Print errors for Brother HL-5340D on Ubuntu 12.10 / 13.04

Question

Our printer (Brother HL-5340D) does not print correctly on Ubuntu 12.10/13.04. Almost every print-job looks like this:

example of faulty print job

As you can see, the printer is possessed :). Despite that, everything works fine on 12.04 and older versions. The drivers (Brother HL-5350 DN Br-Script3) are the same for 12.04 and 12.10/13.04.

Test-pages are printed correctly. Sometimes we also get an extra page that looks like this:

ERROR:
undefined
OFFENDING COMMAND:
....Undefined
STACK:
(numbers)

How can I fix this behavior?

Answer 1

Install LPR driver:

http://www.brother.com/cgi-bin/agreement/agreement.cgi?dlfile=http://www.brother.com/pub/bsc/linux/dlf/hl5340dlpr-2.0.3-1.i386.deb&lang=English_lpr

and install the cupswrapper driver:

http://www.brother.com/cgi-bin/agreement/agreement.cgi?dlfile=http://www.brother.com/pub/bsc/linux/dlf/cupswrapperHL5340D-2.0.4-1.i386.deb&lang=English_gpl

All the information is available on the official web:

http://welcome.solutions.brother.com/bsc/public_s/id/linux/en/download_prn.html#HL-5340D

Answer 2

I was hitting this exact same issue today when trying to print PDFs. I was also using the Br-Script3 driver but switched to the Brother MFC9840CDW Foomatic/Postscript driver.

I would rather use the (correct) former driver, but it appears to be an issue that has not been resolved and this is an adequate workaround for my purposes.

Answer 3

For us on Ubuntu 12.10 it wouldn't print anything (not even the test page) and would blink red/orange the bottom 4 lights when we tried to print. We resolved it by switching drivers to a generic driver (the Linux ones listed on Brother's website didn't appear to work, maybe I messed up the install) and even double-side printing works now! Ubuntu seems to recognize the printer and automatically add using the Br-Script3 driver.

To change it, since I have Cinnamon, I went into cinnamon-settings (gnome-control-center does NOT appear to let you change the driver associated with an automatically recognized printer), Printers > HL-5340D right click, Printer Properties > Settings, Make and Model, Change > Select Printer from Database, Generic, Forward > PCL 6/PCL SL > Generic PCL 6/PCL XL Printer -CUPS+Gutenprint v5.2.9.

I have included a screenshot of the appropriate settings. Cinnamon Settings is what you want, on the left/bottom. Gnome-control-center on the right doesn't work.

Edit: my friend got it to work without Cinnamon by going to localhost:631 and then roughly do the same procedure (select the printer, Administration > Modify Printer, ...).

Answer 4

I have the HL-5250DN, and I've run across this myself. It's a pain. I haven't had the time (and I usually just use my windows box instead), but you might try one of the HP PCL drivers instead. They've worked for me on Windows when I've had a PC that didn't have the brother drivers installed, and not a lot of time. The older the PCL driver is, the better your chances will be (but fewer features will be supported)