Although the below directions work on Raspberry Pi, they should also work on any other system. The brother-provided driver does not run on arm processors[1] like the raspberry pi, so we will instead use the open-source brlaser[2].

Edit: This setup should also work on the following Brother monochrome printers, just substitute the name where needed:

• brlaser 4, just install from package manager: DCP-1510, DCP-1600 series, DCP-7030, DCP-7040, DCP-7055, DCP-7055W, DCP-7060D, DCP-7065DN, DCP-7080, DCP-L2500D series, HL-1110 series, HL-1200 series, HL-L2300D series, HL-L2320D series, HL-L2340D series, HL-L2360D series, HL-L2375DW series, HL-L2390DW, MFC-1910W, MFC-7240, MFC-7360N, MFC-7365DN, MFC-7420, MFC-7460DN, MFC-7840W, MFC-L2710DW series
• brlaser 6, follow full steps below: DCP-L2520D series, DCP-L2520DW series, DCP-L2540DW series (unclear, may only need 4), HL-2030 series, HL-2140 series, HL-2220 series, HL-2270DW series, HL-5030 series

Also, all these steps are command-line based, and you can do the whole setup headless (no monitor or keyboard) using SSH.

1. Get the latest raspbian image up and running on your pi, with working networking. At the time of writing the latest version is 10 (buster)–once 11+ is released this will be much easier. I have written a convenience tool[3] for this step, but you can also find any number of standard guides. Log into your raspberry pi to run the following steps
2. (Option 1, not recommended) Upgrade to Debian 11 bullseye (current testing release). This is because we need brlaser 6, not brlaser 4 from debian 10 buster (current stable release). Then, install the print system and driver[2]:
   sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install lpr cups ghostscript printer-driver-brlaser
3. (Option 2, recommended) Install ‘brlaser’ from source.
   1. Install print system and build tools
      sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install lpr cups ghostscript git cmake libcups2-dev libcupsimage2-dev
   2. Download the source
      wget https://github.com/pdewacht/brlaser/archive/v6.tar.gz && tar xf v6.tar.gz
   3. Build the source and install
      cd brlaser-6 && cmake . && make && sudo make install
4. Plug in the printer, verify that it shows up using sudo lsusb or sudo dmesg. (author’s shameful note: if you’re not looking, I find it surprisingly easy to plug USB B into the ethernet jack)
5. Install the printer.
   1. Run sudo lpinfo -v | grep usb to get the device name of your printer. It will be something like usb://Brother/HL-2270DW%20series?serial=D4N207646
      If you’re following this in the hopes that it will work on another printer, run sudo lpinfo -m | grep HL-2270DW to get the PPD file for your printer.
   2. Install and enable the printer
      sudo lpadmin -p HL-2270DW -E -v usb://Brother/HL-2270DW%20series?serial=D4N207646 -m drv:///brlaser.drv/br2270dw.ppd
      Note, -p HL-2270DW is just the name I’m using for the printer, feel free to name the printer whatever you like.
   3. Enable the printer (did not work for me)
      sudo lpadmin -p HL-2270DW -E
   4. (Optional) Set the printer as the default destination
      sudo lpoptions -d HL-2270DW
   5. (Optional) Set any default options you want for the printer
      sudo lpoptions -p HL-2270DW -o media=letter
6. Test the printer (I’m in the USA so we use ‘letter’ size paper, you can substitute whichever paper you have such as ‘a4’).
   1. echo "Hello World" | PRINTER=HL-2270DW lp -o media=letter (Make sure anything prints)
   2. cat <test document> | PRINTER=HL-2270DW lp -o media=letter (Print an actual test page to test alignment, etc)
   3. cat <test document> | PRINTER=HL-2270DW lp -o media=letter -o sides=two-sided-short-edge (Make sure duplex works if you plan to use that)
7. (Optional) Set up an scp print server, so any file you copy to a /printme directory gets printed. For the 2270DW, I also have a /printme.duplex directory.

Links
[1] brother driver does not work on arm (also verified myself)
[2] brlaser, the open-source Brother printer driver
[3] rpi-setup, my convenience command-line script for headless raspberry pi setup
[4] stack overflow answer on how to install one package from testing in debian

So have you ever used a web printer and it was great?

…

Yeah, me neither. It’s probably possible on windows, but try to add more than one OS to the network and it’s horrible. And actually printing is a major pain in Linux anyway. Theoretically ‘lp’ and the like have no problem with remote printers, but I wanted something I understood. So today I’m going to post my setup I use instead.

I have a computer physically connected to the printer. Let’s call it ‘printserver’. On that server there is a folder, /printme, which is constantly monitored by inode. Any file added to that directory is printed.

Suppose I downloaded cutecats.pdf and I want to print it. Then I run:

scp cutecats.pdf printserver:/printme

And voila, the cute cats get printed.

Here’s the setup for the server:

1. Get the printer to work. This is the hard step.
2. Make a directory /printme. Add any missing users, add a new group called ‘print’ and add everyone who needs to print to that, etc.

3. Set up /printme to be a tmpfs with the sticky bit set. (So we don’t fill up the hard drive)

   /etc/fstab
   tmpfs           /printme        tmpfs   rw,nodev,nosuid,noexec,uid=nobody,gid=print,mode=1770,size=1G  0       0
   

4. Install incron and add this to the incrontab (of user ‘print’ or ‘sudo’):

   # incrontab -l
   /printme IN_CLOSE_WRITE,IN_MOVED_TO lp $@/$#
   

   Note that this will preserve files after they’re printed, because my server is low-volume enough I don’t need to care.

(From Stack Overflow)

1. 64 bit requirements for pre-made binaries:

   sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386
   sudo apt-get update
   sudo apt-get install libstdc++6:i386 libxml2:i386 zlib1g:i386 libpopt0:i386
   

2. Install CUPS

   sudo apt-get update
   sudo apt-get install cups
   

3. Download DriverGo to http://support-au.canon.com.au/contents/AU/EN/0100459602.html and download driver

   64e2d00f0c8764d4032687d29e88f06727d88825 Linux_CAPT_PrinterDriver_V270_uk_EN.tar.gz
   

4. Extract and enter extracted folder

   tar xf Linux_CAPT_PrinterDriver_V270_uk_EN.tar.gz
   cd Linux_CAPT_PrinterDriver_V270_uk_EN
   

5. Install the custom drivers and ccpd

   sudo dpkg -i 64-bit_Driver/Debian/*.deb
   

6. Add the printer to CUPS and ccpd

   sudo lpadmin -p CANON_LBP6000 -m CNCUPSLBP6018CAPTS.ppd -v ccp://localhost:59687
   sudo lpadmin -p CANON_LBP6000 -E
   
   sudo ccpdadmin -p CANON_LBP6000 -o /dev/usb/lp0
   

7. Set the default printer

   sudo lpoptions -d CANON_LBP6000
   

8. Set ccpd to start on boot

   sudo update-rc.d ccpd defaults