Re: Trouble with lpr and Brother wireless printer

On Mon, 1 Aug 2022 07:50:19 -0000 (UTC)
Stuart Henderson <stu.lists@spacehopper.org> wrote:
> On 2022-07-31, John Mettraux <jmettraux@gmail.com> wrote:
> > Brother MFC-L3770CDW wireless here.
> >
> > My /etc/printcap goes:
> >
> > lp:\
> > sd=/var/spool/lpd:lp=:rm=192.168.xxx.xxx:rp=BINARY_P1
> >
> > Maybe it will help.
>
> Also try POSTSCRIPT_P1, my MFC-J4335DW shows that as a possibility
> in Network > Network > Service. (I use it with CUPS though, so I can
> control quality/duplexing/etc).

Thanks for all the helpful suggestions. I took some time to explore the
web interface for my printer (a Brother HL-L2350DW, for those following
along at home) and discovered the BINARY_P1, POSTSCRIPT_P1, PCL_P1, and
TEXT_P1 services available. But thus far, none of them have worked for
me -- with or without passing the data through a filter, as suggested
earlier in the thread.

I did make some changes to my printcap that seemed to take me in the
direction of progress, notably to stop passing the printer host to the
`rm` option and instead try passing port@host to the `lp` option. (I
also added an /etc/hosts entry for ease). I did this after noticing that
POSTSCRIPT_P1 and the other services were listed as being available on
port 9100. So here's one test case:

pstest:\
:lp=9100@brother.sannomo.home:\
:rp=POSTSCRIPT_P1:\
:sd=/var/spool/output/lpd:\
:lf=/var/log/lpd-errs:\
:mx#0:
:sh:

But no dice. When invoking `lpr filename.ps`, I consistently get a
single blank page spit out from the printer and that's it. It's more
than, well, nothing ... but it's unfortunately not printing. I also
tried just sending a text file to the printer directly with nc(1); it
showed "Receiving Data" on the printer LCD, but nothing more.
Strangely (maybe?) I had to Ctrl-C out of netcat as doing ...

$ nc brother.sannomo.home 9100 < test.txt

... just hung there.

FWIW, I do know that the printer _works_, as I can print from machines
running other OS'es via the usual ways. I don't seem to be the only one
banging my face into a wall with this. I found an old thread on
DaemonForums describing an issue with similar symptoms that was, it
seems, ultimately unresolved:

http://daemonforums.org/showthread.php?t=7253

Something I haven't tried -- thought I don't know if it will make a
difference -- is connecting to the printer via WiFi Direct. This
doesn't seem to be a connection issue though. I'm on the verge of just
trying CUPS, although it seems to be much bemoaned.

Thanks again.

- Ben