I just want to share my notes for installing a Brother HL-L5210DW(T) printer via USB under Fedora Atomic 40 (Kinoite), in case it helps anyone else. This may work for other similar models too. I’ve included some background info at bottom if you’re interested.

The following method doesn’t require any proprietary drivers, and utilizes IPP-over-USB and IPP Everywhere, both of which are preinstalled on Fedora 40 Atomic distributions (and likely their traditional variants as well).

  1. Connect the printer via USB and ensure it is powered on
  2. Open the CUPS admin web interface at http://localhost:631/
  3. Select Administration and enter your credentials
  4. Select Add Printer
  5. Select Internet Printing Protocol (ipp), then Continue
  6. Enter ipp://localhost:60000/ipp/print in the path field, then Continue
  7. Enter a name for the printer (ex: HL-L5210DW), then Continue
  8. Select Brother as the Make, then Continue
  9. Select IPP Everywhere as the Model, then Add Printer
  10. Set the default printer options as desired (set Duplex to DuplexNoTumble for standard 2-sided printing)
  11. Select Set Default Options
  12. From the Maintenance drop-menu, select Set as Server Default

More info

I haven’t needed to configure a USB printer at home in well over 15 years, so I was more than a little rusty, and things were further complicated by my use of Fedora Atomic. I’ll eventually connect this device via Ethernet so it can be used by everyone on the LAN, but until I sort out exactly where I want to put it I’m stuck with USB.

Brother’s driver install tool expects dnf, apt, or yum, and so it’s incompatible with ostree-based systems like Kinoite or Silverblue. You can of course download the driver manually and install the necessary packages:

rpm-ostree install --apply-live hll5210dwpdrv-4.0.3-1.i386.rpm glibc.i686 libstdc++.i686

However, I still ran into some problems (likely related to SELinux), and I wasn’t keen on overlaying additional packages, particularly proprietary software written for i386 arch.

I then opted to try the generic brlaser driver, but it failed to work correctly when long-edge (NoTumble) duplex printing was enabled. The backside of pages were corrupted and illegible.

After spending far too much of my Saturday reading support forums, I eventually discovered that IPP-over-USB was a thing, and the rest went smoothly. Hopefully this post helps anyone else with an HL-L5210DWT or other L5000 series Brother printer.

Bonus Tip: Disable deep sleep

If you have a Brother printer that goes into deep sleep and doesn’t wake up for print jobs, you can disable the Deep Sleep feature via the printer’s built-in menu:

  1. Press the OK button to bring up the printer’s menu
  2. Navigate to General Setup > Ecology > Sleep Time
  3. Press OK to enter into the Sleep Time settings
  4. Press the Minus and Cancel buttons simultaneously to display the hidden Deep Sleep menu
  5. Press OK to enter into the Deep Sleep settings
  6. Navigate up/down to change the setting to Off
  7. Press OK
  8. Turn off the printer, unplug it and plug it back in, then verify the setting is retained
  • pHr34kY@lemmy.world
    12·
    6 months ago

    Printers are always horrible to administer. Brother are typically the best on Linux. I wrote a massive instructional blog a few weeks ago because it took so much work to get my HL-3150CDN working over USB. I had to repackage a Frankenstein’s monster of a driver because my printer never got 64-bit CUPS filters.

    • thayer@lemmy.caOPEnglish
      4·
      6 months ago

      That’s a great post too, thanks for sharing it here. My hope is that folks might still manage to find this info through search engines, even if Lemmy isn’t yet as highly indexed as other platforms.

  • mr_right@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    4·
    6 months ago

    Brother’s driver install tool expects dnf, apt, or yum, and so it’s incompatible with ostree-based systems like Kinoite or Silverblue. You can of course download the driver manually and install the necessary packages:

    Not being able to provide support for every distro is the other edge of open source

    • Telorand@reddthat.com
      3·
      6 months ago

      It’s more the other edge of immutable distros, in this particular case. The entire point is that the system files can’t be modified, but that means working within those restrictions via layering can be tricky in certain cases.

  • Telorand@reddthat.com
    3·
    6 months ago

    Great writeup! I have a Brother laser printer, too, and it never occurred to me that I’d need to worry about compatibility when I fully migrate (and at least three immutable distros have been in my top five candidates).

    Something else for me to keep in mind!

  • bbbhltz@beehaw.org
    3·
    6 months ago

    I went through something similar with my Brother printer, but stuck with USB. I’ll have to give your tips a try later.

    I haven’t been able to get 2-sided to work except with LibreOffice for some reason, but maybe that DuplexNoTumble thing is the key…or value.

  • user68k@wired.bluemarch.art
    2·
    4 months ago

    This method seems to not work reliably with Brother-HL-L2370DN-series printers right now. At least after a quick search I’ve found a bug report about an infinite loop problem in certain circumstances and sadly with my HL-L2372DN I was unable to print at all (infinite loop with occasional ! USB[0]: zero-size read error; CUPS 2.4.10 and ipp-usb 0.9.27).

    For Brother HL-L2372DN it is possible to use Gutenprint with the supplied Generic PCL 6 Printer wide margin printer driver but two sided printing is quirky sometimes if you print odd number of pages.

    Anyway, thanks for your post!