Small laser printer for Ubuntu - recommendations?

[David Fletcher]

I'm absolutely with Gene here, get a Brother.

I've got an HL-3040CN that I bought some years ago having become tired
of the problems with ink squirters. After upgrading my server to a 64
bit board last year I wasn't sure how I'd get the printer working again
as the drivers I had were only 32 bit. Then I found the Linux setup
script that Brother provides. You set it running, tell it what model
printer you have, how it's connected such as fixed IP address, and it
appears to download the correct driver source, use gcc to compile it,
integrates it all correctly into CUPS and it "Just Works".

A few months ago my girlfriend wanted a new printer/scanner because her
old ink squirters were worn out. I recommended a Brother unit which is
a bit of a beast but I just set a fixed IP address and ran the same
script on the Mint desktop that I'd set up for her. Again, everything
"Just Works", CUPS, XSANE, gscan2pdf. I emailed her a scanned image
while she was still trying to get the windows10 drivers to install.

As far as I know there is no chip in the toner cartridges, certainly
not with my printer. Watching a YouTube presentation about refilling
cartridges, it apparently works with a mechanical gearbox type counter
on the end of the cartridge that can be reset with a screwdriver so no
problem using refills. It's a load of messing about though so I'll
continue to pay somebody else to do this via eBay.

Get yourself a Brother.

Dave