Printer installed but refuses to print ?

Hello Folks.
I have a Brother HL-645 printer which is connected via a parallel cable.
In the 'other' OS it works, prints perfectly - but not in Zorin OS.
It is reachable and correctly identified as 'Brother HL 600 series', but when trying a test page it always reports within the properties window 'printer busy' and in the print status window 'processing - not connected ?'

I have tried to figure this out myself, but to no avail; and the troubleshooter ended without a solution as well.

Thanks for any help !

Thanks Swarfendor437.

The link provided (http://www.openprinting.org/printer/Bro ... 1_645_655M) leads me to these:
http://www.openprinting.org/download/printing/omni/
http://omniprint.sourceforge.net/

Which may as well be in a foreign language for all the good they do me !!!
I downloaded the Omni driver - but have zero idea what to do with it or how to use it - and the instructions - well, which of the zillion things are those, anyhow ?!

I did find some useful/usable info here:
http://www.openprinting.org/printer/Bro ... her-HL-630

And installed the DEB for Gutenprint - but any variation of that driver I tried does EXACTLY what the original driver did=>
They all say the printer is not connected...but it is, for sure, because it works 100% from win-doze and not only that; I connected a Brother MFC-4350 (uses the same drivers) and it printed perfectly as well.

As I see it - something is failing to initialize LPT0 correctly in the OS - but I find no methods for checking or configuring an LPT port - any thoughts or help for me here ???

BTW:
In your sig http://ultimateedition.info/ is mentioned...and that site has been down/unreachable from here for days now.
Before landing firmly at ZorinOS I tried the Ultimate Edition and it was not a good fit, but I thought it'd be a good idea to see if their new version had come out, so I tried to look there without success.

Thanks.

Hi amicus,

try opening Synaptic and type 'brother' in search, you should have a long list of packages, try installing any that are missing!!.

Regards Wolfman

Thanks !
Did that and found a bunch of them - carefully read the list of printers supported and there was zero mention of either the HL-630/HL-645, or the MFC-4350...should I install ALL those packages anyways ?

amicus wrote:Thanks !
Did that and found a bunch of them - carefully read the list of printers supported and there was zero mention of either the HL-630/HL-645, or the MFC-4350...should I install ALL those packages anyways ?

Go for it!!.

Regards Wolfman

OK, did that - all of 'em...and tried 2 drivers so far with no changes....

This printer also does HP Laserjet 2P, IBM Proprinter XL and Epson FX-850 emulations - would any of those be helpful in getting it to print ?

BTW:
Is there a way, maybe using the terminal to check/verify the CUPS server status ? How about the LPT port status ?
There are Foomatic as well as CUPS drivers for this, but I also wonder if I am missing a step when I change the driver - do I need to start/stop anything like a spooler or something ?

No matter what I've tried it always says the printer is busy or not connected, yet it does not even 'wake up' the printer...

Thanks for your help !!!

I honestly couldn't say, all I can say is try it!!.

Could you double check the model number and name, I have looked on the Brother website and cannot find a driver for it!!.

http://welcome.solutions.brother.com/bs ... index.html

For setting up the printer etc, look here:

http://wiki.debian.org/SystemPrinting

Regards Wolfman

OK, I've tried everything you've suggested and found nothing I can make sense of.
(Remember, I am NOT a Linux techie, PLEASE ?!).

This:
http://welcome.solutions.brother.com/bs ... index.html
As you said, is a dead-end.

This:
http://wiki.debian.org/SystemPrinting

All looked like gibberish to me until I saw this part:
********************************************
Alternative Automatic Configuration
system-config-printer (formally 'printconf')
system-config-printer is a printer administration tool which first appeared in Fedora and later in Debian and Ubuntu. The purpose of the tool is to configure a CUPS server (often the local machine) using the CUPS API. The tool is written in Python, using pygtk for the graphical parts and with some Python bindings (pycups) for the CUPS API.
It is largely the same as using the CUPS web interface for configuring printers, but has the advantage of being a native application rather than a web page.
****************************************

But even though I got it to compile & install (I think ?), I've zero idea how to RUN it ?!

Also, I have not been able to reach the CUPS server web-page interface in ZorinOS at all - is this a secret ?

Back to my original questions, please:
(Answered=>
1. Is there a way, maybe using the terminal to check/verify the CUPS server status ?
Just a note - I found how in terminal and it seems to be running.)

2. How about the LPT port status ?

3. There are Foomatic as well as CUPS drivers for this, but I also wonder if I am missing a step when I change the driver - do I need to start/stop anything like a spooler or something ?

An OS in which a simple, ordinary laser printer CANNOT be setup and used is kind of...useless, and thus far it is FORCING me to use win-doze when I need to do ANY printing, which is very, very, very discouraging.

I seriously thought Zorin OS was a great choice...until my printer became a useless paper-weight.

PS:
The 2 printers are exactly the Brother HL-645 & MFC-4350
They are older, plain monochrome, parallel laser printers which competed with the Laserjet series II - 5 from HP.
They are both members of the HL-6 series and use the same drivers in quite a few versions of Windows.
I have verified that both still run perfectly and print when using Windows.

Try this guide.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWyp400rzzg

Hi,

open the Control Center > Hardware > Printer, make sure your printer is listed then click on Server and see if you can fiddle around a bit.

I have an HP printer and don't have this problem as HP drivers are included in Ubuntu by default!!.

Please see the pics posted below!!.

Regards Wolfman

You can also check to see if there is a default printer on your system by copying this command into a terminal:

lpstat -d

Is the printer running?, copy this command:

lpstat -r

This should give you feedback as to whether you have a printer at all!!.

Regards Wolfman

Results:

wvdk@desktop:~$ lpstat -d
system default destination: Brother

wvdk@desktop:~$ lpstat -r
scheduler is running

Does this help to clarify at all ?
(Seems like nothing else has...?!)

I still wonder, why is there no way to configure this generically - as if it is an HP Laserjet Series II printer ?
That has always been a help in 'other' OSs...?

Thanks.

Long shot but... is there any way to connect the printer via usb...?