Brother MFC 7440N printer is detected but will not print

[Ron Campbell]

Printer is connected via USB
Ubuntu correctly identifies the printer as Brother MFC 7440N
Printing from any application to the printer results in no output from the print device, its as if the print device never even receives the job
Printer is attached via USB
I have attached an error_log file (not sure if it will help)

Links to Brother Linux CUPS drivers and source code (not sure if this will help)
http://welcome.solutions.brother.com/bsc/public_s/id/linux/en/index.html
http://welcome.solutions.brother.com/bsc/public_s/id/linux/en/download_prn.html
http://welcome.solutions.brother.com/bsc/public_s/id/linux/en/download_src.html#srccd_p1

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.10
Package: cups 1.5.0-8
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.0.0-12.20-generic 3.0.4
Uname: Linux 3.0.0-12-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 1.23-0ubuntu3
Architecture: amd64
Date: Thu Oct 13 13:51:56 2011
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 11.04 "Natty Narwhal" - Release amd64 (20110427.1)
Lpstat:
 device for HP-Color-LaserJet-2800: hp:/net/HP_Color_LaserJet_2840?zc=HYPNOS
 device for MFC-7440N: usb://Brother/MFC-7440N?serial=000H9N374735
MachineType: Dell Inc. Vostro 3300
Papersize: letter
PpdFiles:
 MFC-7440N: Brother MFC-7450 BR-Script3
 HP-Color-LaserJet-2800: HP Color LaserJet 2800 Series Postscript (recommended)
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_AU:en
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_AU.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.0.0-12-generic root=UUID=c27cc063-d37e-4a3d-b2c2-a02419421191 ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
SourcePackage: cups
UdevDb: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to oneiric on 2011-09-13 (29 days ago)
dmi.bios.date: 10/25/2010
dmi.bios.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.bios.version: A10
dmi.board.name: 07JC8T
dmi.board.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.board.version: A10
dmi.chassis.type: 8
dmi.chassis.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.chassis.version: A10
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnDellInc.:bvrA10:bd10/25/2010:svnDellInc.:pnVostro3300:pvrA10:rvnDellInc.:rn07JC8T:rvrA10:cvnDellInc.:ct8:cvrA10:
dmi.product.name: Vostro 3300
dmi.product.version: A10
dmi.sys.vendor: Dell Inc.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Paul P. (o-launchpad-burgerbum-com)]

I have the same problem, except:

I connect via network. I can connect via LPD (multiple queues, or none) or IPP.

brscript results in no output at all.

foomatic results in many empty pages.

I am NOT using the 7440 driver, I am using the 7450 driver which came with stock Ubuntu 11.04. However this sounds like the same problem.

[Paul P. (o-launchpad-burgerbum-com)]

Also tried using Apple Laserwriter NT PS driver, which had the same many blank pages result.

Tried both PS and Brscript driver for same printer under Ubuntu 10.10 using lpd, and got same results.

Would blame the brother printer, but it works fine from the family's Mac OS X box using cups and lpd.

[Paul P. (o-launchpad-burgerbum-com)]

Randomly trying other drivers...
HL1030 driver works (Brother HL-1030 Foomatic/hl1250) but there are artifacts (blocks under some letters).
Brother HL-2460N Foomatic/Postscript gets -- blank pages.
Brother HL-5030 - CUPS+Gutenprint v5.2.6 Simplified -- no output
Brother MFC-6550MC Foomatic/ljet2p -- single empty page
Brother HL-7050 Foomatic/lj5gray -- no output
Brother HL-5140 Foomatic/hpijs-pcl5e -- works pretty well.

Using /usr/share/system-config-printer/system-config-printer.py to do the configuring.

[Ron Campbell (1-ron-f)]

Hi Paul,

Did you end up getting this printer to print correctly?
If so would you mind posting some instructions so I can follow them.

Thanks,
Ron

[Paul P. (o-launchpad-burgerbum-com)]

Not satisfactorily. The hpijs-pcl5e solution prints, but the quality isn't great. It's nowhere near how well things were working when I set it up with an older Ubuntu more than a year ago. Then, it just worked, and the print quality was fine. Living with PCL is a sub-optimal (by far) solution.

[Till Kamppeter (till-kamppeter)]

First, can you take care that your system is completely up-to-date? There are several updates, especially to fix bugs with PostScript printers (BRScript is Brother's PostScript interpreter) and also with USB printers. Use update-manager or run the commands

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

After that, check whether you can print with PostScript or BRScript drivers/PPDs. If not, please follow the instructions in the sections "CUPS error_log" and "Capturing print job data" of https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingPrintingProblems. Thanks.

[Ron Campbell (1-ron-f)]

Hi Till,

I appreciate you looking at this and will do everything I can to help you. I appologise if its too verbose, but I want to make sure I am giving you all the information you need clearly so that you know exactly what I have done and what the outcome is.

I have updated my system and re-tested the printer. Here are the steps and the results.

Part 1) Basic print tests
Applied all updates
Deleted Printer (System Settings - Printers)
Connected Printer USB
Restart PC
Add Printer (System Settings - Printers - Add)
The printer is detected as being connected via USB correctly "Brother MFC-7440N"
I click 'Forward' to choose a driver
Select printer from database option is selected
Choose "Brother (Recommended)"
Here is where I think the issue is...
There is no Brother MFC-7440N model to choose.
The nearest match is 'MFC-7450 (recommnded)'
I accept that as the Model and its corresponding driver 'Brother MFC-7450 BR-Script3'
I am then prompted to print a test page
When I do this, the print device display says 'Receiving Data' for a brief second but nothing prints
I then check the printer driver queue and it says the job was completed
I then change drivers to the 'Brother MFC-7450 Foomatic/Postscript' driver
On the existing settings page I choose 'Use the new PPD...'
When I print a test page using this driver, the print device prints a stream of blank pages. (I can confirm the printer does have toner and is working by printing a settings configuration page manually at the print device)

Part 2) Cups Error Log
I have followed the instructions in the 'Cups error_log' section. I believe debugging was already enabled.

I changed the driver back to 'Brother MFC-7450 BR-Script3' and tried a test print. No output from the print device.
I have saved this file as "error_log-MFC-7450-BR-Script3 test page"

The driver has been changed to 'Brother MFC-7450 Foomatic/Postscript' and the test print run again.
The print device again prints blank pages.
I have saved this file as "error_log-MFC-7450 Foomatic-Postscript test page".

Part 3a) Capturing print job data
I am back to the original driver "Brother MFC-7450 BR-Script3"
Cleared the print queue
Printed a test file (attached the original as 'test page')
[code]
ron@ron-Vostro-3300:~$ lpstat -o
Brother-MFC-7440N-12 ron 12288 Mon 12 Dec 2011 19:42:48 EST
[/code]

Display cups spool
[code]
ron@ron-Vostro-3300:~$ sudo ls -l /var/spool/cups
[sudo] password for ron:
total 60
-rw------- 1 root lp 886 2011-12-12 19:43 c00012
-rw------- 1 root lp 712 2011-10-16 15:43 c00013
-rw------- 1 root lp 691 2011-10-16 15:43 c00014
-rw------- 1 root lp 796 2011-10-17 21:11 c00015
-rw------- 1 root lp 796 2011-10-17 21:13 c00016
-rw------- 1 root lp 705 2011-10-17 21:14 c00017
-rw------- 1 root lp 966 2011-10-17 21:17 c00018
-rw------- 1 root lp 966 2011-10-17 21:17 c00019
-rw------- 1 root lp 793 2011-11-08 15:21 c00021
-rw------- 1 root lp 620 2011-12-05 07:20 c00022
-rw-r----- 1 root lp 11458 2011-12-12 19:42 d00012-001
-rw-r----- 1 root lp 27 2011-12-05 07:19 d00022-001
drwxrwx--T 3 root lp 4096 2011-12-12 19:26 tmp
[/code]

There was two files beginning with 'd' so I have attac...

[Till Kamppeter (till-kamppeter)]

Do the following:

Turn off and turn on the printer again and from now on do not try to poll the toner levels with CUPS. Your error_log contains jobs where you have sent a command file for polling the toner levels. CUPS recognized this file correctly but instead of using the commandtops filter it passed the command file through to the printer without any filtering. This can have crashed the printer so that all subsequent jobs got ignored.

So try to only print the real jobs after power-cycling the printer, no toner level checks.

[Ron Campbell (1-ron-f)]

I tried again after restarting the printer but there was no luck. It seems the drivers for the 7450 are not meant for the 7440N at all.

I did some more searching and have been able to get the printer working. It is using 7440N drivers and a cupswrapper. Below is how to set it up.

-------------------------------
Instructions taken from these sources:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1606673
http://63.231.93.8/drupal/?q=node/6
http://welcome.solutions.brother.com/bsc/public_s/id/linux/en/index.html
----------------------------

To setup the Brother MFC-7440N printer/scanner on Ubuntu 64bit 11.10 using a USB connection:

1) Download the LPR Driver (deb) and cupswrapper driver (deb) from the brother web site:
http://welcome.solutions.brother.com/bsc/public_s/id/linux/en/download_prn.html#MFC-7440N

2) Create this folder if it does not alread exist
[code]
sudo mkdir /usr/share/cups/model
[/code]

3) Install the downloaded LPR Driver
[code]
sudo dpkg -i --force-all brmfc7440nlpr-2.0.2-1.i386.deb
[/code]

The '--force-all' switch is required as this package is designed for x86 architecture and we are using x64. The --force-architecture switch could be used instead of --force-all.

4) Install the downloaded Cupswrapper Driver
[code]
sudo dpkg -i --force-architecture cupswrapperMFC7440N-2.0.2-1.i386.deb
[/code]

Again this is an x86 package and we are using x64

At this point a test print will work however in my case the borders were not correct, the next step selects the PPD file which will correct this.

5) Select the PPD file for the printer
System - Printers - MFC7440N - Properties
Make and Model: - Change
Provide PPD File
Browse to /usr/share/cups/model and select the file MFC7440N.PPD

A test print with borders worked correctly after selecting this file

-------------------------------

If I do a search in the Ubuntu Software Centre for 'mfc' I see a bunch of brother cupswrapper drivers and ppd files. (None of them are for the 7440N). Is there a way we can create a package out of the information we have here and publish it so that it is easy to install the 7440N printer by installing a package from the Ubuntu Software Centre?

Most average and non technical users are not going to put in the research or effort required to make this printer work in Ubuntu. They will simply assume it doesn't work. I would like to make it easy for them if I can.

How do we get this incorporated into the CUPS drivers updates or published in the Ubuntu Software Centre?
Is the PPD file that gets created usable as a stand alone file on a clean install without going through the above?

[Paul P. (o-launchpad-burgerbum-com)]

Problem solved for me as well.

The missing piece was that one needs to install the Brother LPD driver as well as the CUPS driver. One is not enough.

[Ron Campbell (1-ron-f)]

Hi Till,

Can you please elaborate on the 'Invalid' status?

From the notes there are a number of people who have this problem so it is a 'Valid' issue. There is a work around at post #11.

What needs to be done to fix this permanently for everyone?

Ron

[Till Kamppeter (till-kamppeter)]

The last comments suggest that users did not correctly install Brother's proprietary driver, considting of an LPD driver and a CUPS wrapper. At Ubuntu we cannot do much about that. Brother has to take care of making their drivers easily installable. Therefore I marked this bug invalid for Ubuntu.

If you have a PostScript printer from Brother on Precise (12.04), see bug 950713.

[Ron Campbell (1-ron-f)]

Thanks for the response Till.

My understanding of the issue is that Ubuntu identifies the printer correctly but installs the wrong driver, or, the CUPS driver that Ubuntu installs has a bug. (Making it an Ubuntu/CUPS issue)

As a workaround, the steps from Post 11 have been taken to get it working till a permanent fix is released.

Can you please check the Ubuntu side of things? If it is not Ubuntu, can you refer it to CUPS to check their driver for this printer?

[Till Kamppeter (till-kamppeter)]

Can you boot a Ubuntu Precise (12.04) beta live CD, do a complete update, and try printing again?

We have done improvements on USB support and PostScript printing. You should be able to print with all BR-Script and Foomatic/Postscript PPDs/drivers as long as they are explicitly made for Brother printers (manufacturer "Brother", not "Generic", "HP", ...).

Please try also the PCL drivers explicitly listed for your model (if there are some) and tell us how well they work, so that we can perhaps remove some bad choices.

[Ron Campbell (1-ron-f)]

I downloaded the x64 image from here: http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily/current/ but its not a live CD. Do you know where I can get a live CD for the beta?

[Till Kamppeter (till-kamppeter)]

Here is the correct link

http://www.ubuntu.com/testing/download
ftp://ftp.fu-berlin.de/linux/ubuntu/releases//precise/ubuntu-12.04-beta1-desktop-amd64.iso

[Ron Campbell (1-ron-f)]

Hi Till

Using the live CD with updates, Ubuntu does not have a Brother 7440 driver to use. When adding a printer manually Ubuntu recommends the nearest match -> Brother 7450, however the print driver does not work.

I have included the links to the open source drivers in the original ticket. Could we refer this job to CUPS to include the drivers in the CUPS updates so that the drivers are included with Ubuntu?

[Till Kamppeter (till-kamppeter)]

Unfortunately, I do not know much about that printer. In the Precise live session, try different similar models and also "Generic PCL-... printer" choices. Please tell which ones work.

Note that we cannot include Brother's drivers as they are not free software.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for cups (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

[Edwin Meyer (pe-edwin)]

I had exactly the same problem as described in the "bug description" with the 32 bit version of official Ubuntu release 12.04.
The instructions of comment 11 did work for me, and I can now print a test page with the newly installed printer. However, I do not know how to set a "PPD" file per step 5 "Select the PPD file for the printer", because there is apparently no Properties tab under System - Printing - MFC7440N (not Printers as mentioned).

The next step will be to try to get the MFC7440N scanner to work in Ubuntu. (Printing and scanning both work fine in dual-booted Win 7, which is the best thing I can say about Windows.)

[P.Kvols (povl-kvols)]

I have exactly the same problem under 32 bit Ubuntu with the exact same printer. #11 solved it for me.

It's a great printer, and it works quite well under Ubuntu. Please add support for it. Installing the printer in this way is a hassle!

[P.Kvols (povl-kvols)]

Correction. I installed all over on another PC running Ubuntu 12.04. Here is what was needed to install the printer in my system:

Follow #11 above (except that I do not need to --force-architecture since I user i86, not 64 bit)

Add the printer to /etc/hosts, in my case the printer has static address 192.168.11.10:

sudo gedit /etc/hosts
add a line under 127.0.0.1 LOCALHOST
192.168.11.10 MFC.7440N

Open the printer app, add a printer.

Expand the >Network printer, wait some time, and select the MFC-7440N

Install, but when asked about manufacturer, select (O) Supply PPD file...

Browser to /usr/share/cups/model, and select the file MFC7440.PPD

Print a test page,

Open printer properties, set the paper size (Letter is default, I use A4), go through other settings, such as toner save, resolution (1200 DPI) ...

Works for me, and it's a great little printer, but this is a hassle!