Brother Printer HL-L2321D on Manjaro Linux (Arch Linux)

Brother Printer HL-L2321D on Manjaro Linux (Arch Linux)

21 Jun 2020, 06:41am TZ +05:30
linux, manjaro, printer
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Brother HL-L2321D on Manjaro(Arch Linux)

I have a good friend my laser printer - Brother HL-L2321D . In the initial days it was an Windows only device. Let’s look at how I made it work in Manjaro (Arch Linux) .

Though there are Official Linux Drivers available for Brother HL-L2321D.

There is non for Manjaro (Arch Linux).

Let’s look at the steps.

1. Install print-settings addon and $USER to lp and cups group #

In order to configure and work with printers one needs permission. Hence the current user must have me the member of lp group. Additionally to install and control the printer one needs to be also part of the cups group.

Let’s test it out :

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# Add user to cups group
sudo usermod -aG cups $USER
# List out possible printer interfaces
lpinfo -v
...

If you are able to execute this then your lp membership is correct.

Else you might need to manually add the current user: sudo usermod -aG lp $USER

Next let’s install a GUI tool that would help us configure the printers.

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# This installs 'print-manager' + some KDE parts
sudo pacman -Syyu print-manager
...

Well print-manager is a KDE package. Hence, it needs to some more dependency packages. Don’t worry it would not affect your current desktop.

At last restart the computer after this. For the groups and install to take effect.

Don’t Connect the Printer Yet

Note: Do not connect the printer yet. We still need to install Driver.

2. dpkg for Installing Debian package directly #

In order to use the official supported driver (which is available only in .deb and .rpm flavors) we need some alternate package manager. This is in addition of our good old pacman.

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# Install dpkg - Debian Package Manager
sudo pacman -Syyu dpkg
...

3. Getting Official Driver installer #

You can get the official Installer here:

Brother Driver Installer Tool

Just click on “Agree to EULA and Download” button.

This should download a specific version of tool archive called:

linux-brprinter-installer-2.2.2-1.gz

The version might differ in your case.

In my case I downloaded this script in my $HOME/Downloads directory.

4. Installing the Official Driver #

We would create a directory in our /opt directory. And do the installation there.

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# Create the Directory
sudo mkdir -p /opt/BrotherPrinter
# Copy the file to this directory
sudo cp linux-brprinter-installer*.gz /opt/BrotherPrinter
# Extract the file
cd /opt/BrotherPrinter
sudo gunzip linux-brprinter-installer*.gz
# Make the file Executable
sudo chmod +x linux-brprinter-installer*

4.a Install Procedure #

  1. Begin the Installation
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# Go to the Directory
cd /opt/BrotherPrinter
# Execute it as Root
sudo ./linux-brprinter-installer*
  1. First enter the model name HL-L2321D
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# Output
Input model name->HL-L2321D
  1. Next it would ask to install the .deb packages. Enter y to continue.
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You are going to install following packages.
   hll2320dlpr-3.2.0-1.i386.deb
   hll2320dcupswrapper-3.2.0-1.i386.deb
OK? [y/N] ->y
  1. There is lot of EULA License agreement text. Don’t worry just enter y to continue.
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...
e works of the Software be construed as Brother's implied agreement or 
undertakings to disclose and/or distribute the source cord of the Software.
=========================================
Do you agree? [Y/n] ->y
  1. It would again ask for another set of License agreements. Just enter y to continue.
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...
This General Public License does not permit incorporating your program into
proprietary programs. If your program is a subroutine library, you may
consider it more useful to permit linking proprietary applications with
the library. If this is what you want to do, use the GNU Library
General Public License instead of this License.
=========================================

Do you agree? [Y/n] ->y
  1. Now its important to Turn ON and Connect the printer. Make sure you have done this before entering y here.
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#
The security level of AppArmor has been lowered. (aa-complain cups)
aa-complain cupsd
Profile for /usr/bin/cupsd not found, skipping
Will you specify the Device URI? [Y/n] ->y
If you don’t see the printer in the List shows. Just press Ctrl + c to terminate the program. Then make sure that the printer is connected. And start from Step 1 here.
  1. Select the Brother Printer from List. Here its 6 so enter that.
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0: cups-brf:/
1: cups-pdf:/
2: beh
3: lpd
4: https
5: http
6: usb://Brother/HL-L2320D%20series?serial=E12345GBN123456
7: hp
8: ipps
9: socket
10: ipp
11: smb
12: hpfax
13 (I): Specify IP address.
14 (A): Auto. (usb://Brother/HL-L2320D%20series?serial=E12345GBN123456)

select the number of destination Device URI. ->6
  1. Next it will ask you to print a test page. Just say y to test it if you want.
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lpadmin -p HLL2320D -v usb://Brother/HL-L2320D%20series?serial=E12345GBN123456 -E
Test Print? [y/N] ->y

wait 5s.
lpr -P HLL2320D /usr/share/cups/data/testprint
Hit Enter/Return key.
  1. Just press Enter key to complete the program.

You are done !

6. Congratulations #

You have successfully installed Brother HL-L2321D.

Now Manjaro (Arch Linux) becomes even more capable.

You can directly print out pages from google-chrome or Libre Office.

No more windows dependency !

As always, I look forward to your suggestion and comments. DM me on Mastodon .