CUPS printer problems

U

User565

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Hi there,

I have a problem with setting up a network printer on MAC os x 10.4. I have been trying to use CUPS, which I think is fine because I can get the printer to work (just not print properly) with some HP drivers, but I can't seem to add my PPD file to the list of driver offered in CUPS v1.1.23. It is a brother HL2040. So my question is how do I add drivers to CUPS?

thanks in advance for any help.
 
The printer probably came with an installer CD that puts the driver pieces in the right places. If not, download it from:
http://welcome.solutions.brother.co..._top.html?reg=us&c=us&lang=en&prod=hl2040_all

By the way, the CUPS interface is just a different view of exactly the same info - when you add a printer via the CUPS interface (or even commandline), it will be shown in the Printer Setup list, and vice versa. And, there are no added features/protocols available via the CUPS interface, either.
 
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I think User565 is trying to use an open-source CUPS driver to get his printer to print over the network, not the official driver from Brother.

**EDIT: I'm using 10.6.2. These steps should hopefully be similar to what's needed in 10.4.x, but I don't remember exactly.**

User565, you'll need the IP address of your printer.
1. Start by having the driver on the Desktop or somewhere else handy. Let's use the OS X interface instead of CUPS because I'm more familiar with that one.
2. Click the Apple menu (upper-left corner of screen) and select System Preferences.
3. Click Print and Fax.
4. Click the + button.
5. Click the IP tab.
6. Select Internet Printing Protocol for your protocol.
7. Type in the IP address in the text field next to "Address:" and give it a name next to Name.
8. Select "Other . . ." next to "Print Using:"
9. Navigate to where you have your driver, click it and press Return or the Open button.

Good luck and let us know if these directions worked for you. If not, we'll do our best to help you further.

Bot
IPP Configurebot
 
Brother provides CUPS-compatible OS X drivers (It's the only maker of non-postscript printers to do that so far).
Maybe the issue is the Print Server and what protocol it supports?
 
User565 said:
Hi there,

I have a problem with setting up a network printer on MAC os x 10.4. I have been trying to use CUPS, which I think is fine because I can get the printer to work (just not print properly) with some HP drivers, but I can't seem to add my PPD file to the list of driver offered in CUPS v1.1.23. ...
Click to expand...
Don't use HP drivers. Download and use the CUPS driver from Brother's website.
 
Thanks everybody for your responses. I probably didn't explain the situation very well, so sorry about that. I need to print using HTTP, not IPP, I have got a non network printer that plugs into a DLink router, in the past it has worked on mac, when you select http however http is no longer an option when you add a printer except in CUPS. If you select IPP it doesn't seem to work.

If I use CUPS I can at least talk to the printer using HTTP I just can get it to work properly. ex2bot, your advice would be perfect it there was a HTTP option. Any ideas how to sort this problem out, and why isn't HTTP still an option is OS 10.4.

Thanks once again.
 
User565 said:
... I need to print using HTTP, not IPP, I have got a non network printer that plugs into a DLink router, in the past it has worked on mac, ...
Click to expand...
Many printers have built-in webservers to allow management of the printer. I assume that this is the case with your printer. If I am correct, then you are confusing a management interface with a communication protocol. The communication protocol is IP. You will need an IP-compatible driver to actually print your jobs. Brother's print drive should do the job.

If your printer supports Bonjour, then the management interface is accessible under the Bookmarks>Bonjour Safari menu selection. If not, then you should be able to access the management webpage by directing your browser to the IP-address of your printer: http://{printer_ip_address}.
 
For 10.4, to get http (which is just an alias/link to ipp, by the way), do this;
Open Printer Setup; click add/+; hold down option key and click More Printers; in the top pull-down protocol menu, select Advanced; now in the second pull-down select IPP using http.
Do you know the print queue for that router? Print queue is a part of the "address" to get data to the printer - think about it - the IP address is for the router, not for a printer.

(if you have the Brother driver installed) you can manually select any known-location (uninstalled) PPD file using the Print Using pull-down choice "other."

As you can see by our various responses, we're not really sure what is and isn't working for you. You need to tell us step-by-step what you're doing, and where you're getting stuck.
 
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gsahli many thanks, the information you have just given me works. Once I selected the Http, from the advance menu it worked. I am not sure why I couldn't get it to work on IPP, I assume it has something to do with the way the printer queue is set up on the router. Once again thanks heaps.
 
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