On the “Before the installation” page (web archive), we can read:
Connecting more than one machine with the same model number is not supported.
This is not supported, but is this functionnal neverthless?
There is 391 printer models supported on the Printer binary driver download page (web archive), is various drivers of different models can be installed simultaneously?
For information, for both printers, scanners and pcfaxes product, there is 765 Debian-compatible drivers package (699 .deb, 66 lonely .ppd).
- Can we install one driver next to the other drivers without risk?
Some drivers can’t be installed alongside others. For example, the hl4150cdnlpr-1.1.1-5.i386.deb driver run a script at postinst time named /usr/local/Brother/Printer/hl4150cdn/inf/setupPrintcapij that writes the printer name hl4150cdn into a file named /etc/printcap. If another driver do the same, that means that we can’t use two different printer models with this kind of driver.
Also this driver assume that the Brother printer is known as /dev/usb/lp0. If there is more than one USB printer plugged on the same computer and the Brother one is not the first USB printer device, the driver will not work.
Some other driver use named path, for example cupswrapperMFC7820N-2.0.1 assume that the USB device is usb://Brother/MFC-7820N using usb:/dev/usb/lp0 only as a fallbacck. Because the existence of this fallback, the driver assumes that the printer is used even when the USB name is not available on the system, so the driver can’t be installed if the printer is not really used.
Some printers (like the TD-2020) have two drivers for SI unit (mm) or Imperial units (inch), those drivers overwrite others.
Installation of a .deb runs a script that configure the printer, so we can’t pre install a driver of a printer not owned by the user.
- Is some driver package share same binary (like
rawtobr3orbraddprinter) with different (newer) and probably incompatible versions?