and it just works. It's fine if Brother want to embrace newer technologies and provide a better UX, but not providing a fall-back to open standards seems weird.
Anyway - I think this printer supports both pcl and postscript. So unless Brother deliberately is looking for a fingerprint or something in the payloads, it should be possible to trick it into printing my documents. Hopefully it's just a matter of understanding what the printer expects to receive in order to print.
One alternative is to install a dedicated VM with Debian and use it as a print server. However, since I use both laptops and PC's, it's not convenient. 

jgaa
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