Thursday 23 October 2014

Brother DCP-7030 Driver Configuration


The following instructions are meant for Arch Linux and derivatives, but I've had success with them with various Ubuntu flavours, such as Gnome, Unity, Kubuntu & Xubuntu.
 
Installation
Install the correct printer driver for the Brother DCP-7030, as well as the scanner driver, whose file name is brscan3, from the Arch User Repository, or whatever your distro's repositories are. If you can't find these in your distro's repositories, then go to the Brother support website and manually download the aforementioned drivers.

Next, blacklist the usblp module in order to make the printer visible in web-interface. Do this by creating a file named blacklist-usblp.conf in /etc/modprobe.d/  Write the following in the file:


# Blacklist for Brother DCP-7030 USB printer
blacklist usblp

Next, add a rule to udev, by going to /etc/udev/rules.d and creating a file titled 10-usbprinter.rules, then write in, or copy/paste the following, as you see it here:

# udev rule for Brother DCP-7030 USB printer
ATTR{idVendor}=="04f9", ATTR{idProduct}=="01ea", MODE:="0664", GROUP:="lp", ENV{libsane_matched}:="yes"

Install the CUPS package for printing and sane package for scanning from official repositories, whichever they are. Install GUI for scanning if necessary – xsane or simple scan, for example. Now,
enable service cupsd.service or cups.socket by typing the following in a terminal:

sudo systemctl cups.service (or cups.socket)

Then, if your software can't use the scanner, open a terminal and type in the command lsusb and note the output. It could be something like the following:

Bus 006 Device 003: ID 04f9:01ea Brother Industries, Ltd DCP-7030

Then type in the following at the command line:

sudo chmod a+w /dev/bus/usb/006/003

(Note that “bus” and “device” from the last command output, are the equivalent to the “bus” and “usb” sequence in the command you issue to give write permission to users.)

Go to http://localhost:631 and setup your printer. All settings there is very simple, the main thing you must check - paper size set to "A4". Make sure you check for the exact printer driver, the DCP-7030; it should be there. If not, you can always use DCP-7020, or DCP-7025. Another way is by using the Gnome Printer utility.

Trouble shooting
The unit will print, but will not scan when plugged into a USB3 port, so use a USB2 port for the printer, or disable USB3 by blacklisting the xhci_hcd module, if necessary; although I don't know why someone would waste a USB3 port on a printer, when USB2 is quite sufficient for printing duties.

I can't print anything from LibreOffice
If you can print a test page from http://localhost:631, in the CUPS interface in your web browser, but can't print anything from LibreOffice, try to install a2ps, which stands for "any to post script".

Acknowledgments
For all of the above, I am grateful to the Arch Linux wiki. I happened to check this wiki out in the hopes of solving a long-time problem with this printer's scanner, and this solution worked, not only for Manjaro, but also for various Ubuntu flavours. I think it will also work on pretty much any distro.

I have only slightly modified the instructions; the body of this how-to is basically the same. I simply wanted to share this with those who use other distros and have not had any luck installing a Brother printer/copier/scanner.

For those who would like to see for themselves what's on the Arch Linux wiki page, the following URL will take them directly there:

<https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Brother_DCP-7030>

23-Oct-2014

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