Brother QL800 Printer driver .deb install help please

[Andre Nogues]

Greetings friends:

I purchased a Brother QL800 sticker printer and downloaded the .deb driver package from the Brother site. I followed their install guidelines but get the following error message and subsequently still cannot use the printer (my system does recognize it as a valid printer, though, when I look at my printer utility). Please advise. I am running Kubuntu 18.04.
Here are the command line inputs and errors:

ndre@andre-Lenovo-IdeaPad-S340-15IILTouch:~$ cd Downloads
andre@andre-Lenovo-IdeaPad-S340-15IILTouch:~/Downloads$ sudo dpkg -i --force-all ql800pd
rv-3.1.5-0.i386.deb
[sudo] password for andre:
(Reading database ... 354903 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack ql800pdrv-3.1.5-0.i386.deb ...
[ ok ] Restarting cups (via systemctl): cups.service.
Unpacking ql800pdrv:i386 (3.1.5) over (3.1.5) ...
[ ok ] Restarting cups (via systemctl): cups.service.
Setting up ql800pdrv:i386 (3.1.5) ...
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘/var/spool/lpd/ql800’: No such file or directory
chown: cannot access '/var/spool/lpd/ql800': No such file or directory
chgrp: cannot access '/var/spool/lpd/ql800': No such file or directory
chmod: cannot access '/var/spool/lpd/ql800': No such file or directory
[ ok ] Restarting cups (via systemctl): cups.service.
lpadmin -p QL800 -E -v usb://dev/usb/lp0 -P /usr/share/cups/model/Brother/brother_ql800_
printer_en.ppd


Thanks,
Andre

[jglen490]

Sorry, I don't have a Brother printer, but there are folks here who do. In the meantime, you might try a search on the forums here for "Brother QL800" to see if there are immediate solutions available.

[mbohets]

I seem to remember something similar when first installing drivers for my Brother MFC multifunctional, years ago.
The solution was to manually create the directory using sudo mkdir /directorypath/missingdirectoryname, and re-install the driver again.
In your case this would be sudo mkdir /var/spool/lpd/ql800

It was years ago though, my memory may not be accurate, or things in linux may have changed in the mean time, so don't shoot me if it does not work.

[Andre Nogues]

Creating folders in /root/var

Thank you for the suggestion. Interesting, I cannot create a directory anywhere in /root, much less in the /var folder. It's as if I don't have permission. And in the Dolphin graphical interface, whereas I can easily create a folder by right-clicking and "create new folder", I cannot do that anywhere in /root either. you would think with sudo access in the terminal I should be able to create a folder in /var/spool as I desire - but I cannot. It's locked to entry. Any further advice?

[jglen490]

Yes, Dolphin is not so good with elevated permissions. I would advise opening a konsole and using sudo to create the directory. Then retry.

[Andre Nogues]

Answering my own question, but still requesting a bit more guidance, it would appear, based on my error log from above, that if I did create the two new directories as suggested, that may solve the problem of installation, since the problem seems to rely on the fact that the installer cannot access root/var/spool so as to make the directory for the drivers. I have read other forum replies where most advise and warn aginst granting access to root to make modifications.

Can anyone provide a quick method for me to make the two folders as suggested in root (by granting permission), and then quickly un-granting permission? Note: sudo command alone is not enough to get me to root. I have seen

sudo chmod -R 777 /root

suggested. What do you think?

Thanks,
Andre

[claydoh]

With the mkdir command, you need to use the -p switch to create the destination dir, as well as any missing parent dirs above it

see man mkdir

sudo mkdir -p /var/spool/lpd/ql800


or create each non-existent dir separately:
sudo mkdir /var/spool/lpd
then
sudo mkdir /var/spool/lpd/ql800


You are getting the error because you do have /var/spool/ but do not have /var/spool/lpd in which to put /ql800

[DannyPhilips]

Thank you for the suggestion. Interesting, I cannot create a directory anywhere in /root, much less in the /var folder. It's as if I don't have permission. And in the Dolphin graphical interface, whereas I can easily create a folder by right-clicking and "create new folder", I cannot do that anywhere in /root either. you would think with sudo access in the terminal I should be able to create a folder in /var/spool as I desire - but I cannot. It's locked to entry. Any further advice?

Please tell me, were you able to solve the issue with the connection of your device? Could you please post the sequence of steps.

[mbohets]

You don't have to use chmod, it will not help you create the directory.
If you are not at ease creating directories in command line, you can also create them using krusader.

Krusader is a file manager like Dolphin, but I find it more handy.
After launching krusader, in the tools menu, you will find "start root mode krusader"
This starts a new instance of krusader that has full root privileges.
Be careful what you do in root modethough, as root can do anything, including deleting crucial parts of your OS.
So use it only to do the things you need root privileges for and quit it when you are done, to avoid accidents.