Installing Brother HL-2040 on Ubuntu

Did you download both the LPR driver and the cups driver?

D'OH!

It suddenly dawned on me that CUPS was a driver that was possibly for a USB rather than an LPT connection. Or, if one wishes to use the parallel print port, BOTH the "lpr" and the "CUPS" packages must be installed. I am not sure if order counts, but what I read on the Brother site leads me to believe that one should first download and let the automatic package installer install the driver for "lpr", then downlaod and install the Going back to the Brother site I found a driver for LPr (AKA Parallel Printer Port).

Here is the proceedure that worked:

After connecting the printer to the computer via a parallel cable and turning both on, from the Ubuntu desktop open a browser and go to :

http://solutions.brother.com/linux/sol/printer/linux/lpr_drivers.html

Click on the download button for the appropriate printer model, and allow the download to "Opened with" the default Ubantu program (rather than saving the file to disk) After the package installer completes, go to the URL for the CUPS package:

http://solutions.brother.com/linux/sol/printer/linux/cups_drivers.html#de

Again, click on the download button for the appropriate printer model, and allow the download to be openend by the default Ubantu program (rather than save the file to disk)

After installing these two packages, navigate to

"System/Administration/Printing" in the Menu bar to open the "Printers" window

Then either choose Printer/Add Printer from the Menu or double click on the "New Printer" icon.

In the Step 1 of 3 window, tick the "Printer Type" radio button for: Local Printer and also select "Use another printer by specifying a Port" then choosing Printer Port : LPT #1 from the drop down menu.

Click the forward button to move to the Step 2 of 3 window.
Select "Brother" from the drop down "Manufacturer" menu.
Select HL-2040 for CUPS from the "Model" list, then click on the Forward button to go on to the Step 3 of 3 window.

In the "Step 3 of 3" window, add descriptive tex/name to the available fields as desired, then click the "Apply" button to return to the "Printers" window, where there will be a new icon for the printer. Right click and choose "properites" to adjust the settings for paper size, and other printing parameters. Print a test page from the properties window to check the instllation.

Best of Luck. I think this resolves the problem;however, more experienced users may wish to leave additional comments or corrections of the proceedure I followed.

D'OH!

It suddenly dawned on me that CUPS was a driver that was possibly for a USB rather than an LPT connection. Or, if one wishes to use the parallel print port, BOTH the "lpr" and the "CUPS" packages must be installed. I am not sure if order counts, but what I read on the Brother site leads me to believe that one should first download and let the automatic package installer install the driver for "lpr", then downlaod and install the Going back to the Brother site I found a driver for LPr (AKA Parallel Printer Port).

Here is the proceedure that worked:

After connecting the printer to the computer via a parallel cable and turning both on, from the Ubuntu desktop open a browser and go to :

http://solutions.brother.com/linux/sol/printer/linux/lpr_drivers.html

Click on the download button for the appropriate printer model, and allow the download to "Opened with" the default Ubantu program (rather than saving the file to disk) After the package installer completes, go to the URL for the CUPS package:

http://solutions.brother.com/linux/sol/printer/linux/cups_drivers.html#de

Again, click on the download button for the appropriate printer model, and allow the download to be openend by the default Ubantu program (rather than save the file to disk)

After installing these two packages, navigate to

"System/Administration/Printing" in the Menu bar to open the "Printers" window

Then either choose Printer/Add Printer from the Menu or double click on the "New Printer" icon.

In the Step 1 of 3 window, tick the "Printer Type" radio button for: Local Printer and also select "Use another printer by specifying a Port" then choosing Printer Port : LPT #1 from the drop down menu.

Click the forward button to move to the Step 2 of 3 window.
Select "Brother" from the drop down "Manufacturer" menu.
Select HL-2040 for CUPS from the "Model" list, then click on the Forward button to go on to the Step 3 of 3 window.

In the "Step 3 of 3" window, add descriptive tex/name to the available fields as desired, then click the "Apply" button to return to the "Printers" window, where there will be a new icon for the printer. Right click and choose "properites" to adjust the settings for paper size, and other printing parameters. Print a test page from the properties window to check the instllation.

Best of Luck. I think this resolves the problem;however, more experienced users may wish to leave additional comments or corrections of the proceedure I followed.

Mr Price,

Thank you for the response.

I had NOT downloaded both of the files, as I didn't realize that both were needed until I went back and read more on the Brother site, where, if it was explicitly stated that both were needed somewhere other than being implied in the installation instructions, I missed it.

I would appreciate it, if you would check the instructions/proceedure I left in my second post for errors and omissions -- I don't want to lead other users astray.

Thanks again.

Actually looks pretty good to me.