[vox-tech] Printer installation

[Ken Bloom]

On Thu, 15 Nov 2007 12:29:58 -0800
Steve Weiss <stevew at bbenginc.com> wrote:

> I have a Brother MFC-8860DN printer/fax/scanner network printer 
> connected to my 100-TX ethernet network. Right now everything is
> setup for DHCP, hosted by a Netgear FR114P router with firewall and
> works fine w/PCs running Windows XP.
> 
> I've been using Ubuntu 7.10 since the last installfest, but I still
> need to get this printer working with it. I tried setting up the
> printer with the driver that Ubuntu automatically recommended, but it
> doesn't work. (More details available, but hopefully not needed if
> the stuff below works out.)
> 
> Brother recently began supporting Linux at 
> http://solutions.brother.com/linux/en_us/index.html
> and came out with drivers including several for my printer. Great!
> But now my Linux novice's ignorance is a problem and the choices
> begin:
> 
> *    Which package should I try first, the one for Debian (.deb) or
> for Red Hat / Mandriva (Mandrake) / SuSE (.rpm)?

The one for Debian. Ubuntu is derived from Debian, and uses the same
package format (.deb). .rpm packages are incompatible, and use a
different software to manage the packages.

> *    Brother's CUPS installation instructions at 
> http://solutions.brother.com/linux/sol/printer/linux/cups_wrapper_install5.html 
> don't use ubuntu's package manager. How do I install this through the 
> Synaptic Package Manager?

dpkg is Ubuntu's package manager. Synaptic is just a nice GUI frontend.
Once you install the package using dpkg, Synaptic will know about it,
and it won't break anything, nor will it defeat the packaging system.

Follow their directions and you'll be fine.

> I looked at adding a repository, but I have
> no idea what apt line to enter. And should I point it to the files I 
> downloaded or to the URL where I got them?

You don't need to if you just use dpkg.
http://linuxhelp.blogspot.com/2005/12/concise-apt-get-dpkg-primer-for-new.html
explains the role of apt-get versus dpkg. Synaptic is just a GUI that
does the same thing as apt-get.
 
> *    Brother has both CUPS and LPR drivers. It seems like CUPS does
> more and I should try to install it, but their instructions seem to
> first require LPR driver installation anyway. Plus, having a network
> printer requires LPR as well. Am I understanding this correctly?

Having a network printer does not require LPR. The functionality that
LPR provides for network printers is also provided by CUPS. Ubuntu has
CUPS installed now. Follow the CUPS directions. It's easier for you to
configure the printer using CUPS than switching to LPR.

> *   LPR driver configuration instructions are at 
> http://solutions.brother.com/linux/sol/printer/linux/printsetlpr.html. 
> Note that my printer is included in the list inside the note box near 
> the top on using the file name "brprintconflsr2".
> 
> This looks more complicated than it probably is. Does anyone have any 
> good advice for me?

It looks more complicated to you than it actually is. Download the .deb
package, follow the CUPS directions, and I think you'll be fine.

-- 
Ken (Chanoch) Bloom. PhD candidate. Linguistic Cognition Laboratory.
Department of Computer Science. Illinois Institute of Technology.
http://www.iit.edu/~kbloom1/
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 189 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.lugod.org/pipermail/vox-tech/attachments/20071115/a0b23b14/signature.pgp