Arch Linux

felix920506

Member

Registered: 2023-07-05

Posts: 1

Unable to use Brother T920DW Printer

I have recently purchased a new printer (Brother T920DW) but I can't get it to work on my Arch Linux system.

I installed the package brother-mfct920dw from the AUR.

When I try to add the printer from the settings app from Gnome, it gets stuck loading driver database.
When I try to add the printer from the CUPS web interface, it errors with this message:
`Unable to get list of printer drivers: Success`

I tried googling but every result points to the problem being either foomatic-db-engine or gutenprint, neither of which I have installed.

There is also a ghost printer in the Gnome settings that I am unable to delete but also unable to use.

plma

Member

Registered: 2023-07-07

Posts: 11

Re: Unable to use Brother T920DW Printer

Yeah, I own a Brother T220 and it was the same deal. I couldn't find a solution, so I just decided to spin a Windows VM and it worked there so that's what I am using. This is the experience that most of my relatives experience with Brother printers and I'm not sure why, but it seems like we just have to deal with it.

seth

Member

From: Won't reply 2 private help req

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 75,501

Re: Unable to use Brother T920DW Printer

First of all skip gnome-settings, use the cups web interface or lpadmin (to erase one variable from the problem)

strace lpinfo -m > /tmp/lpinfo.strace 2>&1 # first make sure that strace is installed

Does the behavior/output of "lpinfo -m" change when removing the brother AUR package? Did you install any other cups/printer-related packages?

Are you trying to use the printer over the network? nmap it and post the output.

Anecdotally the filter may silently depend on https://archlinux.org/packages/core/x86_64/which/

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realasking

Member

Registered: 2023-08-18

Posts: 4

Re: Unable to use Brother T920DW Printer

Yeah, I own a Brother T220 and it was the same deal. I couldn't find a solution, so I just decided to spin a Windows VM and it worked there so that's what I am using. This is the experience that most of my relatives experience with Brother printers and I'm not sure why, but it seems like we just have to deal with it.

Maybe you can try to install the below packages:

brother-cups-wrapper-common brother-lpr-drivers-common system-config-printer nss-mdns mdns-scan qmdnsengine python-zeroconf

And then modify /etc/nsswitch.conf, change the line :

hosts: mymachines resolve [!UNAVAIL=return] files myhostname dns

to:

hosts: mymachines mdns_minimal [NOTFOUND=return] resolve [!UNAVAIL=return] files myhostname dns

After reboot, then enable the cups and ( or ) the cups-browsed services:

Then use the system-config-printer (by root user) to config brother printers.

I have a Brother T420W, and did it successfully by this way.

Last edited by realasking (2023-08-23 04:39:26)