CUPS Driver for Brother MFC-J270w Printer

janvaletin · 2011-07-30 03:22:02

Howdy, y'all.

Just wondering if anybody could help me find a .ppd version of the Brother MFC-J270w printer driver? Not available through the default packages (didn't show up in the CUPS interface) and the versions of the drivers on the Brother website are .rpm and .deb versions.

I bought this printer because there was a great deal at Best Buy, and now I am sadfacin'.

Deemoney14 · 2011-07-30 03:40:11

Not sure how qualified I am to assist you, but here's what I found after some searching:

Brother has source code versions of the cupswrapper printer drivers if that's what you're looking for. The link to the whole page is:

http://welcome.solutions.brother.com/bs … d_src.html

Yours is listed as entry number 9-23. So if you're adventurous, you could consider trying to build the drivers from scratch. Not sure if this will give you exactly what you need (i.e. - a PPD file), but it's better than nothing.

Additionally, there are some packages in the AUR related to Brother printers and drivers, but they don't match your model exactly. Perhaps if nothing else you can look at the PKGBUILD file and see what options they use in preparing their packages/drivers for installation.

janvaletin · 2011-07-30 03:42:52

Thank you so much!

I checked the source code tarball and was puttering around, trying to figure out how to compile it, and I found the .ppd file!

EDIT: Unfortunately my printer refuses to do anything when I try to send it a CUPS test page, or anything from emacs, gedit, or the CLI. The jobs I send to it are reported as stopped. I deleted and re-added the printer like the wiki recommends, but it didn't work.

Last edited by janvaletin (2011-07-30 03:53:45)

oboedad55 · 2011-07-30 20:45:24

Have you checked the AUR?
https://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php? … _Search=Go

janvaletin · 2011-07-30 22:22:49

That was the first place I checked, but it didn't have drivers for the MFC-J270w. I did find the PPD file for CUPS to use inside of a source tarball, so CUPS should be able to use that...

However, any job that I send to it is listed as stopped. I don't know why, and I'm not at my wit's end yet, but I'm getting there.

I don't want to have to return this printer.

oboedad55 · 2011-07-30 22:26:01

OK, was worth a try. Is it possible your printer will work with one of the other drivers? For example, my Brother HL-1435 uses HL-1430 and my Canon MP450 works with the MP150 driver.

Deemoney14 · 2011-07-31 00:29:35

The Wiki also says that some Brother printers are covered by hplip. Have you tried that yet?

If not that, I'm inclined to agree with oboedad's suggestion of using a different, closely related driver.

oboedad55 · 2011-07-31 03:27:44

I just remembered something. I had to install the cups-usblp from the AUR to get my USB printers working.

janvaletin · 2011-07-31 03:35:53

I don't think I mentioned this before, but I realized this is probably fairly important. This printer is completely wireless, and it doesn't have a USB connection.

Currently going through the different Brother drivers that CUPS has and trying to find one that works. No luck so far after five drivers, but I'm going to keep trying.

(Using GNU/Linux is really frustrating sometimes.)

Deemoney14 · 2011-07-31 03:45:59

Maybe kinda important for sure .

I have a wireless printer too, but it's an HP, and I had installed it before on another Linux section.

I guess the one stupid thing I have to make sure I mention: make sure the CUPS daemon, cupsd, is running. I ran hp-setup about six times, downloading a .ppd file myself because the install script would NOT find one for the life of me, and I couldn't figure out why. Once I had a .ppd file, it balked on me saying CUPS wasn't running. I started CUPS, and hp-setup actually found its own copy of the .ppd file, I didn't even need one explicitly.

It bears repeating that according to the Arch wiki, some Brother printers use hplip. Unless it installs like ten thousand dependancy libraries, I don't see how it could hurt to install it and run hp-setup. It WILL find a wireless printer on its own if you don't prompt it. I'd encourage you to assign it a static IP when you do this; I don't have any hard evidence that it will break otherwise, but I'd rather not take that chance.

janvaletin · 2011-07-31 04:01:43

Just tried running hp-setup. Majorly sad to find that it would not find the printer.

The cupsd daemon is running, so it's not that I don't have it turned off or anything. I even restarted it.

Is there any way to install drivers from the CD-ROM? I know that the wiki said it wouldn't work, but...

Deemoney14 · 2011-07-31 04:32:04

Where on the Wiki does it say you can't use the CD-ROM? Just would like to read it myself for reference.

I'm taking another look at what else comes with the .ppd file. There appears to be a shell script you can run in the PARTS directory that acts as the install tool (not very well named if nothing else). Looks like it also expects you to have made the brcupsconf-whatever file that is in the third directory in the tar file. Unfortunately, I think it's expecting the printer to be hooked up via USB, could be wrong though.

I don't know if you've already configured this printer before or if it's out-of-the-box never-been-touched and you're trying to install it to work wirelessly. Duh alert: the first time you install/configure the printer you HAVE to do it via USB, at least that was my experience. I did it through Windows, however, and it readily acquired all the wireless network information it needed that way. I'm guessing if this is really a new printer that hasn't been configured before, and you can't configure its wireless any other way, that might be what you have to do.

Short version: I'd say reconsider the tar file where you got the ppd file from, check the other two directories. Also, you may have to have the printer hooked up via USB if it's the first time you're setting it up.

janvaletin · 2011-07-31 07:33:21

I'll mess around in the tar file some more.

You can't connect this printer via USB, it doesn't have a USB connection. (As in, it's not that I'm not connecting it, rather, it happens to be physically impossible.)

The lack of USB connection is making think about returning this thing and buying something that I'll know CUPS has drivers for.

janvaletin · 2011-08-01 03:16:29

Hey guys, thanks for all the help, I really appreciate it. I just wanted to let y'all know that I *gave up* on the printer. I returned it to Best Buy, went to Target, and found an HP that is $10 cheaper.

No wireless, but I have spare craptop that I want to turn into a print server, so I have a new project!

Sorry for taking up your time and not being able to follow through.

fubar0 · 2011-08-06 12:06:13

You can still install the original drivers from Brother, even if they are provided as rpm or .deb!!!
Simply extract the .rpm file with rpmextract. Some modifications might be needed though.

Step by Step Guide on how I installed a Brother MFP with the official drivers on Arch:
http://bleedux.wordpress.com/?p=476

Arch Linux

#1 2011-07-30 03:22:02

CUPS Driver for Brother MFC-J270w Printer

#2 2011-07-30 03:40:11

Re: CUPS Driver for Brother MFC-J270w Printer

#3 2011-07-30 03:42:52

Re: CUPS Driver for Brother MFC-J270w Printer

#4 2011-07-30 20:45:24

Re: CUPS Driver for Brother MFC-J270w Printer

#5 2011-07-30 22:22:49

Re: CUPS Driver for Brother MFC-J270w Printer

#6 2011-07-30 22:26:01

Re: CUPS Driver for Brother MFC-J270w Printer

#7 2011-07-31 00:29:35

Re: CUPS Driver for Brother MFC-J270w Printer

#8 2011-07-31 03:27:44

Re: CUPS Driver for Brother MFC-J270w Printer

#9 2011-07-31 03:35:53

Re: CUPS Driver for Brother MFC-J270w Printer

#10 2011-07-31 03:45:59

Re: CUPS Driver for Brother MFC-J270w Printer

#11 2011-07-31 04:01:43

Re: CUPS Driver for Brother MFC-J270w Printer

#12 2011-07-31 04:32:04

Re: CUPS Driver for Brother MFC-J270w Printer

#13 2011-07-31 07:33:21

Re: CUPS Driver for Brother MFC-J270w Printer

#14 2011-08-01 03:16:29

Re: CUPS Driver for Brother MFC-J270w Printer

#15 2011-08-06 12:06:13

Re: CUPS Driver for Brother MFC-J270w Printer

Board footer