# [solved] Multifunction Laser Printer Choice

## der bastler

It's time for me to buy a new multifunction printer. Up until now I used inkjets, but now I want a black/white laser printer. Usually that hardware choice would not be a problem, since in the past I always chose HP because of hplip.

But I learned that other vendors more or less also kind of support Linux. So I searched (requirements: b/w Laser, ADF, Duplex, LAN, 150-250 EUR) and these are my results:

Samsung Xpress M2885FW

Brother MFC-L2740DW (seems to be a DADF)

HP LaserJet Pro MFP M127fw

HP LaserJet Pro MFP M225dn

I'd prefer the Brother. Does anyone has any experience with this device? Will I be able to use it (print, scan) over wired network (recently installe) with my Gentoo machines?

Update: See below, chose the Brother 2720.

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## cboldt

I just replaced an old workhorse (HP 2100) with a cheap Brother print-only HL-L2320D.  I had to download a driver that is not in the standard portage tree (brother-genml1-bin), but otherwise the change was possible.  I had a mangled cups installation which took some time to sort out, and getting the printer to work across the network with Windows-based computers was another chore.

I think you'll be able to use the printer and scanner.  It may take a little more effort to get the functions to work, but if you are determined, you can get it done.

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## saellaven

I've got a Brother MFC-L2700DW at home. Everything works on it, though I had to pull in drivers from the brother-overlay overlay.

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## der bastler

I've bought the Brother MFC-L2720DW.

To me as a bastler/tinkerer, it was a disappointment... everything worked out of the box!   :Very Happy: 

I just had to add the overlay "brother-overlay" in order to emerge the following packages:

net-print/brother-mfcl2720dw-bin

media-gfx/brother-mfcl2720dw-bin

Afterwards the CUPS option to add a new printer via IPP worked.  Only flaw: I had not enabled avahi support, thus I had to set the printer's IP address (192.168.1.3) manually.

For the scanner I had to issue the following command to get it recognised:

```
brsaneconfig4 -a name=MFC-L2720DW model="MFC-L2720DW" ip=192.168.1.3
```

I even installed brscan-skey (zx2c4 overlay), a small tool provided by Brother that allows using the scan controls of the printer (scan to file, scan to email, etc.). I'd like to put it on my server, but I dislike the close-source nature of the tool. Did a wireshark dump of the conversation between tool and printer -- perhaps I can write my own tool...

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## der bastler

 *der bastler wrote:*   

> I even installed brscan-skey (zx2c4 overlay), a small tool provided by Brother that allows using the scan controls of the printer (scan to file, scan to email, etc.). I'd like to put it on my server, but I dislike the close-source nature of the tool. Did a wireshark dump of the conversation between tool and printer -- perhaps I can write my own tool...

 

Done. Created brotherscankeyd.py, available via GitHub:

https://github.com/FrankAbelbeck/brotherscankeyd

Needs some testing, though...

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