Network scan with Brother MFC

I have a Brother MFC-J615W printer & scanner connected to Wi-fi router by LAN. Also, just upgraded to Ubuntu 18.04 (Hooray ;).

Already in 17.10 I had the problem, printer drivers work fine (not without a fight), but whatever I do can't get scanner to work. I have read every manual out there:

• from Brother website
• from SANE
• every related question on AskUbuntu

I really don't know what to do next. I'm a student and scanner is very important to me, considering going back to disgraceful Windows just for that reason.

Thanks in advance, Gal.

2 Answers

One needs several steps to get a Brother Scanner; if one uses the install script, it does seem to cover some or all of those steps; Brother provide an FAQ and from that

1) sudo apt install libusb-0.1-4 ..even if networked do this

2) copy files under /usr/lib64/ to /usr/lib/.As the MFC-J615W is a brscan3,

sudo cp /usr/lib64/libbrscandec3.so.1.0.0 /usr/lib
sudo cp /usr/lib64/sane/libsane-brother3.so.1.0.7 /usr/lib/sane
sudo cp /usr/lib64/sane/libsane-brother3.so.1 /usr/lib/sane
sudo cp /usr/lib64/sane/libsane-brother3.so /usr/lib/sane
sudo cp /usr/lib64/libbrscandec3.so /usr/lib
sudo cp /usr/lib64/libbrscandec3.so.1 /usr/lib

3) for a usb connection, one needs a udev rule; and you download a tiny file brother-udev-rule-type1-1.0.0-1.all.deb

4) for network config, Brother offer this

brsaneconfig3 -a name=(name your device) model=(model name) ip=xx.xx.xx.xx

They suggest to check it worked, do this

brsaneconfig3 -q | grep (name of your device)

Does any of this help?

One additional note: if connecting by network (wifi or otherwise), opening UDP 54925 on your firewall is likely to contribute to lower blood pressures.