Using AirPrint to print to Brother HL3170-CDW

[shrung]

Hi, trying to connect my linux machines (SteamOS, ZorinOS) to my Brother HL-3170-CDW as the title states.

When searching for a printer to add, I see the printer listed, and it is setup using this URI: lpd://BRW346895A7159B/BINARY_P1

It then says it has no driver available, so I have attempted to use several .ppd files from OpenPrinting, as well as one from Brother.

These appear to send the print to the printer correctly, but printing a one page print, or printing a test page, results in seemingly infinite printouts (8+) of the same page, which I then have to cancel at the printer itself. I have asked about this on an issue which I thought might be related, and was told in this case it is best to use AirPrint and no drivers, but I am not having any luck determining what protocol AirPrint actually is. I have checked in the printer settings page, and AirPrint is enabled, but I don't see anything other than that lpd address showing up in CUPS. I have played with some router settings (IGMP settings on TP-Link router, tried disabling IGMP proxy and IGMP snooping), but it didn't seem to have any change to what was discoverable.

I am using a pihole as my DNS server, if that could perhaps have an impact on the mDNS setup, which I believe is what AirPrint uses to set up?

I have also tried connecting using an ipp:// URI, and selecting the generic IPP driver in CUPS, but this results in a single line of gibberish text/symbols ending in "DFDautoLetter.Borderless" to be printed.

Can anyone point me to what connection type I should be using for a driverless setup of this printer? Can AirPrint be setup using only the IP address (I have it reserved), even if my mDNS is messed up somehow? Or, does anyone know how to stop the repeated printing of each job through some change to the .ppd or something?

TLDR: Prints correctly, but continues printing the page repeatedly when using lpd:// and a .ppd file. Prints incorrectly when using generic IPP. No AirPrint option appears visible although it is enabled in the printers settings page.

Any help is greatly appreciated, I am having the exact same results on SteamOS and ZorinOS, so I think it is either some network or printer issue, not specific to the machine running CUPS.

Thanks!

[michaelrsweet]

FWIW, I did a quick search and both the Brother and Apple sites show this printer as supporting AirPrint. Therefore you should be able to use the "everywhere" (IPP Everywhere) driver with it over IPP. The old "lpd:" device URIs are only used for legacy printer drivers.

[shrung]

Thanks for the reply, is IPP synonymous with AirPrint? I am getting a messed up print when using IPP and the generic IPP driver. What is the proper form of the IPP URI instead of the LPD?

I was told already to use AirPrint, but if that is IPP then it doesn't seem to work for me. I can print just fine using a Chromebook which uses an IPP URI, I tried the same URI on my Linux machines and the generic IPP driver and get a line of garbled symbols rather than the correct print.

[michaelrsweet]

is IPP synonymous with AirPrint?

Sort of. AirPrint is IPP + Bonjour (mDNS + DNS-SD) + standard formats (Apple Raster, JPEG, PDF). IPP Everywhere is IPP + Bonjour + standard formats (PWG Raster, JPEG, PDF). Mopria and Wi-Fi Direct Print services are IPP + Bonjour + standard formats (PWG Raster, PCLm, JPEG, PDF).

CUPS' "everywhere" support includes all of these IPP "profiles", so that any printer that supports them can be used with it.

The IPP URI varies - run "lpinfo -v" to see the URI for your printer as reported via DNS-SD.

It is also possible that AirPrint is disabled on your printer - you can try accessing the printer's web interface (probably "http://BRW346895A7159B.local") to see how things are configured.

[shrung]

Thanks for the additional explanation, the subtleties between these different protocols are making more sense now. I have gone to the web management page for the printer and verified AirPrint is enabled.

I will try to use the lpinfo -v command later tonight, but I believe that was one I ran without seeing any result, thus my suspicion that something is not working right with my Bonjour/mDNS/IGMP.

Using the IPP URI identified by a Chromebook does allow me to send print jobs, they just don't come out right, so that worries me that maybe I need a firmware update or something of that nature on my printer for this to work properly. I will try some more tonight, knowing that I should be using the IPP everywhere driver is helpful, I will dig into that more. I had been going the LPD and .ppd file route since that seemed to be printing almost correctly (just not ever stopping haha).

Thanks for your help so far!

[shrung]

This is the output of lpinfo -v:

network ipps
network lpd
network https
network ipp
file cups-pdf:/
network http
network socket
network smb
network lpd://BRW346895A7159B/BINARY_P1

It is only finding the lpd address automatically, but I am trying to use the ipp URI the chromebook found, just using the known IP address of the printer:

ipp://LOCAL_STATIC_IP_ADDRESS:631/ipp/print

This seems to connect to the printer, shows toner levels etc., but when I hit print test page, it just transfers data for a long time (light indicating the data is coming in at the printer for maybe ~5 minutes), and then the printer status in CUPS changes to Idle - 'Print job canceled at printer' and nothing prints :(

I've also tried printing a mostly blank web page from firefox, and the same thing happens.

If I use the ipp URI, but select the .ppd file as the driver, I get the same result as with the lpd URI, endless copies of the page being printed until I cancel it at the printer (I am getting close to 100 test pages at this point, lol)

Anything else I should try for the driver? Is there a way I can get the exact CUPS configuration details (including driver?) from the chromebook?

[michaelrsweet]

Hmm, something isn't working correctly. Try going to the printer's web page (using either the "BRW..." hostname or the IP address) to see if you can configure things...