Ubuntu & Brother Printer : Trouble making them work together

[b4u]

Hi,

I'm new to linux and I'm having trouble installing a printer on Ubuntu 9.10.

Printer Model: Brother MFC-7820N
Multifunction Network Printer with Fax and Scanner.

The local network has 2 computers and this printer. One computer has Windows XP Pro (which I don't have access to), and the other has Linux Ubuntu 9.10.

First I try installing the printer directly without any extra drivers. In System->Administration->Printing the printer was detected without any problem, brand, model and IP with no problem.

It installed okay, but page testing sent nothing. I then openned up the printer and manually sent a page test. No problem, ubuntu test page printed successfully.

But the problem is that when printing a PDF or a Word document, it printed some scrambled chars, picked lot's of pages for doing so (when the document was only 1 page length) and nothing more.

Once I turned the printer off and back on, just to find it had lost (at least) it's IP configurations ... I had to manually configured it's IP again.

Then I tried drivers from brother site, with no success, same problems.

The person from Windows machine started to have problems printing too ... so no-one can print now.

Looking for more info, I found http://www.openprinting.org/show_printer.cgi?recnum=Brother-MFC-7820N which has some info about drivers to work with printer, but also raises a lot more questions for a new person to linux.

I tried a new trick:

1. Deleted the printer, no printers installed at all;
2. Selected "New ..."
3. The printer was not present. No problem.
4. Selected Network Printer->LPD/LPR Host or Printer;
5. Inserted the IP address: 192.168.1.50
6. Clicked Probe ... and the queue appeared with "lp" selected;
7. Then latter on, I provided the custom PPD file obtained here: http://www.openprinting.org/foomatic-db/db/source/PPD/Brother/BR7820_2_GPL.ppd
8. Apparently it installed correctly ... the printer had a different icon
9. Testing, and the problems still there.

Printer result:
error name:
configurationerror
command;
setpagedevice
operand stack;
dicttype

What else should I try?

I also have a bunch of new questions:

1# Is it possible that this driver testing could cause some misconfiguration on the printer? So that the Windows computer now doesn't print anymore?

2# The Foomatic is the System->Administration->Printing gui for installing printers?

3# Looking for some info, I found about known printer spooler (CUPS, LPRng, LPD, GNUlpr, PPR, PDQ, and spooler-less printing). So which one to choose? Are they compatible with a printer when Windows and Linux both print to them? Which should be the most compatible?

4# Should I get a fresh linux install and retry this custom PPD installation, without any brother drivers throwed in?

Thanks

 

[sivart]

For my oldish HL-2040 laser printer, I had to install CUPS and the Brother Drivers. Then again, I was printing across a Samba share to my printer plugged into my NAS box. (Using Ubuntu 9.10)

 

[b4u]

This is making a lot of noise in my head ...

How do I see if I'm using CUPS? What are the alternatives to CUPS?

How do I see which spooler i'm using? How do I configure a spooler?

Thanks

 

[WaitingForNehalem]

http://welcome.solutions.brother.com/bsc/public_s/id/linux/en/index.html

Did you get the drivers from here?

 

[b4u]

http://welcome.solutions.brother.com/bsc/public_s/id/linux/en/index.html

Did you get the drivers from here?

Yes, I've also tried those.

First I tried out-of-the-box ubuntu drivers, then I installed those ones, and finally I went through manually installing an "LPR/LPD Printer" and provided the "custom PPD" file recommended on openprinting (this one).

I'm starting to think this has something to do with a configuration problem on the printer itself. Maybe?

 

[AnonymouseUser]

Try a live CD from another distro. I have onboard ATI sound (AD198x) that Ubuntu and it's derivatives (8.10 or later) fail to get working, yet other distros work just fine.