Getting a Brother MFC scanner working via the network with 64 bit Ubuntu 11.10/Linux Mint 12
This is how we got the scanner functionality of our MFC-J415W and MFC-8880DN "multi-function printers" working from our collection Ubuntu 11.10 and Linux Mint 12 (RC) desktops and laptops talking nicely to one another.
1. First get the brscan3 and brscan-key tools, which installs the brsaneconfig3 tool:
2. Install them with this:
sudo dpkg -i brscan3-0.2.11-4.amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i brscan-skey-0.2.1-3.amd64.deb
Then define the scanner on your system (note, no spaces allowed in the values assigned... and capitalisation seems important) - to find the IP you might need to go to the scanner, hit "Menu" and find the network TCP/IP settings. The value below is correct as of today (22 Nov 2011):
brsaneconfig3 -a name=EgressiveScanner model=MFC-8880DN ip=Your-printer-IP
This should result in a scanner definition - confirm it here (should be at the bottom of the list in a separate section, probably number 0) (Note: it creates a signature for the device in /usr/local/Brother/sane/brsanenetdevice3.cfg - you can check it here to make sure it's right...):
brsaneconfig3 -q
Then (critical bit) create this links - for some reason the 32 bit and 64 bit compatibility scripts have fallen down here (probably due to the non-standard nature of the Brother deb packages):
sudo ln -sf /usr/lib64/libbrscandec3.so* /usr/lib
sudo ln -sf /usr/lib64/sane/libsane-brother3.so* /usr/lib/sane
Then you should be able to run a scanner app like xsane or simple-scan, and it should "just work".
If that doesn't do it, you might need to add your user to the "scanner" group. Check the groups you're in by running
id
at the command line when you're logged in. If you add yourself to the new group, you'll have to run "newgrp" or log out and in again to get the group membership to take effect.
If you mess up, you can remove any of them with
brsaneconfig3 -r [name you entered above]
Source:
http://welcome.solutions.brother.com/bsc/public_s/id/linux/en/faq_scn.ht...