more on FreeBSD and Brother HL-5250-DN

[Predrag Punosevac]

Gary Kline wrote:
> 	Not to bore anyone, but my finding may be of interest.
> 	Predrag pointed me at a Brother lpr/printcap setup for Linux--
> 	will wonders never cease?, :-).  The URL is
>
> 	http://solutions.brother.com/linux/en_us/index.html
>
> 	and had configurations (binaries, not plaintext) for Redhat 
> 	andDebian.  I managed to install, and thus unpack, the *deb
> 	(is that cpio?) on my Ubuntu desktop.  
>
> 	Very late last night it occurred to me that the reason no
> 	/dev/lpt0 was that my parallel cable isn't plugged into my new
> 	printer.  The test pages work via the cat5 <-> switch; this
> 	HTML helped me configure the 5250.  When I another geek over 
> 	here to plug things together, I'll be able to test the
> 	/etc/printcap.   Here it is, as auto-installed by dpkg -i::
>
> HL5250DN:\
>         :mx=0:\
>         :sd=/var/spool/lpd/HL5250DN:\
>         :sh:\
>         :lp=/dev/usb/lp0:\
>         :if=/usr/local/Brother/lpd/filterHL5250DN:
>
> 	Most of this will port to FreeBSD easily. The Brother directory 
> 	is full of two subdirs each with a number of files.  The input
> 	filter, "filterHL5250DN" and other /bin/sh scripts in lpd/
> 	will take some porting.   Soooooooo: is printcap the best way to
> 	go?  What about IPP?   
IPP is internet printing protocol spoken by CUPS spooling system. Your 
printer speaks both IPP and LPR native
printing protocol spoken by LPD. I honestly would not bother much with 
all that nonsense from Brother web-site.

Since you have Ubuntu and FreeBSD machine to make things as simple as 
possible attach printer directly to the network (that is why you have DN 
extension in the name of your printer) and make it printer server.

Ubuntu comes with CUPS which speaks IPP and adding printing should be 
matter of selecting it in the Gnome printer
manager.
You could edit printcap file for remote printer on your FreeBSD box. 
Look the FreeBSD Handbook
section 9.4.3.

If you want to have identical set up on FreeBSD machine as on the Ubuntu 
machine add the CUPS.
Do not forget to hide native LPD commands (example mv /usr/bin/lp 
/usr/bin/lp.bak)

You need to edit file /usr/local/etc/cups/client.conf on FreeBSD to 
enable client printing.
Start CUPS daemon and
then go to http://localhost:631 and add the printer. You can find PPD 
file for the printer on
http://openprinting.org/printer_list.cgi

Just follow the documentation for CUPS client setup
http://www.cups.org/doc-1.1/sam.html



Cheers,
Predrag



> The nutshell is that I'd like to use the
> 	printer in the way that takes the least messing-with.  I have 
> 	two "desktop", BSD and Ubuntu.  I would like to make the FreeBSD
> 	computer my printserver ... if I can't use the 5250 as a 
> 	networked printer.
>
> 	Advice please!!
>
> 	gary
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