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hacksenwerk

Member

From: Europe

Registered: 2022-02-10

Posts: 2  

Printer and Scanner from Brother - Get them to work under Devuan 5

# 1. Browse the stuff for your device
Go to:
=> https://support.brother.com/g/b/product … content=dl
and search for your device.

Select:
> Linux
as OS

Select:
> Linux (deb)

If it is complaining about that the software is not available in your language, just choose another language.

# 2. Aggree to the EULA while crossing your fingers behind your back.

# 3. Download all the stuff you need and install it.
The website will print you some information about installation and usage, but it can be that this is incomplete (as it was in my case) or outdated (as it was in my case too).
The last Debian version in their support FAQ is Debian 6! So...

## Additional steps I needed to do after install all of the stuff (printing and scanning) was the following:

### 4. Adding user to needed usergroups
The usergroup for printing is lpadmin.
The usergroup for scanning is scanner.
> adduser USERNAME lpadming
> adduser USERNAME scanner

### 5. Install additional package(s) from the repo.
> apt install libusb-0.1-4

### 6. Add the device to udev rules
Open the file:
> /lib/udev/rules.d/60-libsane1.rules
and adding at the bottom of this file the lines:
Note:
> # Brother scanner
> FOLLOWED BY THE LINE SPECIFIC FOR YOUR DEVICE (LOOK AT BROTHER SUPPORT FAQ)

### 7. Copy specific files from /usr/lib64/ to /usr/lib/

Example for brscan3:

> cp /usr/lib64/libbrscandec3.so /usr/lib
> cp /usr/lib64/libbrscandec3.so.1 /usr/lib
> cp /usr/lib64/libbrscandec3.so.1.0.0 /usr/lib

> cp /usr/lib64/sane/libsane-brother3.so /usr/lib/sane
> cp /usr/lib64/sane/libsane-brother3.so.1 /usr/lib/sane
> cp /usr/lib64/sane/libsane-brother3.so.1.0.7 /usr/lib/sane

### 8. Reboot the computer
> reboot

If you have any questions or improvements for this short help text please post them.

# Hack bonus
## Printing greyscaled with empty colour cartridges.
One of the advantages of Brother devices over other vendors is imho, that many (or all?) of their printers are checking the filling level of the cartridges with an optical sensor (light, laser, what ever).
For this the beam is directed to a small window on the cartridge, if it goes throught, that will be registered as "cartridge is empty" and the printer wont print, no matter if the other three cartridges are full or not.
The user can just put a non-transparent sticky tape over both sides of that window and the printer will register the empty cartridge as full.
WARNING this has the potential to damage the printer, because it draws air into the system instead of ink. But this is only what the vendors say, maybe it is not true.
If you really know if it is true or not please post it here!

Last edited by hacksenwerk (2024-05-11 18:02:20)

Dutch_Master

Member

Registered: 2018-05-31

Posts: 285  

Re: Printer and Scanner from Brother - Get them to work under Devuan 5

Brother offers a complete install script for MFC devices, which works based on some simple questions like model number etc. It installs and configures everything you need to get your Brother MFC working. It's also on the Linux support pages, in the install section. It worked a few weeks ago for my Devuan Stable install for a older (ancient?) MFC device. Make sure you run the installer as root! (it fetches and installs dependencies via apt/dpkg (can't remember))

Last edited by Dutch_Master (2024-05-11 18:40:41)

hacksenwerk

Member

From: Europe

Registered: 2022-02-10

Posts: 2  

Re: Printer and Scanner from Brother - Get them to work under Devuan 5

Well... I totally forgot to mention this.
Yes you are right, theres is the
> linux-brprinter-installer-2.2.3-1
It is a bash script with >2600 lines of code...

I didn't want to run that monster on my computer.

Last edited by hacksenwerk (2024-05-11 18:48:09)

Andre4freedom

Member

Registered: 2017-11-15

Posts: 174  

Re: Printer and Scanner from Brother - Get them to work under Devuan 5

Wow, good information.  Thank you.
This seems to be for Brother-MFC devices connected using USB cables - right?

Just in case the printer is connected to the local network (LAN):

In Devuan 4 (Chimaera):
Printing: nothing to do. (CUPS and related network-protocols work right away.
Scanning an initial config step was required:

1. Download the Brother Scanner Config Tool: brscan5-1.2.13-0.amd64.deb
2. Install it with GDebi Package Installer
3. Go to /opt/brother/scanner/brscan5
4. ./brsaneconfig5 -q
5. ./brsaneconfig5 -d
6. ./brsaneconfig5 -a name=MFC-J5340DW-br model=MFC-J5340DW ip=192.168.xxx.yyy -s
(Give it a distinctive name in order to find it in the Document scanner!)

Tested, 01-AUG-2023.

Now, with Devuan 5 (Daedalus)
Nothing at all had to be done, no configuration, no adding software.
Printing: everything works strait away. Provided CUPS with all networking is installed
Scanning: everything works strait away. Not even a initial config-step was required.

I prefer to give the MFC device a dedicated IP address, but with Daedalus I saw it worked with a dynamic IP address as well.

onekk68

Member

Registered: 2024-11-06

Posts: 10  

Re: Printer and Scanner from Brother - Get them to work under Devuan 5

Yes Andre4freedom you are right.

I'm just returning in devuan after some years of using ArtixLinux (maily for "bleeding edge" development reason), so I'm in the process of setting everything, scanner and printng has revelaed to work "out of the box"

But my past experience is that "out of the box" scanner experience if inferior in capabilities to the brother supplied drivers, at least on my MFC-L2710DW.

Kind regards

Carlo D.