Printers :: Multiple Printers



I am a Linux and DSL dummy. I have a frugal install using 2.2. I installed an Epson network printer following the excellent HOWTO for printers. I just got a Brothers MFC420CN printer and have it working as a Network printer on Win XP Home. I want to install it as a network printer on DSL. I cannot find this printer using APSfilter.

I downloaded a Debian  lpr driver from Brothers. I then opened a terminal as root and did the following:
dpkg -i --force-all mfc420cnlpr-1.0.2-1.i386.deb
Seemed to work.
The following was added to /opt/printcap
MFC420CN:\
             :mx=0:\
             :sd=/var/spool/lpd/MFC420CN
             :sh:\
             :rm=192.168.xxx.xxx  *I added this
             :rp=BRN_A2xxxx:\      *I added this
             :lp=/dev/usb/lp0:\     *I know this is wrong so
             :lp=:\                      *I changed above to this
             :if=/usr/local/Brother/lpd/filterMFC420CN:\
I did export=MFC420CN
I still print to the EPSON. How do I get to choose my printer or print to the Brothers printer?
Thank you for you help!

You can test the printer by manually specifying the printer as defined in printcap so...

lpr -h -P MFC420CN somefile.txt

Now you can only have one default printer using

export PRINTER=MFC420N

or if the printer is named lp then you don't need the export command.

Then the apps should print to this default printer.

Some apps allow you to specify the print command as shown above.

HI Roberts,
Thanks for the fast response. I tried the lpr command. It was accepted but nothing happened. I edited the bootlocal.sh file:
deleted export PRINTER=EPSON_850
Added   export PRINTER=MFC420CN
rebooted
edited /var/spool/lpd/MFC420CN/status.pr and found errors:
IF filter 'filterMFC420CN' filter msg - '/usr/local/Brother//lpd/rastertobrij2: error while loading shared libraries: libbrcompij2.so.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory' at 2006-04-02-14:31:37.195 ## A=dsl@DSL1+188 number=188 process=1277
IF filter 'filterMFC420CN' filter msg - 'GNU Ghostscript 7.05: Unrecoverable error, exit code 1' at 2006-04-02-14:31:41.199 ## A=dsl@DSL1+188 number=188 process=1277
IF filter 'filterMFC420CN' filter exit status 'UNKNOWN STATUS '127'' at 2006-04-02-14:31:41.216 ## A=dsl@DSL1+188 number=188 process=1277
subserver pid 1277 exit status 'JFAIL' at 2006-04-02-14:31:41.220 ## A=<NULL> number=0 process=1189
job 'dsl@DSL1+188', attempt 3, allowed 3 at 2006-04-02-14:31:41.222 ## A=dsl@DSL1+188 number=188 process=1189

The above is a cut and pasted of some errors. Looks like I am over my head here. Does my printcap file in the first post look OK? I sure hope that you or someone can help.

The first issue is the missing library  
Quote

libbrcompij2.so.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory


Doesn't look like fun. Probably forcing the install of their .deb package resulted in this missing libary to be not loaded. On the otherhand, allowing Debian to fetch all dependencies might result in a broken system? Might try it on a liveCD system and see what happens.

Otherwise, a piecemeal approach of finding that missing library and see how far it goes.

Or possibly try the cups.dsl extension.

Either go to the Debian package site and download the package containing that library and then dpkg -i it, or as roberts said, give cups a try.
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