Can't duplex print in 12.04

[David Fletcher]

On Fri, 2013-01-11 at 09:39 +0100, Patrick Asselman wrote:
> (I'm not sure this is possible, but...)
> 
> How about this:
> * install CUPS on the server and make sure it prints OK to the printer
> * share the printer on the server same as you have always done
> * point all the other desktops on the network to the server, same as 
> you have always done
> 
> I'm not sure if this is possible, but this would seem like the way to 
> go for me.
> A possible nuisance is that the desktops will see two printers on the 
> network: one is the printer itself and one is the shared printer on the 
> server. Now they have to pick the right one.
> 
> Best regards,
> Patrick Asselman
> 

Yes, that's exactly what I want. CUPS has already been running on the
server, doing its job just fine for nearly 3 years, BUT it doesn't know
how to drive a Brother HL-3040CN.

There's a couple of things I can now try -
1) The .deb files from Brother are installed and working on my desktop,
although I've not yet tried any printing from the Gimp, only from Libre
Office and the pdf viewer. So, next test would be to share the printer
from my desktop and see if this machine then operates as a print server
for my son's desktop or a friend's laptop.

2) Like I said last night, set up Ubuntu Server as a virtual machine,
copy over the Brother driver debs, install them and see if they pull in
a load of stuff that I don't want on the server or not.

I know that the printer doesn't have to be plugged into the network - I
did get a test print when I was fiddling around with it plugged into the
USB socket of this little netbook. Plugged into a USB socket on the
server it would only be able to appear once.

In order to execute test 2 I'll probably need to know how to log into a
virtual machine from its host. I'm using Virtualbox. I've not looked
into doing this yet but if anybody can give me a quick tip I'd be
grateful.

The seemingly daft thing about this particular printer, is that logging
into the server with a web browser on port 631 and opting to provide a
ppd file does not work. I'm sure I did this before with a large (A2 or
A1) Epson inkjet and it worked just fine. It seems that you have to
install the .deb files then re-create the printer queue with the web
browser interface, by drilling down to the .ppd file, only the .ppd can
only be found on the machine with the web browser.

The sooner everything gets added to CUPS the better.

Dave