Unable to locate printer - Brother MFC L8900CDW

no, when you connect via ipp you literally use the ip address of the printer, and you'll find that by doing a test print from the actual printer (or by going through the screens on the little printer screen, they're all a bit different - it'll be something like "print printer settings" to print it (thats for my brother)). Lets get it working first, but once you've got it figured, then always worthwhile making the printer ip static, so it doesn't change. Anyway, once you've got the ip address (something like 216.34.3.111 (four sets of digits, not the ones i just typed), you literally add it as: ipp://216.34.3.111 (again, those numbers will be different from yours!). then next screen/option, add the driver you've already installed (it should be listed)

actually, my printer says "machine info" and i print that and somewhere it'll have the ip address. To make it real easy to add a printer, go to firefox or another browser, and type http://localhost:631/ in the address bar. click administration (you might need to login, same as your computer login), click add printer, choose ipp (not ipps), continue, put the address in (ipp://etc), any name you want, continue, choose your make, continue, choose the actual driver (not ipp anywhere, but the one withj your printers model), add printer, set options for your printer paper size, then back in administration, you got manage printers where it'll be listed, can test print in there. its easier than the amount of typing i just did!

Hi Gavin,

I got you on the IP but i really appreciate the typing;) Anyway, i added this printer once again using manual URI and put ipp://192.168.1.2
It behaves exactly as the other one- i was able to print out the Printer Self test page, but this is the only thing that it can print. All other jobs i sent ended up showing 0 pages in the completed jobs section of print queue

ah, shoot! So in the web address way, are there any stuck jobs, and if so delete them. And it gives a self print from the interface, but doesn't from the likes of writer?

I’ll be honest, this is not the error message I was expecting.

Try a different driver; I think it’s worth a shot. I see there are a few different ones in the AUR related to this model of printer:

paru l8900cdw
1 aur/brother-mfc-l8900cdw 2:1.5.0-2 [+2 ~0.21]
    LPR and CUPS driver for the Brother MFC-L8900CDW
2 aur/brother-mfcl8900cdw-lpr 1.5.0-1 [+0 ~0.00]
    CUPS LPR driver:Brother MFC-L8900CDW:laser print copy scan fax
3 aur/brother-mfcl8900cdw-cups 1.5.0-1 [+0 ~0.00]
    CUPS wrapper:Brother MFC-L8900CDW:laser print copy scan fax
4 aur/brother-mfcl8900cdw-cups-bin 1.5.0-1 [+0 ~0.00]
    CUPS wrapper for Brother MFC-L8900CDW printer
5 aur/brother-mfcl8900cdw-lpr-bin 1.5.0-1 [+0 ~0.00]
    LPR driver for Brother MFC-L8900CDW printer
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This is the list i of completed jobs i get from web UI or from printer queue:

WebBrother-28 	Unknown 	Withheld 	1k 	Unknown 	completed at
Mon 04 Apr 2022 06:37:02 PM EDT 	  
WebBrother-27 	Unknown 	Withheld 	1k 	1 	completed at
Mon 04 Apr 2022 06:24:21 PM EDT 	  
WebBrother-25 	Unknown 	Withheld 	67k 	Unknown 	completed at
Mon 04 Apr 2022 06:21:28 PM EDT 	  
WebBrother-24 	Unknown 	Withheld 	1k 	Unknown 	canceled at
Mon 04 Apr 2022 06:20:45 PM EDT 
"Filter failed"	  

So there is a Test Page and there is a Print self test page. On this one goes through in any config - literally no matter how i configure the printer - directly or via network discovered it can execute only this command. But it fails to transfer over data for printer to print otherwise. I'm getting convinced it is a driver bug as CUPS is reporting pages unknown - pint queue says 0 pages for the same jobs.

BINGO!

I installed this package first: brother-mfc-l8900cdw 2:1.5.0-2 because i thought it was latest! But i should have gone for brother-mfcl8900cdw-cups 1.5.0-1
worked like a charm! Thank you!!

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@tbg @Gavin thank you very much for trying to help! Appreciate your time!

@tbg Seems like this particular pill is not that bitter after all;) Just a couple of wrong assumptions;)

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good stuff - that was going to be my next assumption (ref. incorrect driver). btw, the web interface you went to, that's the cups interface. Enjoy.

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