CUPS/Printer-specific problems

For network printers, use as printer address. For some older printers, this might not work. If not, try instead.

Some printers use the socket protocol. For these printers, use . For http, use .

Brother provides custom drivers on their website, either in source tarball, rpm, or deb form. Packaging Brother printer drivers covers creating PKGBUILDs from the existing RPM packages.

Install the package, and extract both rpm packages using . Extracting both files will create a var and a usr directory - move the contents of both directories into the corresponding root directories.

Run the cups wrapper file in /usr/local/Brother/cupswrapper. This should automatically install and configure your brother printer.

For some of the drivers 32 bit libraries may need to be installed from multilib.

Install and run:

$ snmpwalk -c public $PRINTER_IP | grep -A 1 3.6.1.4.1.2435.2.4.3.99.3.1.6.1.2

Or alternatively:

$ snmpwalk -v 2c -c public 192.168.23.11 iso.3.6.1.4.1.2435.2.4.3.99.3.1.6.1.2

At this point, you will have the relevant data to get a valid firmware download link from Brother. The file should look similar to the one below:

Post this file to Brother:

$ curl -X POST -d @request.xml https://firmverup.brother.co.jp/kne_bh7_update_nt_ssl/ifax2.asmx/fileUpdate -H "Content-Type:text/xml" > response.xml

In you will find a tag that contains the firmware download URL. Next, download the firmware, push it to the printer, and let the printer process it. Before that is done, change the Admin password to something known, it will be used as the user to log into the FTP site (VERY bad practice, do not do this).

$ wget http://update-akamai.brother.co.jp/CS/LZ4266_W.djf
$ ftp $PRINTER_IP|
ftp> bin
ftp> hash
ftp> send LZ4266_W.djf
ftp> bye

With that, the printer will restart, and the latest firmware will be installed and (hopefully) your printing woes will be solved.

You might experience some trouble while using the USB port on certain models.

Brother provides a shell script to create udev rules to prevent the use of IPP-over-USB. This might solve USB printing problems but means that you need to use the legacy LPR driver. See the FAQ article.

Many LBP, iR, and MF printers use a protocol that has had several names over the years: UFR II, UFR II LT, LIPSLX. There are multiple packages for these printers in AUR, and at least the imageCLASS MF4570dn and i-sensys MF633C are reported to only work with the older v3.70 version.

v 5.00: latest version built from source

cndrvcups-lb^AUR 3.70 and 4.10: older version built from source

v3.70: uses Canon provided binaries with location/config adjustments to make them work on Arch Linux

Some of Canon's printers use Canon's proprietary CARPS (Canon Advanced Raster Printing System) driver. Rainbow Software have managed to reverse engineer the CARPS data format and have successfully created a CARPS CUPS driver, which is available as . The project's GitHub page includes a list of working printers.

Some Canon printers use Canon's proprietary USB over IP BJNP protocol to communicate over the network. There is a CUPS backend for this, which is available as .

Some printers using the cnijfilter drivers support the protocol. To find the printer URI run

$ cnijnetprn --search auto

and use the cnijnet:/ URI in the output.

Other driver versions, as is the case for the current version of , provide the binary to search for available printers.

The printer can be added to cups using the url and an appropriate file, which should be shipped with your driver.

$ lpadmin -p CustomPrinterNameMB2300 -P /usr/share/cups/model/canonmb2300.ppd -v "cnijbe2://Canon/?port=net&serial=60-12-81-A7-7D-34" -E

The argument in the cnijbe2 url corresponds to the MAC address of the printer.

For recent Canon printers, like the G7000 series, it can be hard to find a valid driver. However, it is possible to use a driverless installation using IPP Everywhere.

If you have installed avahi, CUPS should be able to detect your printer automatically.

However, if it fails, you can always enter your printer settings manually. In CUPS web interface select Internet Printing Protocol (ipp) and enter the IPP URL of the printer. Then at the driver selection screen select.

For the G7000 series the IPP URL is or .

escputil is part of the package, and performs some utility functions on Epson printers such as nozzle cleaning.

This is a printer status monitor which enables to get the remaining ink quantity, to print test patterns, to reset printer and to clean nozzle. It use an intuitive graphical user interface.

This is a GUI using escputil and cups drivers. It supports nearly all USB printer of Epson and displays ink quantity, can clean and align print heads and print test patterns.

"Source" code of the driver is available on the avasys website, in Japanese, however it includes a 32 bit binary which will cause problem on 64 bit system.

• Install the , bc, packages ( on 64bit).
• Download the source code of the driver.
• Compile and install the driver.

$ ./configure --prefix=/usr
$ make
# make install

If you have any problems on a 64 system, some other lib32 libraries may be required. Please adjust this page if that is the case.

Some of the PPD files in are missing paper size definitions for media that is supported by the printers and the filter. It is relatively straightforward to add the missing media types to the PPD files.

To begin, download the PKGBUILD for the package, either with an AUR helper or from a snapshot tarball. Once in the directory with the PKGBUILD, download and extract the source of the package by running .

Change directory to to . Open the file in a text editor for reference.

Identify the PPD used by your printer in the directory. For example, a Workforce 7710 printer uses Epson-WF-7710_Series-epson-escpr2-en.ppd. Let us call it . Convert the relevant PPD to a PPD compiler source file using the utility from the cups package.

$ ppdi -o your_ppd_filename.drv ppd/your_ppd_filename.ppd

Open the newly-created in a text editor. Identify the section of the file with a lot of lines starting with . Duplicate one such line to modify. For example:

CustomMedia "Legal/US Legal" 612.00 1008.00 8.40 8.40 8.40 8.40 "<</PageSize[612.00 1008.00]/ImagingBBox null>>setpagedevice" "<</PageRegion[612.00 1008.00]/ImagingBBox null>>setpagedevice"

The pair of numbers represents the width and height of the paper in inches, multiplied by 72. Replace all three instances of these numbers with the dimensions of the paper you want to add. For example to add 11"x17" paper, replace the numbers with .

The string identifies the paper. On the left side of the slash, is a magic identifier that the filter uses to identify the paper size. Replace it with the one you want to use. Refer to the mediaSizeData array in for a list of possible values. The string to the right of the slash can be set to any human-readable value.

If you want to enable borderless printing for a paper size, prefix the magic identifier string you just found with the letter T. So would become . Additionally, change the four numbers 8.40 8.40 8.40 8.40 to .

For example, I was able to add 11x17 paper to the PPD for a Workforce 7710 by adding the following lines:

CustomMedia "USB/US B(11x17 in)" 792.00 1224.00 8.40 8.40 8.40 8.40 "<</PageSize[792.00 1224.00]/ImagingBBox null>>setpagedevice" "<</PageRegion[792.00 1224.00]/ImagingBBox null>>setpagedevice"
CustomMedia "TUSB/US B(11x17 in) (Borderless)" 792.00 1224.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 "<</PageSize[792.00 1224.00]/ImagingBBox null>>setpagedevice" "<</PageRegion[792.00 1224.00]/ImagingBBox null>>setpagedevice"

Once you have added your custom size, recompile into a PPD file with ppdc (also from cups):

$ ppdc your_ppd_filename.drv

This will create a ppd file in the directory with a file name derived from the parameter in . You can test this file by uploading it to the CUPS web interface, or install it permanently by overwriting the original PPD file and making the package with .

provides drivers for HP DeskJet, OfficeJet, Photosmart, Business Inkjet, and some LaserJet printers, and also provides an easy to use setup tool. See https://developers.hp.com/hp-linux-imaging-and-printing/supported_devices/index for the list of supported printers. hplip requires  to run the GUI qt frontend. hp-setup requires CUPS to be installed and  to be started to save the printer.

To run the setup tool with the GUI qt frontend:

$ hp-setup -u

To run the setup tool with the command line frontend:

$ hp-setup -i

To set up directly the configuration of a network connected HP printer:

$ hp-setup -i ip_address

To run systray spool manager:

$ hp-systray

To generate a URI for a given ip address:

# hp-makeuri <ip address>

PPD files are in .

If your printer is listed as requiring a binary plugin, install the hplip-plugin^AUR package from AUR. If the binary plugin hplip-plugin^AUR is a requirement you will need to start the before the PPD is recognized by . If that does not work, reboot and log in with the printer off. Then switch it on and run a test print.

See Debian:CUPSPrintQueues#hpuld for more information.

The package collects the sparse "HP + ULD" packages into one single package.

foo2zjs supports some HP LaserJet printers. As of June 2018 the hplip package interferes with , as described at this forum post and FS#58815.

#foo2zjs, mentioned above for supporting some HP printers, also support some Minolta printers.

Lexmark provides a utility called lexijtools with the drivers.

Lexmark does provide Linux drivers for all their hardware. The following packages are required:

• cups
• libxi
• (for the automated installer)
• Java (for the automated installer, and some of the Lexmark tools)

The drivers will need to be downloaded from Lexmark's website. Preferably, create a package (see Creating packages) and install it. Here is a basic PKGBUILD that still needs work but will give an idea of what is required.

PKGBUILD

# Contributor: Todd Partridge (Gen2ly) toddrpartridge (at) yahoo

pkgname=cups-lexmark-Z2300-2600
pkgver=1
pkgrel=1
pkgdesc="Lexmark Z2300 and 2600 Series printer driver for cups"
arch=('i686')
url="http://www.lexmark.com/"
license=('custom')
depends=('cups' 'glibc' 'ncurses' 'libusb' 'libxext' 'libxtst' 'libxi' 'libstdc++5' 'krb5' 'lua' 'java-runtime')
conflicts=('z600' 'cjlz35le-cups' 'cups-lexmark-700')
source=(lexmark-inkjet-08-driver-1.0-1.i386.tar.gz.sh)
md5sums=(3c37eb87e3dad4853bf29344f9695134)

package() {
  # Extract installer
  sh lexmark-inkjet-08-driver-1.0-1.i386.tar.gz.sh --target Installer-Files
  cd Installer-Files
  mkdir Driver
  tar xvvf instarchive_all --lzma -C Driver/
  cd Driver
  tar xv lexmark-inkjet-08-driver-1.0-1.i386.tar.gz -C $pkgdir
}

Keep in mind you can use the automated installer but doing so will leave the resulting changes untracked. The PPD will be installed into or similar, depending on the printer model.

Once you have downloaded the drivers, execute the driver installer and accept the licence:

# cd printer
# ./XeroxPhaser3100.install

Note that the driver is 32 bit, so some 32 bit libraries will be required on an x86_64 system: , , , , lib32-libxext, , ,

For the scanner, create an directory if it does not already exist, because it is needed by the installer:

# mkdir -p /etc/sane.d

Now install the driver:

# cd scanner/
# ./XeroxPhaser3100sc.install

Again, on an x86_64 install, 32 bit libraries will be needed.

Install the xerox-phaser-6010 package (archived from the AUR). The driver may require older versions of nettle and to be installed, since the binary blob linked against older versions of the shared libraries provided by those packages. The oldest known-good versions are and .

FujiXerox does not support Linux on this model. An old rpm is available but does not seem to work.

A slightly adapted custom driver has been found to work out of the box.

To install the tarball, run:

# tar -C / --keep-newer-files -xvzf cups-xerox-phaser-6125n-1.0.0.tar.gz