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Re: [OCLUG-Tech] Getting a USB Epson printer going

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Charles MacDonald Thu Aug 18 15:38:50 EDT 2005
> I decided to try a USB printer, and bought a used Epson Stylus PHOTO 
> RX500, as that is shown as well supported, and the film scanner feature 
> could prove useful.
>
> I get the unit today, and after figuring out where to put the paper, I 
> used it to make a standalone copy to ensure the unit was working.
>
> I plugged the unit into a USB port and asked YAST2 to add a printer.
>
> It detected the unit as USB printer on //EPSON/Stylus%20Photo%20RX500
>
> But when I try to print to it I get a job that completes, but no action 
> from the printer.
>
>I have no idea where to tinker....

Hi Charles,

Since no one else has answered, I'll give it a go.  I'm not familiar
with YAST2, but I'll give some generic suggestions.

1) Check that the usb stuff is okay.  After making the usb connection
and turning the printer on, check dmesg.  On my computer I get these 4
lines (kernel 2.4.29)

pciehp: PCI Express Hot Plug Controller Driver version: 0.5
usb.c: registered new driver usblp
printer.c: usblp0: USB Bidirectional printer dev 2 if 0 alt 0 proto 2\
vid 0x04A9 pid 0x1086 
printer.c: v0.13: USB Printer Device Class driver

This shows that Hot plug has found the printer, loaded a driver, and
'usblp0' is set up.  This actually coresponds to '/dev/usb/lp0'. 

2) You can check that the connection to the printer is okay by sending
a file directly to the printer.  Older Epson Stylus printer will print
a text file, so your printer may also.  Send a small text file as
superuser with

# cat foo.txt > /dev/usb/lp0

Be ready to reset the printer, just in case.

3) If the above works, check CUPS (I'm assuming that's what you are
using.)  First, before configuring a usb printer with CUPS you must
restart (or stop and start) the CUPS daemon.  SUSE will have some kind
of "rc.cupsd restart" command or probably a simple "killall cupsd" and
"cupsd" will work.  I don't have CUPS installed right now to check.
Point your web browser to http://localhost:631.  I think the port is
631, it could be something else.  log on as root and add the printer.
Oh and make sure ghostscript is installed and maybe also gimpprint
( this is called ijsgimpprint, in Slackware).

With luck that will have you printing.

Here some more stuff that you probably don't want to know, but ...
Here at home I don't use CUPS or other printing softwear.  I just print
manually using a script.  Starting with a postscript file, I make a
print file for my Canon printer with

gs -q -dSAFER -dBATCH -dNOPAUSE \
- -sDEVICE=ijs -sIjsServer=/usr/bin/ijsgimpprint \
- -sDeviceManufacturer=CANON -sDeviceModel=bjc-7000 \
- -sPAPERSIZE=letter -sOutputFile=file.prn \
- -sIjsParams=Quality=300x300dpi,ImageType=1 file.ps

This uses the GIMP Print driver.  See "man  ijsgimpprint" for info on
supported printers and options.
Then sent that to the printer.

# cat file.prn > /dev/usb/lp0

Of course I could have just used "-sOutputFile=/dev/usb/lp0" in the gs
command line.

Good luck

- -- 
Mike Denhoff (at home)

gpg public key: 
http://istop.com/~denhoff/gpg/mike-denhoff.gpg
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