Date: Wed, 27 Jul 2011 16:34:10 -0500 (CDT) From: Robert Bonomi <bonomi@mail.r-bonomi.com> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org, kline@thought.org Subject: Re: Printr? Message-ID: <201107272134.p6RLYAVK095786@mail.r-bonomi.com> In-Reply-To: <20110727201644.GA45122@thought.org>
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> Date: Wed, 27 Jul 2011 13:16:48 -0700
> From: Gary Kline <kline@thought.org>
> To: FreeBSD Mailing List <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>
> 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.
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