Brother printer MFC-J497DW

OldMac · 2026-05-21T01:34:51+0100

Trying to get the above printer working with CUPS. Brother says any driver with generic Postscript/PCL should work. I've tried several gutenprint drivers with no exact match. The scanner works.

Current connection:

Code:

socket://192.168.1.66:9100

I get the following cups error_log when printing cups test page:

Code:

 CreateProfile failed: org.freedesktop.ColorManager.AlreadyExists:profile id \'Brother_MFC-J497DW-Gray..\' already exists

Code:

[Job 8] The printer is not responding.

The access_log says:

Code:

"POST /printers/bro HTTP/1.1" 200 408 Print-Job successful-ok

The printer lights up and says "receiving data" and cups shows the job completed but nothing prints and printer goes back to sleep.

I've tried several different configurations ie.. ipp, ipps, http, https and most of the gutenprint drivers. seems like I'm close but I'm out of ideas.

sko · 2026-05-21T13:28:03+0100

Pretty much all networked brother printers are capable of hp *jet emulation, i.e. they can be used with generic hp laser/colorjet PCL drivers. Other than that, it may also be capable of BRscript.
Maybe check the web interface of the printer for settings regarding HP *jet or BRScript (and ipp if you're at it - on some printer models it is disabled by default)

scottro · 2026-05-21T14:07:37+0100

I'm going to again spam my own page. It's for a different model Brother but should work. https://srobb.net/cliscanprint.html

If you're just printing pdfs you can often just use netcat and leave cups out of it.

Code:

nc 192.168.1.66 9100 < myfile.pdf

Maturin · 2026-05-21T14:16:45+0100

OldMac said:
Brother says any driver with generic Postscript/PCL should work.

If a printer can Postscript you don't need CUPS.
But I cannot tell if your model can PS.
And as scottro mentions, if it can PS and is not over 40 years old it's almost certain it can understand PDF, too.

shepper · 2026-05-21T14:37:07+0100

OldMac said:
Brother says any driver with generic Postscript/PCL should work

Can you share where you got this info? Websearches for MFC-J497 and linux indicate 32bit compatility drivers need to be installed. Personally, I'm skeptical that PS/PCL is supported. Brothers low end printers tend to be gdi. That said, what I found at https://www.brother-usa.com/products/mfcj497dw#specification indicates Airprint support.

https://davidandrzejewski.com/2015/12/26/make-any-printer-airprint-compatible-on-freebsd/

scottro · 2026-05-21T15:35:36+0100

For the the heck of it, it might be worth trying the anywhere driver. You could try installing the printer with

Code:

lpadmin -p BrotherMFC -E -v ipp://192.168.1.66/ipp/print -m everywhere

The BrotherMFC is a name I chose, you can use whatever you want. You may need sudo or doas for the lpadmn command

CeXP1917 · 2026-05-21T15:52:58+0100

scottro said:
lpadmin -p BrotherMFC -E -v ipp://192.168.1.66/ipp/print -m everywhere

and sometimes printing need this:

Code:

lpadmin -p BrotherMFC -o pdftopsrenderer-default=gs

scottro · 2026-05-21T16:42:19+0100

I'd never heard of that in that place--that is, I know of pdftops, but never ran into having to use that in installing the printer. Good to know, thanks.

shepper · 2026-05-21T19:53:26+0100

Airprint is not PostScript or HP Printer command language. My understanding is it is a standard that produces a rasterized image of your print job. Printers just need enough smarts to deposit the ink as per the standard image.

If you look at the content of an old Postscript or 1.4 PDF (less the file), you see specs for page size, fonts:style/size...., print density, duplex tumpled or not and more. Postscript printer use to have an Adobe Licensed ROM that did all the processing at the printer. With airprint, all the processing is done on your system.

Cheaper but a big break for those of us who love our old Postscript workhorses.