Install Brother MFC295CN drivers to Ubuntu

I'm trying to get the drivers for my printer going, and not doing well. I tried the following: and the sudo dpkg -i PACKAGE.deb format. It installs the printer, but then doesn't see the printer via USB. Ideas?

2 Answers

You have to follow the instructions on this page. I installed a Brother HL2250DN just one hour ago and it works perfectly.

Because the instructions are a bit hard to follow, here the summary for Ubuntu (with updated instructions for cups):

(0. If you are a 64-Bit Ubuntu user:)

sudo apt-get install ia32-libs lib32stdc++

1. Turn on the printer

2. Download the LPR and cupswrapper driver from this page (you need the .deb packages).

3. Open a terminal by pressing CTRL+ALT+T.

4. Install the LPR driver

In the terminal type dpkg -i --force-all downloaded-lpr-driver where "downloaded-lpr-driver" is the filename of the downloaded deb for the LPR driver (something like mfc295cnlpr-1.1.3-1.i386.deb)

5. Install the cupswrapper driver

In the terminal type dpkg -i --force-all downloaded-cups-driver where "downloaded-cups-driver" is the filename of the downloaded deb for the cupswrapper driver (something like mfc295cncupswrapper-1.1.3-1.i386.deb)

6. Test your installation

dpkg -l | grep Brothershould show both drivers to be installed.

7. Setup cups

Point your Browser to and click on your printer. In the Administration dropdown choose Modify Printer. The next step wants you to choose the connection type.

If you're using USB to connect the printer, the connection should allready be set to something like usb://Brother/(your printer's model name). If your Printer is not listed, go to and add your printer.

If you're using a network connection, choose from Discovered Network Printers or if your printer was not discovered, select "LPD/LPR Host or Printer" or "AppSocket/HP JetDirect" and insert lpd://(Your printer's IP address)/binary_p1 with the correct IP of your printer.

See these examples for working configurations.

You can install the printer drivers easily with the free utility that Brother provides. Retreive and run the file by opening up the terminal and running these commands (make sure you acknowledge and accept the license agreement, which can be found at the page I linked):

wget
tar xf linux-brprinter-installer-2.0.0-1.gz
rm linux-brprinter-installer-2.0.0-1.gz
chmod a+x ./linux-brprinter-installer-2.0.0-1
sudo ./linux-brprinter-installer-2.0.0-1

You will be walked through the installation. Once complete, you will have an item in your home folder named linux-brprinter-installer-2.0.0-1, which you can safely delete.