From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Jul 27 21:34:08 2011 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 20987106566C for ; Wed, 27 Jul 2011 21:34:08 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from bonomi@mail.r-bonomi.com) Received: from mail.r-bonomi.com (mx-out.r-bonomi.com [204.87.227.120]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id EDE3C8FC24 for ; Wed, 27 Jul 2011 21:34:07 +0000 (UTC) Received: (from bonomi@localhost) by mail.r-bonomi.com (8.14.4/rdb1) id p6RLYAVK095786; Wed, 27 Jul 2011 16:34:10 -0500 (CDT) Date: Wed, 27 Jul 2011 16:34:10 -0500 (CDT) From: Robert Bonomi Message-Id: <201107272134.p6RLYAVK095786@mail.r-bonomi.com> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org, kline@thought.org In-Reply-To: <20110727201644.GA45122@thought.org> Cc: Subject: Re: Printr? X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 27 Jul 2011 21:34:08 -0000 > Date: Wed, 27 Jul 2011 13:16:48 -0700 > From: Gary Kline > To: FreeBSD Mailing List > Subject: Printr? > > > folks, > > i sent a couple freebsd questions days ago and did not bcc myself. i > never saw the post nor got any response. anyway, new one: is there > any way of getting my 'brother HL-3040CN' color laser printr to work. i > have mucked with it for >> 48 until i am ready to [[ dunno, really ]]. > i guess return it and buy one that just works with cups. Advice: *READ* the specifications. Make sure the printer 'speaks' (or, at a minimum 'emulaes') at at least _one_ "standard' page-layout language -- PCL, or (*preferably*) Postscript. The HL-3040cn specs expressly _disclaim_ such, to wit: "Emulation N/A(Host-Based only) Resident Fonts PCL N/A BR-Script 3 (PostScript 3 language emulation) N/A" This _should_ have told you to "run away'. > this 3040cn is seriously low-end, but if any of you have one Working, > i'd seriously like to know what you did. i'm using whatever CUPS we've > got with 7.3. Odds are that you are SOL. The HL-3040CN is what is charitably called a "winprinter". That is, it is a *dumb* imaging device that requires _everything_ be done on the host computer, using a "vendor-provided" device driver. Brother provides drivers for Windows, MacOS, and a CUPS-based driver executable for Linux. The odds of getting _that_ executable to work on FreeBSD are not good. With a fulll Linux emulation environment, maybe.