Brother printers on Linux

December 25, 2018

Network and USB printing with Brother printers generally work great on Linux and Windows Subsystem for Linux. The Brother installer script automatically downloads and installs necessary programs. Opt out of the last program brscan-skey, as it’s unnecessary.

Download Brother printer driver.

apt install cups

gunzip linux-brprinter-installer-*.gz

bash linux-brprinter-installer*

“Will you specify the Device URI? [Y/n]” y (if networked) “Specify IP address”: “Enter IP address” the static IP printer address

BRscan: YES allows xsane for Brother scanning printers.
BRsaneconfig: YES xsane scanner over the network
BRscan-Skey: NO don’t install. Don’t need to press a key on the scanner to go to my laptop, because of potential security risks.

If accidentally installed brscan-skey, uninstall with

dpkg -r brscan-skey

As usual, manage/check printer from CUPS by pointing your PC web browser to localhost:631

Scanning documents in Linux in typically done with Xsane, which works on networked or USB connected scanners.

apt install xsane

xsane

To update scanner IP address use brsaneconfig4

For native Windows (not using Windows Subsystem for Linux), download just the driver that is about 15-20 MB and add the printer by IP address and choose “have disk”, pointing to the folder where you extract the drivers files to.