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

Mike Denhoff wrote:
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'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


That looks similar to what I got:

usb 1-2: Product: USB2.0 MFP
usb 1-2: Manufacturer: EPSON
usb 1-2: SerialNumber: L76010312012228280
.....
drivers/usb/serial/usb-serial.c: USB Serial support registered for Generic
drivers/usb/core/usb.c: registered new driver usbserial
drivers/usb/serial/usb-serial.c: USB Serial Driver core v2.0
drivers/usb/class/usblp.c: usblp0: USB Bidirectional printer dev 2 if 1 alt 0 proto 2 vid 0x04B8 pid 0x0807
drivers/usb/core/usb.c: registered new driver usblp
drivers/usb/class/usblp.c: v0.13: USB Printer Device Class driver
SCSI subsystem initialized
Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...
scsi0 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
  Vendor: EPSON     Model: Stylus Storage    Rev: 1.00
  Type:   Direct-Access                      ANSI SCSI revision: 02
USB Mass Storage device found at 2
drivers/usb/core/usb.c: registered new driver usb-storage
USB Mass Storage support registered.
Attached scsi removable disk sda at scsi0, channel 0, id 0, lun 0
Attached scsi generic sg0 at scsi0, channel 0, id 0, lun 0,  type 0

The Epson has a panel on the front where you can plug in a digital camera memory card, and i guess that the extra lines set that up as a virtual drive?


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

linux:/home/cmacd # cat /home/cmacd/Desktop/Shipping.txt > /dev/usb/lp0
linux:/home/cmacd # cat /home/cmacd/Desktop/Shipping.txt > /dev/usb/lp0


both give nothing on the printer  -  as a check

linux:/home/cmacd # cat /home/cmacd/Desktop/Shipping.txt


Hello, I have won your Item. I need to know the total including Postage. I live in Canada. Small items - even items in small boxes -....snip..

and the rest of the file....



Be ready to reset the printer, just in case.

I will save the rest, as I am still in the dark?



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

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Charles MacDonald      cmacd [ at ] TelecomOttawa [ dot ] net     Stittsville Ontario
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