A Laser Printer that Works Easily!

[girarde]

I just bought a Brother MFC-L2770CDW. Graphical print jobs work perfectly with lpd using the following printcap snippet:

lp|BrotherMFC-L3770CDW:\
:lap:\
:sh:\
:rm=[insert your hostname or address]:\
:rp=raw:\
:sd=/var/spool/lpd:\
:lf=/var/log/lpd-errs:

Printing text files will require a CR2CRLF filter that I don't have in yet, and likely will want a different queue, but PDFs and printing from LibreOffice, xpdf, browsers works nicely. It seems that the Brother Universal Driver just generates BRscript (their PostScript) so apps that send PostScript are fine.

[girarde]

I spoke a little soon. Some things don't seem to be available, such as duplex and paper size commands being respected.

I tried to pry a printer specific .ppd file out of the Macintosh driver download, but that has not helped.

[girarde]

Removed some Mac-isms from the ppd and told LibreOffice to use PostScript 3 instead of PDF and things are better, including paper selection.

[shep]

According to:
https://www.brother-usa.com/products...#specification

Emulation(s) BR-Script3‡, GDI, PCL6 (PCL XL Class 3.0), PDF Version 1.7, XPS Version 1.0

I'm running a Brother HL-5450DN with a BR-Script3 ppd that I built following the print/cups-filters README:
http://cvsweb.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/cv...ype=text/plain

I've used the ppd for both lpd, via foomatic-rip,
and
cups spoolers: place ppd in

/usr/local/share/cups/model

.

PCL6 emulation is also an option via print/ghostscript using the plxmono driver. This entails some pre-processing as opposed to the BR-Script3 driver.

https://docs.freebsd.org/en/books/handbook/printing/

is helpful along with @Oko's thread in this forum on using foomatic-rip with ppd's https://daemonforums.org/showthread.php?t=8710

If you do not want to build your own, I can send you mine. Open the PPD in a text editor with find/replace capability and replace the HL-5454DN model with your model. PM if you want it.

[victorvas]

Originally Posted by shep

If you do not want to build your own, I can send you mine.

Can you also send it to me via PM?

[shep]

Originally Posted by victorvas

Can you also send it to me via PM?

I think the ppd is small enough so I'll just upload it here as a *.gz
Brother-HL-5450DN_BR-Script3-Postscript-Brother-en.ppd.gz

[victorvas]

Great! Thanks!

[scottro]

For what it's worth, I've been able to print things with netcat. This is not a Brothers, it's a Samsung, but I use (I think I got it from a Vermaden post on FreeBSD forums) nc 192.168.1.50 9100 < whatever.ps

192.168.1.50 is my LAN's printer. I do have to use pdf2ps to convert a file to postscript. (Haven't tried with other formats, all I print start as pdf files.) Lastly, this is FreeBSD, not OpenBSD, so may not be applicable. But I figured I'd throw it out there for those who can't get their printers working.

Recently, though it turned out to be nothing but a paper jam, I thought my printer had broken. I was wondering how easy it would be to get a new one working with FreeBSD and Linux. And Brother would probablybe my first choice. Previously, I used a Brother mono laser printer which worked great with Linux and FreeBSD. I would up giving it to a friend when I got the color MFC laser.

[jggimi]

Originally Posted by scottro

But I figured I'd throw it out there for those who can't get their printers working.

TCP port 9100 is for the JetDirect protocol, introduced by HP back in 1991. It is an extremely simple protocol, as it is just a TCP receiver.

Netcat -- nc(1) -- can be used to send any file to be printed with JetDirect, as long as it is in a format understood by the printer, such as Postscript, PDF, or PCL. Typically, JetDirect connectivity is just one of several network provisioning options for print spooling subsystem such as CUPS.