Ubuntu

"12.04 error" activating Gutenprint driver for Brother MFC-8910DW

Asked by L Peter Deutsch

Using System Settings -> Printing to install my Brother MFC-8910DW printer on Ubuntu 12.04. It found a Gutenprint driver for this device. I clicked "Activate", and after thinking for a while, it gave me a window that said "Ubuntu 12.04 had an error" or something like that. I asked for details, and the only item on the page was "jockey-gtk." I closed the window, but I was back to where I was before -- it wanted me to click "Activate". How do I install this driver, since the GUI doesn't seem to work?

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L Peter Deutsch
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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#1

Did you try the deb files from the Brother website. They do make debs for their printers.

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L Peter Deutsch (lpd-lp) said : 		#2

After installing all the current system upgrades and trying again, I discovered that the problem (logged by 'sudo apt-get upgrade', which I had to run manually because of yet another system bug) was:

W: GPG error: http://www.openprinting.org lsb3.1 Release: The following signatures couldn't be verified because the public key is not available: NO_PUBKEY 7A4B44C2D2A2203E

Because of this, I suspect none of the drivers from openprinting.org can be loaded. This is a bug. If the drivers can't be loaded, System Settings -> Printing shouldn't be offering them.

I solved the problem -- or at least appear to have solved it -- by using the MFC-8890DW driver, which I guess is included in the Foomatic package (maybe just as a PPD).

I have to say I am not impressed by the quality of this distro. This is the third serious problem I've encountered in trying to install 12.04 LTS, which is a year and a half old and should have this kind of thing fixed by now. The answers I've gotten from Launchpad Answers have been very helpful, but IMO they shouldn't have been needed.