How do I use my Brother MFC-7440N from Debian or Ubuntu?

Question

I have a Brother MFC-7440N. I would like to print to it from Debian Squeeze over the network without installing Brother's official driver, which I know for sure to be out of date and non-functional without some pre- and post-install hacks, and to not work on 64-bit machines at all. Do you know a way to do this?

Answer 1

I suggest setting a fixed IP on the printer, as the broadcast name resolution doesn't work reliably on this printer.

Now, in the GUI:

• Go to System >Administration >Printing
• Click the drop-down arrow next to Add then click Printer
• Click the drop down arrow for Network Printer and click AppSocket/HP JetDirect
• Enter your printer's fixed IP Address (if you are letting the printer DHCP, you're on your own here)
• Click Next
• Select HP and click Next
• Find the first LaserJet 8150 model
• Pick the hpijs pcl3 driver on the right (the second one for me) and click Next
• name it brother7440 or whatever you want in the first two boxes and click Apply

Answer 2

Installation of Brother MFC 7440N on Network LAN.

System: Kubuntu 11.10 64-bit

• Requirements

  ia32-libs or lib32stdc++ is required to be installed (with "Package Management" or whatever its name is in English)

• LPR driver download

  http://welcome.solutions.brother.com/bsc/public_s/id/linux/en/download_prn.html#MFC-7440N

• At the terminal go to the folder where the diver is and type as superuser:

  sudo dpkg  -i  --force-all brmfc7440nlpr-2.0.2-1.i386.deb
  

  (above is the driver name of MFC 7440n included: dpkg -i --force-all Drivername)

• Test function at the terminal with following line:

  dpkg  -l  |  grep  Brother
  

• The printer can be controled with:

  http://localhost:631/

  For some commands maybe you need to login with:

  • Username: admin
  • Password: access

Answer 3

The official 7440N driver has worked quite well on 64bit Ubuntu machines for a couple of years, with the printer on the network. Printing and scanning work without any issues, but I haven't figured out how to fax directly from the computer (never gave it a real try anyway). Yes, there are hacks involved, but they are all well documented on their site.

Some tips on easier management of your home or office network: 1) Assign a static IP to every adapter on the premises 2) Maintain a list of devices, their MAC addresses and their static IP addresses on your network. Also document any port forwarding rules or QoS rules for all of those addresses 3) Assuming you're using a single router to manage your network, use the above documentation to exactly recreate your desired settings on the new platform. That way you don't need to change any settings on resource or client devices.

Documentation and consistency are better than Aspirin ;)