Re: Does anyone know how to configure a Brother MFC-J5720DW with cups?
On Tue 08 Mar 2016 at 11:39:51 +0200, Jarle Aase wrote:
> The printer is configured and receives the print jobs from my PC. However,
> it prints nothing.
Printing would depend on the configuration on the PC; PPD, driver,
backend etc.
> 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
You are not bothered about the security of the closed source firmware on
the printer but are concerned about a closed source driver on the PC/
> 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.
Theoretically, a Generic PCL or PostScript PPD could be used with this
printer. You'd lose its specific printer options of course.
> 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.
The MFC-J5720DW supports AirPrint. Depending on which applications you
print from you do not require cupsd on the PC, so you could dispense
with a PPD and driver.
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