Great howto.
Brother DCP-540CN
Following the instructions helped me easily setup my new Brother DCP-540CN Network Printer/Scanner for Ubuntu Edgy (Gnome). The device sits on the network and serves a mix of Linux and Windows PCs. The installation for linux was completed without the need to connect via usb. Detailed below is the routine for the DCP-540CN for NETWORK cobbled together from the brother website FAQ, this post, and what I had to change.
NOTE: This howto now tested and working for GUTSY 7.10 
and drivers updated to latest versions
Prep
Download all the necessary drivers from the Brother site
Code:
http://solutions.brother.com/Library/sol/printer/linux/rpmfiles/lpr_others/dcp540cnlpr-1.0.0-9.i386.deb
Code:
http://solutions.brother.com/Library/sol/printer/linux/rpmfiles/cups_wrapper/dcp540cncupswrapper-1.0.0-10.i386.deb
Code:
http://solutions.brother.com/Library/sol/printer/linux/rpmfiles/sane_debian/brscan2-0.2.4-0.i386.deb
Use Synaptic to install csh (C Shell) and sane/xsane from the repositories (not needed for Gutsy as Xsane installed by default)
Code:
sudo aptitude install csh sane xsane # not needed for Gutsy
Create a new directory in /var/spool/lpd (Edgy needs lpd directory which is not present)
Code:
sudo mkdir /var/spool/lpd
(Edgy/Gutsy uses CUPS and file wants CUPSYS – link)
Code:
sudo ln -s /etc/init.d/cupsys /etc/init.d/cups
SWITCH OFF THE PRINTER (This seems to be the most important point that caused failure on installation previously, I will tell Brother about this!)SWITCH OFF THE PRINTER
Installation
Is your printer switched off?
Using Gdebi Installer or command line, install the lpr and wrapper packages in this order (important!)
Code:
sudo dpkg -i --force-all dcp540cnlpr-1.0.0-9.i386.deb
Code:
sudo dpkg -i --force-all dcp540cncupswrapper-1.0.0-10.i386.deb
OK, you can now switch on the printer.
If you want, have a quick look in System>Administration>Printing to see if the printer is there, set it as default. Don't try any printing yet
Open your web browser and go to the CUPS printer interface
Code:
http://localhost:631
You need to know the IP address of the printer. The printer can tell you this (check out the instruction booklet as the command combinations may be different for different models.)
Click "Manage Printers."
If everything went well, you should see your printer in the list.
Select "Modify Printer." The important step is to select the device for the printer. Choose
Code:
LPD/LPR Host or Printer
Enter
Code:
lpd://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/binary_p1
in the window (where the xxx's are the printer's IP address).
For ppd enter
Code:
/usr/share/cups/model/brdcp540cn.ppd
You should get a "printer configured successfully" page, then be return to the main printer page
Send it a test page. You can configure "Printer Options" from CUPS.
With any luck, your printer will spark into life and print!
Now open up a document in gedit/whatever and test print again.
Go back into System>Administration>Printing and check/change any printer options you might want.
Note: when I printed a test page from CUPS, even though it printed fine, the print job still lingered on the page, I had to delete this job from the printer queue when I went to test print from gedit.
Note: do not appear to be getting any print settings coming through, e.g. fast/fast normal apart from page size
[EDIT] Fast and Fast Normal print settings started working after a reboot!
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Scanner
Advice is to have printer switched off again, although i didn't switch off and the installation went flawlessly. To be on safe side, suggest switch off while installing drivers.
Again for a Network setup only:
You have already installed sane and xsane
Run xsane in a terminal just to check it is up and working (it won't show the scanner we want yet)
install the Brother scanner driver either using Gdebi or command line:
Code:
sudo aptitude install brscan2-0.2.4-0.i386.deb
(you need the brsan2 version)
To use your machine as a network scanner, you need to set a friendly name, model name and IP address or node name for the driver:
using IP address:
Code:
brsaneconfig2 -a name=FRIENDLY-NAME model=MODEL-NAME ip=xx.xx.xx.xx
or using node name
Code:
brsaneconfig2 -a name=FRIENDLY-NAME model=MODEL-NAME nodename=BRN_xxxxx
Example
Code:
brsaneconfig2 -a name=BROTHER-SCANNER model=DCP-540CN ip=xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
You can check the result by running the command:
which should give you an output like this: (after printing a long list of device names)
Code:
Devices on network
0 BROTHER-SCANNER "DCP-540CN" I:xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
Now run Xsane
And scan something, click Acquire Preview and there you go...
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Note: Uninstalling printer and scanner drivers to start again:
This is a pain, "dpkg -r" gets quite upset about trying to uninstall these drivers.
To uninstall the printer drivers go to:
Code:
cd /var/lib/dpkg/info/
and scroll through the files to find a set of files that start with "dcp540cn*"
Using root nautilus, delete all these files, then in terminal
Code:
sudo dpkg -r --force-remove-reinstreq dcp540cncupswrapper
sudo dpkg -r --force-remove-reinstreq dcp540cnlpr
To uninstall the scanner driver:
Code:
cd /var/lib/dpkg/info/
and scroll through the files to find a set of files that start with "brscan2*"
Using root nautilus, delete all these files, then in terminal
Code:
sudo dpkg -r --force-remove-reinstreq brscan2
All this worked for me, and I hope it will work for you, but you attempt all this at your own risk
Thanks to Brother, and all the contributors on the forum for their work and heartache in sorting these printers out
