Solved: Brother MFC-J450DW Printer won't play nicely [Solved]

[kd4e]

Been trying to get a Brother MFC-J450DW to play nicely with MX Linux 21.3 (I know, I need to update her PC).

QUESTION 1: Will older printers like this stop working soon?
"Printer drivers are deprecated and will stop working in a future version of CUPS"

QUESTION 2: The ASUS router to which the printer is connected says:
Printer Model: Brother MFC-J450DW
Printing status: Enabled
Monopoly mode: 192.168.50.75
... but I can't get CUPS to see it ... any ideas, please?

Or, is this one of those time-to-get-a-known-compatible-printer moments?

After 25+ years fussing with Linux and printers I'll understand ...

Setting up mfcj450dwcupswrapper:i386 (3.0.0-1) ...
ERROR : Brother LPD filter is not installed.
Restarting Common Unix Printing System: cupsd.
lpadmin -p MFCJ450DW -E -v usb:/dev/usb/lp0 -P /usr/share/cups/model/Brother/brother_mfcj450dw_printer_en.ppd
lpadmin: Printer drivers are deprecated and will stop working in a future version of CUPS.

[FullScale4Me]

Try temporarily disabling, if enabled the Uncomplicated Firewall.

Alternately add an exception rule (port 631 TCP) to the firewall for CUPS.

See https://fullscale4me.com/uncomplicated-firewall.pdf

[FullScale4Me]

I've always downloaded the printer driver and scanner drive individually and installed them for my Brother HL-L2380DW.

[CharlesV]

@FullScale4Me OP is on MX21 :-)

I agree with FullScaleMe on the printer driver. Your better to download if possible the driver from Brother. Another method that works well is the gutenprint ( mx Package Installer - search for gutenprint and on the enabled Repos tab install printer-driver-gutenprint usually makes a big difference on 'hard to get working' printers.

[kd4e]

I've done that. From what I read elsewhere the "L" = Laser printers generally work but the "J" = Jet printers frequently do not.

I don't know why other than, perhaps, due to the higher value and longevity of laser printers those drivers are more up to date?

[kd4e]

Can anyone recommend an affordable light-home-use color printer/copier model (available in the USA) that plays nicely with MX Linux, please?

[m_pav]

---Post has been edited for clarity---

QUESTION 1: Will older printers like this stop working soon?
"Printer drivers are deprecated and will stop working in a future version of CUPS"

Nope, they will continue to work, except there is a move towards driverless printing and we're simply not there yet.

QUESTION 2: The ASUS router to which the printer is connected says:
Printer Model: Brother MFC-J450DW
Printing status: Enabled
Monopoly mode: 192.168.50.75
... but I can't get CUPS to see it ... any ideas, please?

Yep, use the right URI when setting up your printer. LPD is for printers connected by USB cable to your machine.

I have found within the last 2 years that the key to attaining success with network attached printers is to always use the ipp protocol when selecting the URI. I have 3 printers, 2 Brother and 1 Epson, all work perfectly ONLY when using the ipp. When I tried other URI's that use some of the fancier protocols, they may have worked for a day, maybe a few, but never for more than that.

First things first, go into your Asus Router and pin the printer to its current IP address. I take this one further by reducing the Routers Dynamic IP Address range by removing the first 20, then pinning all printers and network attached systems that have a specific purpose to use one of the freed IP addresses outside of the dynamic pool. Once a printer is pinned to use a single IP address, I can rest assured I will never have to revisit the printer setup again due to an IP address change.

recommended - Disable the AHAVI daemon which tries to auto-connect and set up your printers, reboot after disabling and you should hopefully have no printers loaded other than those added by driver wizards. Go ahead and remove them all so the screen has none.

Now re-run the Brother script and when it asks will you select the URI, answer yes, then later, when a list of URI's is presented as the script progresses, insert the number that corresponds with IPP or by-ip address and when requested, type in the printers IP address when requested. At the end of the process, your printer and the scanner will work just fine.

This is what it should look like when you're done.

Screenshot_2024-01-10_09-45-46.png

[kd4e]

I sure appreciate your detailed reply!

(It may still prove necessary for me to replace the printer with a different model - see following.)

The printer is connected to the router via USB.

It's not ID with an IP, other than the odd "Monopoly Mode" IP.

brother-mfcj450dw-1.jpg

brother-mfcj450dw-2.jpg

[asqwerth]

What graphical tool is that? XFCE and KDE both have their own 'configure printers' tools in Settings. Have you tried that?

[m_pav]

@asqwerth That looks more like a webui from the Router.

@kd4e A far superior option would be to connect the printer to the Router using an Ethernet cable, or use it's built in WiFi, then there would no middleman interpreter to mess things up