Arch Linux

genji

Member

Registered: 2023-08-13

Posts: 61

Can't add Brother QL-800 Printer to CUPS, missing .ppd file

Hello all, this is by far my most frustrating endeavour with linux to date:  trying to get my Brother QL-800 label printer to work in Linux

I'm at my wits end here, been using Grok and Gemini for over an hour while they keep repeating utterly useless instructions, over and over and over again

$ lsusb
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 004 Device 002: ID 1532:007c Razer USA, Ltd Razer DeathAdder V2 Pro
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 006 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 006 Device 002: ID 1532:0258 Razer USA, Ltd Razer BlackWidow V3 Mini
Bus 007 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 007 Device 003: ID 1da0:2188 Parade Technologies, Inc. USB2.0 Hub
Bus 007 Device 004: ID 2109:2822 VIA Labs, Inc. USB2.0 Hub             
Bus 007 Device 005: ID 33fa:0001  USB2.0-BT
Bus 007 Device 006: ID 1da0:3188 Parade Tech Billboard Device
Bus 007 Device 007: ID 046d:0a5e Logitech, Inc. UE BOOM 2
Bus 007 Device 008: ID 04f9:209b Brother Industries, Ltd QL-800 Label Printer
Bus 008 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub

It's detected just fine via USB

It shows up in CUPS, but I cannot proceed from the Add Printer stage because there's no entry for Brother, and no .ppd file to choose

I've searched the whole filesystem for .ppd files and can't find anything

Hands down the worst part of Linux to date, this is true nightmare material

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 25,146

Re: Can't add Brother QL-800 Printer to CUPS, missing .ppd file

Stop thinking LLMs know things and use the wiki and some logical reasoning:

There's a dedicated wiki page for brothers https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/CUPS/P … ms#Brother -- while your exact model isn't explicitly listed, seeing that that many models exist and have PPD files in the AUR, one thing you could is just try that pattern with your printer model, which will land you at: https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/brother-ql800 -- have you tried that?

Something that's somewhat less at hand and at least according to the handbook is not possible -- but would be preferable as PPD file support will be removed in CUPS. You'll want to  check whether you could get it detected via IPP everywhere instead: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/CUPS#A … Everywhere

Last edited by V1del (2025-08-28 18:38:14)

SeagullFish

Member

Registered: 2023-08-10

Posts: 77

Re: Can't add Brother QL-800 Printer to CUPS, missing .ppd file

I am by no means an expert on this. But maybe I can provide at least some information for you.

It seems that you are trying to get this printer model to work. (Am I right?) It is described as a label printer with USB-connection only.

[...] You'll want to  check whether you could get it detected via IPP everywhere instead: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/CUPS#A … Everywhere

This printer model does not occur within either the list of IPP Everywhere[TM] certified printers, the list of Mopria[TM] certified printers or the list of Apple AirPrint[TM] certified printers. So I don’t see any immediate indications that this printer model would support IPP Everywhere[TM]. (However, in the list of Apple AirPrint[TM] certified printers, I notice that a few other Brother label printers with model numbers QL-8## are mentioned. Could they be somehow closely related to QL-800?)

Regardless, at this GitHub article, it is mentioned that:

Almost every printer manufactured since 2010 supports IPP/2.0 with standard file formats
Holdouts are industrial label printers and certain vertical market printers
[...]
LPrint: PAPPL-based label printer application, currently supporting Zebra and Dymo label printers with plans to support more, based on the CUPS rastertolabel driver. "Raw" printing is supported as well if you have an application that produces the native print data format.

Maybe Lprint could provide support for your printer? Lprint seems to be available in the AUR official package repositories:
https: //aur.archlinux.org/packages/lprint https://archlinux.org/packages/extra/x86_64/lprint/

Also, there seems to be a driver package available for Brother QL-800 printers in the AUR. Maybe you could try installing it? (That would probably provide you with a suitable ppd-file.)
https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/brother-ql800

Edit: Corrected mistake. Lprint is available in the official package repositories, not in the AUR. My bad, sorry!

Last edited by SeagullFish (2025-09-01 19:32:30)