Brother HL-2170W

This is a short tutorial on installing the Brother HL-2170W (and the HL-2140) printer with CUPS on Arch Linux. If you previously tried to install the printer in CUPS, remove it.

This printer will work a few different ways: with Foomatic, with the HP PCL6 driver, or with cupswrapper. For further info on cupswrapper please see the Brother MFC-440CN guide.

To avoid some extra Google queries, the HL-2170w web interface default username is 'admin' and the default password is 'access'.

As of July 2011, The foomatic/ljet4 driver using IPP has been shown to be really successful on most Arch setups, please attempt that first.

Using the foomatic/pxlmono driver

1. Install CUPS and Foomatic:

   # pacman -S cups foomatic-db foomatic-db-engine foomatic-db-nonfree foomatic-filters

2. Edit your rc.conf to start cups on boot:

   DAEMONS=(syslog-ng network netfs cups crond)

3. Open a web browser to http://localhost:631/
4. Click the Add Printer button on the Administration tab, fill out the form, and click Continue
5. Pick the Brother HL-2170 from the 'Device:' dropdown menu and continue.
6. Pick the 'Brother HL-2170W Foomatic/pxlmono (en).' If this option isn't in the list, then you can opt to manually provide the PPD file as follows (keeping the 'Add Printer' page open):
   1. Download the pxlmono PPD file from the OpenPrinting Database (at the bottom of the page) and save it somewhere.
   2. Click 'Browse' and select the PPD file you just downloaded in the 'Add Printer' page.
7. Now click 'Add Printer' to add the printer. When it asks for a username and password, supply the root account's username and password.
8. Configure any other options for your printer.
9. Click on the Printers tab and print a test page.

Using the foomatic/ljet4 driver using IPP

more successful

Since the HL-2170w series supports many protocols, you are left with many options. A common option is IPP, Internet Printing Protocol. It is recommended that you configure the HL-2170w via its web interface to have a static IP so that the IPP configuration in CUPS will always work.

1. Install CUPS and Foomatic:

   # pacman -S cups foomatic-db foomatic-db-engine foomatic-db-nonfree foomatic-filters ghostscript

2. Download the pxlmono PPD file from the OpenPrinting Database (Look for ljet4) and save it somewhere.
3. Start the cups daemon and optionally edit your rc.conf to start cups on boot:

   DAEMONS=(syslog-ng network netfs cups crond)

4. Open a web browser to http://localhost:631/
5. Click the Add Printer button on the Administration tab (may cause chromium to crash in which case click on edit configuration and then click save)
6. Select IPP from the list.
7. In the 'Connection' field, type

    ipp://THE_PRINTER_IP/ipp/port1 

8. In the next form, give the printer a unique name (no spaces and must the name be UNIQUE from any identical printers configured)
9. Configure the default options.
10. Click next then print a test page

Using the HP PCL6 driver

This driver is not ideal, but it works. Use the foomatic/pxlmono method above, if possible.

1. First install CUPS:

   # pacman -S cups

2. Edit your rc.conf to start cups on boot:

   DAEMONS=(syslog-ng network netfs cups crond)

3. Start cups:

   # /etc/rc.d/cups start

4. Open a web browser to http://localhost:631/
5. Click the Add Printer Button (fill out the form) (click Continue)
6. Select Internet Printing Protocol (IPP) from the drop down menu (click Continue)
7. In the Device URI field add the following line:

   http://printer:631/ipp/port1

   Where printer is the IP address or DNS name of your printer (click Continue)
8. Select "HP" under Make (click Continue)
9. Select HP LaserJet Series PCL 6 CUPS (en) (click Add Printer)

Troubleshooting

Some simple reminders

1. Sometimes if you get simple errors like "spool not ready" or "ipp backend failed", there is a good chance you have to resume the printer by selecting the Maintenance drop down and selecting Resume Printer.