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Is there any way to print to a Brother MFC-J475DW without the printer drivers on a mac? When printing out a document, it shows the printer under "Nearby Printers," however it shows "unable to locate software for this printer." When I go to add it, the only option is to check if the software is on apple, or to insert the disk. As this computer is from my workplace, I do not have admin rights to do either, and they refuse to add the printer for me.

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Macs are personal computers. I hate to see them being used as locked-down corporate IT terminals. Every Mac user deserves to have root on their own system.

To create a local admin account on Mac OS X, even if you don't have access to a Mac OS X install disk, follow these steps:

  1. Boot your system while holding down Commands.
    Note: If you're doing this from a Bluetooth wireless keyboard you have to time it right. You want to press down those keys while the boot chime is trailing off. Any sooner or later and they won't get recognized.

  2. Once your system boots into single user mode, follow the commands on-screen to do a filesystem check on your boot volume, and then mount it read-write. I think it goes something like this:

    /sbin/fsck -fy /
    /sbin/mount -uw /

  3. Now remove the .AppleSetupDone file to tell Mac OS X to run the first-time Setup Assistant on the next boot:

    rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone

  4. Now reboot:

    reboot

  5. When your system reboots, it will run the first-time Setup Assistant as if you'd just brought home a new Mac. Follow along through the easy setup screens, and when it asks you about an account to administer the computer from, tell it you want to create a local account.

Now you can use the username/password you set up for that account, to let you install the software you need to get your job done. You probably don't want to log into your new admin account all the time, because all your files are in the other (non-admin) account you usually log into. But if you ever get prompted for an administrator username and password when you want to do something on your system, use the username and password from the admin account you set up.

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  • As much as I'd love to do this, the computer isn't mine, it still belongs to the workplace, I just get the freedom to bring it home for work. I can't really just add a new user account, as they check the computers every once and a while.
    – Novicode
    Aug 24, 2013 at 13:15

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