Installing the Brother MFC-9840CDW on Ubuntu

To install a Brother MFC 9840 CDW printer on Ubuntu, you must:

  1. Download the LPR driver from here
  2. Download the CUPS wrapper driver from here.
  3. Install them.

You can use these commands:


wget http://solutions.brother.com/Library/sol/printer/linux/rpmfiles/lpr_debian/mfc9840cdwlpr-1.0.0-7.i386.deb&lang=English_lpr
wget http://solutions.brother.com/Library/sol/printer/linux/rpmfiles/cups_wrapper/mfc9840cdwcups-1.0.0-7.i386.deb
sudo mkdir /var/spool/lpd
sudo mkdir /usr/share/cups/model
sudo chmod 777 /usr/share/cups/model
sudo dpkg -i --force-all --force-architecture mfc9840cdwlpr-1.0.0-7.i386.deb
sudo dpkg -i --force-all --force-architecture mfc9840cdwcups-1.0.0-7.i386.deb
sudo aa-complain cupsd

UPDATE – 22ND NOVEMBER 2008 – ALTERNATIVE METHOD
One blog reader, Hans, has commented that you can just use synaptic to install the printer drivers. I haven’t tried this myself so I would be interested to hear how others get on using this method. Please post a comment if it worked for you!

  • Open up Synaptic Package Manager.
  • Search for 9840 and install the packages.
  • Set it up under System > Printers.

14 thoughts on “Installing the Brother MFC-9840CDW on Ubuntu”

  2. Hi

    I tried your explanation on Kubuntu, and it worked flawlessly.

    Thanks for putting it up on the net 🙂

    Good luck to you,
    philipp

  4. I used your explanation in Ubuntu 8.10 for mfc5490cn also. I neglected to include the –force-all, part, however. I see that I also neglected the last sudo aa-complain cupsd command. But I can print perfectly. Should I go back and try to redo this to more perfectly follow your plan?

    Thanks for the only adequate explanation available.

  5. One easier way is to use synaptic. Just search for 9840 and install the packages.

    Set it up with System->Printers If you have problems with access to the printer use http:((localhost:631, set the password in CUPS (adminsitartors one) and start the printer.

  6. Awesome… I’ve had this for about a week and couldn’t get it installed using the instructions on brother’s site. Btw, I am on a 64-bit CPU running 64-bit Hardy Heron, 2.6.24-21 kernel.

  7. Had to rebuild my system this weekend. I tried the alternative method this time (Synaptec >> search “9840” >> install BOTH brother-cups-wrapper-ac and brother-lpr-drivers-ac >> System >> Administration >> Printing >> add printer >> bash >> sudo aa-complain cupsd >> sudo /etc/init.d/cupsys restart) and everything worked great

  8. synaptic worked for me too, installed a mfc-7220 to jaunty 64 bit….tried methods shown at brother and ubuntu forums first without success, synaptic worked right off and was much easier

  10. used the synaptic approach to install the 9840 into jaunty. worked perfectly, and in no time at all.

    most excellent.

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