Ubuntu

Brother QL-810W on Ubuntu 18.04

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Although Brother states that Linux is supported for the QL-810W and they even provide a driver package, installing and using the Brother QL-810W on Ubuntu (and probably other modern Linux OSes) can be a little tricky.

First, download the Debian package and install it from the command line with

sudo dpkg -i --force-all ql810wpdrv-<version>.i386.deb

That adds the QL810W printer as a local USB printer. If you would like to print via network, open the Advanced Printer Settings and change and adjust the Device URI in the printer’s properties.

While you are in that properties dialog, go to Printer Options and select the correct Media Size (This is the most important setting of all!).If you want to make sure that the borders of your labels remain as defined in your application, set Trim tape under Cut Option to Off.

Network Protocols

Since I am not fan of black magic like Zeroconf, Avahi, mDNS, I have only kept

  • Web Based Management (Web Server)
  • IPP
  • SNTP

enabled on the Network > Protocol page in the printer’s web management tool.

Label Sizes

For some reason, the “length” of a label cannot exceed 10cm on Linux although continuous labels are used and correctly selected in the printer properties. If you would like to print out larger labels, you need to add custom label sizes with the corresponding tool that comes with the driver package:

sudo brpapertoollpr_ql810w -P QL810W -n "62mmx190mm" -w 62 -h 190
sudo brpapertoollpr_ql810w -P QL810W -n "38mmx190mm" -w 38 -h 190

I used the above two for creating labels for Leitz folders with OpenOffice Draw.

AppArmor

In Brother’s FAQ there is an entry regarding AppArmor and setting the mode to complain for the CUPS service if printing does not work. In my case printing works flawlessly if the setting remains in enforce mode. So for security reasons, I would not recommend to change it to complain.

Xubuntu/XFCE to Ubuntu/Unity

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I finally made it and switched from Xubuntu/XFCE to plain Ubuntu/Unity after I bought a new laptop for my parents, which forced me to finally choose a desktop environment that I want to support for my family and friends in the next years. I have to say that after using Unity a couple of hours, it turns out to be not as bad as I always thought. So basically it’s like every time there is something new that feels like it just wants to break your habits: first you hate it, then you accept it and at some point you begin to love it. Now, after switching my own laptop, my workstation at work and my parents desktop PC to Ubuntu/Unity, I am getting closer to “lovin’ it”.

All that does not mean that I was unhappy with Xubuntu/XFCE ever, but in the last years its main purpose was to provide me a way to stick with a Gnome 2ish desktop environment, just because I did not want to change my own, maybe bad habits. Unity without additional tweaking is great for the normal user and with its lightweight menus and highly integrated apps, it just does its job. With some minor adjustments it works perfectly well for advanced users like me. Compiz Settings Manager and  Unity Teak Tool (PPA version) are very helpful if you want to improve your Unity experience and I highly recommend to have a look at them, even if you think that the defaults already provide a decent user experience.

BTW: There is no need to re-install you system. If you want to switch from any Ubuntu flavor back to pure Ubuntu, check out Psychocats’ Pure Ubuntu 14.04 post

Howto: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Client mit Kerberos und LDAP

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Ich habe in den letzten Tagen mal in meinem LAN das Kerberos-Zeitalter ausgerufen. LDAP habe ich schon lange im Einsatz, aber bisher nicht zu Authentifizierung. Folgende Anforderungen habe ich für mich definiert:

  1. Sichere Anmeldung am System mittels Kerberos
  2. Benutzer und Gruppeninformationen sollen aus dem zentralen LDAP-Verzeichnis kommen
  3. LDAP-Benutzer sollen automatisch Mitglieder lokaler Systemgruppen werden, um z.B. Zugriff auf Geräte zu habe
  4. Nicht existierende Home-Directories sollen beim ersten Anmelden erstellt werden
  5. Mobile Geräte müssen auch ohne Netzwerkverbindung eine Authentifizierung ermöglichen

Auf Serverseite habe ich ebenfalls ein Ubuntu 10.04 LTS laufen (mein Mediacenter System). Dort habe ich bereits Kerberos und LDAP nach der Anleitung aus dem Ubuntu Serverguide eingerichtet.

Die anderen Anleitungen des Serverguides sind leider nun dann hilfreich, wenn man nur Kerberos oder nur LDAP-Authentifizierung machen möchte. Abgesehen davon schießen sich die Tools pam-auth-update und auth-client-config gegenseitig in’s Knie, weshalb man schon genau wissen sollte was man tut. Andernfalls hat man sich schneller aus dem eigenen System ausgesperrt als man Kerberos rückwärts buchstabieren kann. Ich verwende daher ein eigenes auth-client-config Profil für die Anpassungen an der nsswitch.conf und alle Änderungen an PAM nehme ich mittels pam-auth-update vor.
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