[RESOLVED] Printer stopped working (Ubuntu)

My networked Brother MFC-L2750DW printer/scanner worked perfectly with my Framework running Ubuntu out of the box with zero set up.

About 3 weeks ago the printer stopped working. It no longer shows up in the settings menu. When the Framework is connected via ethernet full functionality is restored. On returning to wifi the printer vanishes.

Ubuntu 22.04 LTS
Framework 13th Gen

The printer remains available to other devices over wifi on the same network, including another machine running a Ubuntu based distro.

It seems that DNS-SD and IPP and no longer visible to the machine over wifi.

When on wifi:

penguin@framework:~$ lpinfo -v
file cups-brf:/
network ipps
network beh
network https
network lpd
network socket
network ipp
network http
direct hp
direct hpfax

While connected to the router via ethernet

penguin@framework:~$ lpinfo -v
file cups-brf:/
network ipps
network beh
network https
network lpd
network ipp
network socket
network http
direct hp
direct hpfax
network dnssd://Brother%20MFC-L250DW%20series._ipp._tcp.local/?uid=UID_REDACTED
network ipp://ipp//Brother%20MFC-L2750DW%20series._ipp._tcp.local/

Because I hadn’t made any changes to the Framework besides running system updates, I’d assumed this was a router issue. Unfortunately I recently replaced the router and I’m still getting this behavior.

Can anyone see what I’ve done wrong?

Mind you, it’s been a “minute” since I have done troubleshooting with printers. So I may be rusty.

I owned an HP all in one that worked on Wifi, occasionally. At the time, the issue was the IP address and it constantly changing.

  • Might be worth checking var/log/cups/error_log to see if anything stands out.

  • Check journalctl -u cups for hints on outstanding bugs.

  • Worth trying a static IP for the printer.

  • When provided drivers from the distros fail, I recommend going to the vendor. You can indeed, get a deb package from Brother.

  • Worth testing against another install, sans the updates. If you have second NVMe available, swap it, install a clean version of 22.04 onto it without updates, see if it works there. If it does, make a note of it. Now update this drive with updates, then try the driver package mentioned above. I assume Brother has made sure that this still works.

Thanks so much. Assigning the printer a static IP was the step I needed to fix this issue.

I had to install the Brother drivers as well but by assigning a static IP I was able to point the installer at the IP during the driver setup. I’d tried installing the drivers prior to posting but as the printer didn’t show up at the installer prompts I’d been unable to get it working.

No idea of what broke the system in the first place, but delighted to have the printer working again.

Fantastic news! Glad to hear the static IP resolved the issue.