How do I find a printer driver from a vendor's install?

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Level 1

27 points

How do I find a printer driver from a vendor's install?

I have a Brother P-Touch 2700 label maker. I downloaded and installed the OS X 10.5.x printer driver from the Brother site. It came as a .dmg file. The P-Touch Editor installed separately. When started, it claims the driver is not installed. It's not in the list of installed printers either.

I'm guessing it's not where the Editor expects to find it. How do I find the driver? I've looked in Library>Printers>Brother. To confuse matters, I also have a Brother laser printer.

The Brother support folks have not yet responded to my question.

Any help appreciated.

harv47

Mac Pro (model 3,1), Mac OS X (10.5.8), 4 GB RAM, 2 500 GB WD RE3 HD, 20 in CinDisp, 1 TB TM, iPhone 3G, iPad 32GB 3G

Posted on Jan 20, 2011 4:09 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Matt Broughton

Level 5

4,985 points

Jan 20, 2011 6:05 PM in response to harv47

I took a look at the driver package. It installs three items in the /Library/Printers/Brother directory:
P-touch Utilities folder
PT2700PDE.plugin
P2700PM.plugin

It appears that Brother really goofed on the ownership and permissions for the files. You should open the Terminal application (/Applications/Utilities). Copy and paste the following into a Terminal window and then hit the Return key:


sudo chown -R root:admin /Library/Printers/Brother

You will be prompted for your password. After you enter your password, hit the Return key again. Make sure the P-touch is connected to your computer and turned on. Then try using the Print & Fax preference pane to add the printer.

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Answer 2

harv47 Author

Level 1

27 points

Jan 20, 2011 9:13 PM in response to Matt Broughton

Hi Matt,

My Library | Printers | Brother directory has a P-Touch Utilities folder. It contains three files:
P-touch Printer Utility.app, PT2700PDE.plugin, and PT2700PM.plugin. (The last two are the same as your list.)

My attempt to run that command produced this:

Last login: Thu Jan 20 22:55:21 on ttys000
Macintosh:~ harv$ sudo chown -R root:admin /Library/Printers/Brother
harv is not in the sudoers file. This incident will be reported.
Macintosh:~ harv$

Is the password to be entered for the admin user, or for user harv?

Thanks,

harv47

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Answer 3

roam

Level 6

13,631 points

Jan 21, 2011 2:56 AM in response to harv47

Is the password to be entered for the admin user, or for user harv?

If harv is not an Admin user, the error that occurred is expected.

This procedure should be done from an Admin users account and of course with their password.

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Answer 4

harv47 Author

Level 1

27 points

Jan 21, 2011 4:39 PM in response to roam

As an admin user, the command apparently ran successfully. At least there were no error messages. The P-Touch was then powered on and connected.

The printer now appears in the Preferences Print & Fax printer list. However, trying to add it as an available printer produces the message "An error occurred while trying to add the selected printer. Error:-9672."

I'll try searching for that message number.

Thanks,

harv47

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Answer 5

Jan 22, 2011 8:51 AM in response to harv47

That seems to be a common error and seems to be mostly associated with HP printers.

Try resetting the printing system. See http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.6/en/14001.html

Try adding the printer when logged in to an administrator's account rather than your standard account.

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Answer 6

harv47 Author

Level 1

27 points

Jan 22, 2011 10:15 AM in response to Matt Broughton

Matt Broughton wrote:
That seems to be a common error and seems to be mostly associated with HP printers.

I found any number of people asking about it, for many different makes and models. No one seemed to have a solution, though.

Try resetting the printing system. See http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.6/en/14001.html

I notice that item is for 10.6. I'm using 10.5.8. Also, it seems like a drastic solution.

Try adding the printer when logged in to an administrator's account rather than your standard account.

I tried that first. I even downloaded new copies of the editor and the printer drivers. But the printer didn't appear in the list. Oops. I just realized I didn't use the shown command suggested earlier, to fix the permissions. Gotta do that.

Later,

harv47

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Answer 7

imatsig

Level 1

7 points

Jan 31, 2011 1:09 PM in response to Matt Broughton

The internet is a wonderful place for very obscure information Matt's sudo chown command worked for me, and I can now print on my Brother P-Touch 2730.

The Brother printer driver install software had finished by saying it was successful but it lied and there was no sign of the printer in System Prefs / Print & Fax and the P-Touch editor complained that there was no printer installed but Brother PT-2730 has now magically appeared, brilliant.
many thanks
Mick London UK

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Answer 8

harv47 Author

Level 1

27 points

Jan 31, 2011 7:39 PM in response to harv47

Success! The key was doing the chown command from an admin account. When I opened Printers and Fax preferences, the PT2700 was in the list (as the default!). I changed that, then logged in to my user account, and it was in the list of printers. I've been happily creating sample labels.

BTW, and definitely off-topic, the P-Touch Editor has lots of functionality in a truly awful interface.

Thanks to everyone who helped!

harv47

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Answer 9

Jan 31, 2011 8:24 PM in response to harv47

Thanks for the positive reply. I am glad we could get things working for you.

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Answer 10

Mitoids

Level 1

9 points

Jan 1, 2012 10:11 PM in response to Matt Broughton

Has somebody solved this problem for Lion? I have installed the Pt-2600 driver on my iMac. The install script says that it installed successfully, but the driver does not appear in the list when I go to add the printer. I tried the sudo command with no success. I realize that Brother does not support this printer on Lion, but I can't believe that it is that complicated.

I also downloaded the PT-2700 driver from the Brother site. This installed sucessfully. I tried setting up the 2600 with the 2700 driver. However, when I try to print, the software tells me that I am printing to a device that is not a PT-2700 and the print file just sits in the queue.

Any suggestions? Either to get the PT-2600 driver to show up, or to get the PT-2700 driver to work with my older device?

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Answer 11

cweirup

Level 1

8 points

Jan 4, 2013 5:54 AM in response to Mitoids

Mitoids,

Did you ever find a solution to your problem with the PT-2600? I have the same model, and it is frustrating that I can't get it to work on Lion. I'd appreciate any help you might have.

Thanks!

Chris W.

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Answer 12

Mitoids

Level 1

9 points

Jan 6, 2013 11:18 PM in response to cweirup

Chris,

Unfortunately, I never got it to work. I may even have tried installing the driver on a Windows VM. In any case, I have resorted to typing my labels using the keyboard on the device itself.

Would love to find a soution though!

Cheers,

Stephan

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Answer 13

cweirup

Level 1

8 points

Jan 8, 2013 1:30 PM in response to Mitoids

Stephan,

Thanks for letting me know. Unfortunately, I need to print barcodes, so using the keyboard doesn't work for me. I also tried the Windows WM with no luck. Looks I need to find a Windows PC to do this.

Thanks!

Chris

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