[SOLVED] Brother HL-1440 Laser Printers and ZorinOS

Hello all.

After running Zorin Lite LXDE 7 with in my slightly antique PIII 1500 MHZ processor with 512 Ram and 80 GB HD, I finally decided to retire my even more antique Mac G3 (manufactured 2000 and suffering the inevitable motherboard failure, alas) and make the PIII my main machine-and after a few additions such as Xiphos, Gnash et al, it suits my every need...

... Right up until I hooked up my ancient but hearty Brother HL-1440 Laser printer with 2MB onboard memory and enough toner that I have not yet replaced it. The PC attempted to detect the printer through the USB port and failed, so I used Synaptic to load an Automount for USB-no dice. Returning to Synaptic, I downloaded the driver packet listing the printer I needed and tried again-and USB Automount for good measure. Nope. Upon realizing that Printer Setup did not have a USB option listed I then disconnected the USB and connected a Printer cable to the required ports.

Once I had done that, the Setup delisted all Setup options(including the ones I had originally had for LPT, Serial etc) save Connect to Localhost-when I tried that, it failed to detect-connection failed.

Upon restarting in Recovery Mode, my Zorin PC detected and listed my printer by name and number on the parallel port. I ran Network and DPKG in case of possible dependency issues, and no changes were made. After a Ctl-Alt-Del and a normal startup, I tried to print a document-



You guessed it-No Printer Detected. Am I missing something blindingly obvious here? The PC actually powers on the printer at boot, but then I can't get them to talk to each other after that-not through Printer port, not through USB. Does anybody know if there is a Known issue with Brother drivers in the Ubuntu repository? I swear if I didn't shave my head for comfort's sake i'd have pulled every hair out by the roots at this point...

Any ideas? Please keep in mind that I am more comfortable with GUI such as Synaptic than command-line, but I can cut-n-paste with the best of them. Finances do not currently allow printer replacement (otherwise i'd have already sprung for 1+ Gigs of Ram by now) and i'm keeping this magnificent beast regardless. The printer still talks with my Mac and I can transfer via USB stick, but the poor thing is 13 years old and 'tis only a matter of time before she is no longer with us.

I have a third option-but as most potential employers frown on Resumes written in crayon I think i'll pass.

Any input will be most welcome, and Thanks in advance!

Hi order99, I had similar issues with Pear 7 - I was trying to connect to a printer attached to an XP Pro PC at home - the solution? (You won't like this! )

Open a terminal and enter:

Code:

system-config-printer

The printer was picked up almost straight away!

Don't forget that USB has a 'memory issue' and the only way to make sure this is 'cleared' is to switch off, remove the power lead from the tower (AFTER you have switched any power switch to '0' first), wait 30 seconds then put the lead back in - to be doubly sure you may want to take the side panel off, earth yourself by touching a metal radiator or the computer panel if metal, and diconnect the power leads to the motherboard to make doubly sure.

I appreciate the help.

Sadly, my Terminal command resulted in: WARNING: gnome-keyring:: couldn't connect to: /run/user/order99/keyring-HfPxM9/pkcs11: No such file or directory

I'll try the power reset and attempt a USB connection minus the printer cable later today and see what develops-and if THAT doesn't work i'll go back to Synaptic, uninstall the Brother drivers, reconnect Printer port only and see if anything changes...

If anything occurs to you meanwhile though, i'm all ears-er I mean eyes...

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1980869

Wondering if you install CUPS if not already present may solve the issue? I am not a big fan of CUPS as it uses a browser interface - but if it gets you printing ...

Update: Just found this too as your version of Zorin is based on 'Lubuntu' - check out the 'other answers' at the bottom of the page:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index ... 439AAz9snQ

Hi,

leave the printer connected and do a force update command as it may just be something to do with missing dependencies, open a terminal and paste this command:

Code:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade -f

Restart your PC after doing the above command!.

Let us know if that helps.

Regards Wolfman

Sadly, it doesn't seem to be the case:

"0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded."

After trying that, I went back into Synaptic and switched lps/Foomatic for Cups-running Foomatic detected the printer, but then insists that I give it an 'Adobe PPD file' What the Heck?

tried the system-config-printer command again hoping for a different result with lps.foomatic, still recieved 'gnome-keyring:: couldn't connect to: /run/user/order99/keyring-I1PK0Z/pkcs11: No such file or directory' error...

Well, I suppose i'll uninstall the previous packages and try again...thanks again for the support.

Hi,

have you looked here for something that you may be missing?:

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

Download as many associated HL-1440 "deb" packages you can find from here:

http://welcome.solutions.brother.com/bs ... ml#HL-1440

Install the packages using "Gdebi" package installer.

Let us know if this helps.

Regards Wolfman

I have had some sporadic episodes today in Pear 8 - decided to 'install new driver' which installed 'gutenprint' - had some success but here are som things to look out for - don't have lite version of Zorin 7 so this may be inappropriate screenshots! When you open a terminal and enter 'system-config-printer' and it crashes it might not be installed. Try:

Code:

sudo apt-get install system-config-printer

Here are some interesting screenshots that might be more relevant to the full blown versions of Zorin 7 - I never knew there was a hidden panel with 'on/off' for the printer!:

IT'S ALIVE!! ALIIIVE!!! This must be how an ADMIN feels...now I know what it is to BE an Admin...

Okay, i'll stop mangling a movie classic now.

It seems that I had to:

-"sudo mkdir /var/spool/lpd " as I did not have that location.

-Download the software from the Brother website, only to find a dependency conflict with the existing driver package.

-Uninstall Foomatic in favor of the Foomatic Gutenburg package (with more STUFF in it!).

-Reboot PC, run Diagnostic mode with Network and DPKG for safeties' sake...turned out not to have been needed.

-Foomatic installed Brother HL-1440 immediately but refused to print test page.

-Slam hand against forehead, re-install CUPS via Synaptic.

-Cups detects the printer that Foomatic installed and prints Test Page!

-Pump fists in the air and misquote a Classic Film

I think we can label this one Solved-thanks for all the input, and I hope that nobody else runs into this issue again...500 Blue Jewels to be divided among the participants!!

(unwraps entire box of printer paper while cackling madly)

Excellent! Now you can teach me! Will mark as [SOLVED]

Updated 28.10: Where are my manners! 120 blue jewels to you sir! 60 for perserverance, plus another 60 for solving your own problem - ok I will give you another 60 for sharing your solution = 180! (and no I have not been watching Darts competitions! )