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BROTHER HL-5040

alejandro

BROTHER HL-5040
« on: January 20, 2005, 09:54:53 PM »
Hi all:
I Would like to connect a Brother hl-5040 laser printer to an usb port of my box.
I have downloaded the linux driver for this printer, but before I crashing my production server, I would like to know If there is any experience about this printer/driver connected to an sme server

The driver is: hl5040lpr-1.1.1-1.i386.rpm
My sme is contribs' version
as always, I apreciate any kind of help.
TIA
Ale

mbachmann

BROTHER HL-5040
« Reply #1 on: January 21, 2005, 11:33:42 AM »
My experience (and many other people around here) is that the built in printer feature does not work very well. I had to take my time to read into the CUPS stuff. There is a contrib from Robert van der Aker here: http://no.longer.valid/mylinks/singlelink.php?cid=54&lid=334. Once you've got it working you'll be very happy and pleased. As for the USB driver: i never tried it, always used network tcp printers. Not much of help?!

alejandro

BROTHER HL-5040
« Reply #2 on: January 21, 2005, 02:50:44 PM »
Many Thanks
I'll give a time to read about cups

Robert

BROTHER HL-5040
« Reply #3 on: January 21, 2005, 08:50:33 PM »
In most cases you don't need server-side drivers for your printers. Most people can get away with installing drivers on the client side and using so-called raw queues on the server. In some cases it is convenient or necessary to use Postscript drivers (or no drivers at all) on the client side and use filtering queues, queues to which a server-side driver is attached, on the server. This is particularly true for mixed networks with Unix/Linux clients that don't have any local spoolers/drivers installed, Mac OS X workstations, and AppleTalk clients like Classic Mac OS or BeOS. In Windows-only networks you normally don't need server-side drivers, though some people do prefer using them.
Both LPRng, the standard printing system in SME Server, and CUPS can use raw queues and filtering queues, but the framework for using filtering queues with LPRng is a bit more involved than with CUPS and not present in SME Server.
Some people also find that CUPS is easier to use with unusual printers, like serial and SCSI printers, or printers shared in a Windows, AppleTalk, or Novell network.
If you have a parallel, USB, or ethernet printer and only intend to use raw queues, there's usually no need to change your printing system.
If you have an unusual printer and/or wish to use filtering queues, installing CUPS is probably the easiest solution.
If you do decide to install CUPS and set up a filtering queue, don't install the driver that you mentioned in your post. Instead go to www.linuxprinting.org and look up your printer and find out that another driver is the preferred driver for your printer.

alejandro

Thanks Again
« Reply #4 on: January 21, 2005, 09:09:22 PM »
Robert: I was finishing my cups installation after reading linuxprinting page, when I received the forum notification of your post, I did exactly as you say, and yes, cups is a very usefull administration tool.
You are right.
the problem was that i couldn“t get the printer working on USB port using LPR system so the printer was atached to a workstation cause of that.
Now I have a working printer server at my SME box,
Many many thanks both of you
Mbachmann for the leading to cups and Robert for your suggestions and very complete explanation