This documentation is for installing drivers for the Brother Laserjet 2070N printer, and configuring Ubuntu Dapper to print across the network. This article may also prove useful when printing via USB cable/LPT cable instead of printing over the network.
Downloading the Drivers
Brother provides Drivers for Debian, which can be downloaded at: http://solutions.brother.com/linux/en_us/index.html
Specifically, you will need to download the lpd driver for the 2070N: http://www.brother.com/cgi-bin/agreement/agreement.cgi?dlfile=http://solutions.brother.com/Library/sol/printer/linux/rpmfiles/lpr_debian/brhl2070nlpr_1.1.2-3_i386.deb&lang=English_lpr And the Cups wrapper driver: http://www.brother.com/cgi-bin/agreement/agreement.cgi?dlfile=http://solutions.brother.com/Library/sol/printer/linux/rpmfiles/cups_wrapper/cupswrapperhl2070n_1.0.0-1_i386.deb&lang=English_gpl
Before You Install
Before installing the drivers, you must issue the following commands, otherwise the installer will fail.
1. Create symbolic links.
sudo ln -s /etc/init.d/cupsys /etc/init.d/cups sudo ln -s /etc/init.d/cupsys /etc/init.d/lpd
Installation
Installation must be done via command line. Below are the two commands in order to install the drivers correctly. Note it is important to install the drivers in the correct order!
1. Install the lpd driver: dpkg -i ./brhl2070nlpr_1.1.2-3_i386.deb
2. Install the cups wrapper driver: dpkg -i --force-overwrite ./cupswrapperhl2070n_1.0.0-1_i386.deb
Post Installation Configuration
After installing the debian packages, a new printer will be automatically created for you. You can access this printer through the main ubuntu menu (System -> Administration -> Printers). 1. Right click on the newly installed 2070N printer in the list of printers, and select Properties from the popup menu. 2. Select the 'Connection' tab in the properties window. The Network type should be set to IPP. 3. Erase the information listed below, in the URI text box, and replace it with the IP Address of your printer. (Note it is probally a good idea to set a static IP Adress your your printer, for convenience sake.)
You may remove the 2 new symbolic links created during the first steps, although this is not really needed, and they are not harmful to leave them alone.
Notes on setting up a MFC-5460CN multifunction printer on the network
I didn't have to do any of the command-line steps listed above. I just clicked on the appropriate driver links on the Brother web page and use the graphical package installer. The only trick was to get it working as a network printer. First I assigned it a static IP in the admin menu of my router. Then in the Printer Properties configuration box, under "Connection", I selected Network Printer, "Unix Printer (LPD)", Host: 192.168.0.120 (modify to match the static IP you assigned), Queue = binary_p1/
Scanning worked following the Brother's instructions at http://solutions.brother.com/linux/sol/printer/linux/sane_drivers.html. They have two different SANE drivers and you select the one for your model. I installed just by clicking on it. For me it did not work using the nodename to identify the printer, but it worked using the static IP that I set up in the router.