Driver Packages for Some Epson Printers

Problems and successes with specific brands/models of printers
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rcrsn51
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#41 Post by rcrsn51 »

@Mike: Where are you with this? On the main post, I have introduced the "eppi" tool for installing Epson print/scan driver packages. It also works with 64bit drivers in Tahr64.

In your case, a clean setup of Tahr64 with nothing else installed may be necessary.

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Mike Walsh
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#42 Post by Mike Walsh »

Hallo, Bill.

Okey-doke. I've had a read of the 1st post; seems pretty straight-forward. Let me ask one thing, though; why would it need a clean, brand-new install for this to 'take'? Just curious... :)


Mike. :wink:

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rcrsn51
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#43 Post by rcrsn51 »

Mike Walsh wrote:why would it need a clean, brand-new install for this to 'take'?
Because you have installed a combination of 32bit and 64bit drivers, so it's impossible to know what's going on.

A clean install is the only way to reliably trouble-shoot a situation.

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Mike Walsh
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#44 Post by Mike Walsh »

Hallo, Bill.

Right. Can the same effect be achieved by deleting every single printer/scanner related driver on the system? Or would this not be enough? I mean, if I have to re-install Tahr64 from scratch, I have to; I just don't really want to, since apart from the printer driver, it's set exactly how I want it... :lol:

I'm guessing what you're after is a test-run for this on a fresh install, aren't you?


Mike. :wink:

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Mike Walsh
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#45 Post by Mike Walsh »

Hallo again, Bill.

We have success!

I deleted all my Epson drivers (printer and scanner) through the PPM. I then used pFind to chase down all the extraneous leftovers, and, with the exception of the stuff in the /lib/sane directory (which is native to the system), deleted all the odds & ends. Followed that up by going into the CUPS interface to make sure it was uninstalled...yep.

I downloaded your 'eppi' .pet. Had a read in the other thread about the 'Candi 1-4.pet' to see how you use it; that <Tab> feature is quite handy, especially with these printer drivers, some of which have ridiculously long, complex names..! (And Epson are no exception...) Went into my 'Utilities' folder @ /root/Utilities, which is where I keep all my standard 32- and 64-bit system drivers and stuff that I always install with a new Pup, or other Linux distro. I have a standard Utilities folder I keep on my external Seagate HDD, and with every new install, copy the relevant things across.

Opened a terminal, entered:-

Code: Select all

root# eppi epson-inkjet-printer-workforce-320-sx218_1.0.0-1lsb3.2_amd64.deb
....got a delay of a few seconds, then up came....

Code: Select all

Done!
root#
I repeated the process with the scanner 'data' package, followed by the I-Scan driver itself; almost instantaneous..!

Went to the CUPS web interface and installed the printer and set it up, printed a test page.....which worked first time. Bill, this is marvellous stuff. With the 32-bit Pups, I've always had to install initially using your 'escpr-1.40.pet', then modify to the 'WorkForce320' driver afterwards, before she'll behave herself. This just installs straight off. Nice one!

'eppi' has even installed the Printer-Utility at the top of this page. I couldn't get it to install at all with the standard method of clicking on the .deb package...

I don't know how you do it, mate, but you keep coming up with the solutions, don't you? :D Cheers; this is very, very much appreciated. :D

EDIT: Whoops; nearly forgot. For some strange reason, I can't get print sharing to work at the CUPS server. Always comes up with 'Idle, Accepting jobs, Not shared'. Doesn't matter how many times I reset the server settings, and re-start, it still won't come up with 'Idle, Accepting jobs, Shared.' Again, this is the first Pup I've really had this problem with.....and my first 64-bit one.

Any ideas? I notice with Tahr 64, Phil's using CUPS 1.7.5, instead of 'old faithful' 1.4.8. D'you reckon this might have something to do with it? I seem to recall I had this same problem a couple of years back, when I started off in Linux with Ubuntu 'Trusty'.....which was using 1.7.2 at that time. Can't remember what the 'fix' was, though..! :roll:


Mike. :wink:

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rcrsn51
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#46 Post by rcrsn51 »

Mike Walsh wrote:For some strange reason, I can't get print sharing to work at the CUPS server. Always comes up with 'Idle, Accepting jobs, Not shared'. Doesn't matter how many times I reset the server settings, and re-start, it still won't come up with 'Idle, Accepting jobs, Shared.'
I can confirm this. I messed around with the settings in /etc/cups/cupsd.conf, but I couldn't fix it.

IIRC, there was a discussion about modifying cupsd.conf in new versions of CUPS, but I can't find it now.

Just out of curiosity, if you go to another machine, is the printer actually NOT shared?

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Mike Walsh
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#47 Post by Mike Walsh »

Morning, Bill.

Yes, I thought of trying that myself.....just in case it was being wrongly reported, yet was actually functional. Stranger things have been known to happen!

However, it appears that's not the case this time. It's reporting correctly; it's definitely not showing on the network.

I don't suppose there's a pain-free way to revert to an older version of CUPS, is there? :P


Mike. :wink:

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#48 Post by rcrsn51 »

@Mike: There have always been two methods in Puppy for sharing a locally connected printer across a network:

1. Putting CUPS in sharing mode.
2. Setting up a Samba server to do print sharing.

As you have discovered, the first method has become problematic in new versions of CUPS. I have always found the second method to be wonky, particularly when you get into issues with authentication.

I have decided that the simplest, most consistent procedure for Puppy users is the P910nd server. The setup is trivial and the server can be accessed by any host on your network - Linux or Windows.

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#49 Post by Mike Walsh »

@rcrsn51:-

Thanks, Bill. I'll give this a look-see when I get a chance.

The IPP method works, but it does have its limitations.....like no control over the print job, before sending to the server.

Cheers. As always, I'll let you know how I get on with it. Oh, while I think of it, one question; can p910d be used alongside CUPS, or does it override it? As I understand it, this needs to be installed on the server; in my case, the Compaq PC. The Dell has only one Pup installed now; the Compaq runs 6. Tahr64 is the only one with this problem; in the other 5 (using 1.4.8 ), CUPS works perfectly. Can both methods be used on the Dell, switching from CUPS to p910D as and when needed? In other words, can I set up two different 'printers' on the Dell, and use whichever is required ; p910D for when I'm running Tahr64, and CUPS for when I'm running the others?

Would that work, d'you think?


Mike. :wink:

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#50 Post by rcrsn51 »

I think that would work, but it sounds confusing.

Here is the problem with CUPS print sharing over IPP. There are two instances of CUPS running - one on the server and one on the client. But the one on the client just acts as a window into the one on the server. So if the client machine changes a printer setting, like default paper size, it's not clear what is happening. Does that paper size just apply to him? Or did it actually change on the server's CUPS printer, so it also applies to other clients?

This is the downside to running Puppy as root. The client user has permission to remotely modify the server's CUPS setup.

The beauty of P910nd is that there is no CUPS server running on the server machine, just a socket printer. So when the client changes a printer setting, it JUST applies to him.

You can check this by running PeasyPort on the client machine. You will just see Port 9100 open on the server, not 9100 and 631.

The server machine still has a version of CUPS running, but it only handles the server's local printing.

P910nd standardizes your network printing setup. Whether the printer is a standalone WiFi printer or a USB printer shared by a Puppy machine, they are all handled the same way by a client.

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#51 Post by Mike Walsh »

@rcrsn51:-

Hallo again, Bill.

One last question (if I may) before having a go at this. I'm going to configure the new-style firewall in Tahr64 to allow passage for port 9100; it's worked well on the other Pups, with the older firewall, by allowing passage through for printing on port 631.

Is port 9100 listening via TCP, or UDP? Just need to know which one to specify, please.


Mike. :wink:

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#52 Post by rcrsn51 »

Mike Walsh wrote:Is port 9100 listening via TCP, or UDP? Just need to know which one to specify,
I looked in the source code for p910nd. There are references to TCP but not UDP. So your guess is as good as mine.

But you already know my position re. firewalls on a LAN. :wink:

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#53 Post by Mike Walsh »

@rcrsn51:-
rcrsn51 wrote:But you already know my position re. firewalls on a LAN. ;)
Oh, yes. I certainly do... :lol:

Okay. Well, I'll set it up as :-

Code: Select all

9100,TCP,UDP,192.168.x.x/16
The new firewall requires commas as delimiters, not spaces. If it works, it works. If it doesn't.....well, I know what I shall do if that's the case!

Watch this space.....


Mike.
Last edited by Mike Walsh on Mon 02 May 2016, 09:04, edited 1 time in total.

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#54 Post by Mike Walsh »

@rcrsn51:-

Hiya, Bill.

We have (wait for it, wait for it).....SUCCESS!

p910nd works beautifully, it really does. And this is with the Tahr64 firewall on, and configured to allow passage for

Code: Select all

9100,TCP,UDP,192.168.1.xx/16
And not only printing a test page, but a document from Libre Office, and also a photo via the GIMP, I'm pleased to report that I have full control over the state of the print jobs before I send them.

NICE one. And of course, the beauty of it is that I can leave this set up just for when I want to use Tahr64. With the older CUPS 1.4.8 advertising itself on the network, with any of my other Pups running, the Dell just picks them up as normal. Delightfully simple.....as all the best solutions are.

You know, Bill, you don't get half the credit you deserve for the many utilities you've built over the years. I take my hat off to you (well, I would if I was wearing one...! :lol: )

Thanks for this. Cheers!


Mike. :wink:
Last edited by Mike Walsh on Mon 02 May 2016, 09:05, edited 1 time in total.

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#55 Post by rcrsn51 »

Excellent. I have posted new PETs made from the most recent sources here. They address some obscure problems that you might never see.

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#56 Post by Mike Walsh »

@rcrsn51:-

Just to add, I've now set XP up to make use of this. Works a treat; exactly as though it were plugged directly into the Dell via USB.

Mind you, it's like everything; very, very simple when you know how. But it's one of the few reasons I've always preferred XP to later versions of Windoze; they might all be just as configurable, but with XP, it just seems to be so much easier to access those configurations...

(*Shakes head*)

As always, very much appreciated. Cheers!


Mike. :wink:

BTW: Just noticed the updated .pets! What's changed?

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rcrsn51
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#57 Post by rcrsn51 »

Mike Walsh wrote:Just noticed the updated .pets! What's changed?
I read the release notes. It has something to do with how p910nd works with the internal USB system. I don't know if the update is crucial.

I have also built a little control panel applet for managing the P910nd server. Get it here.

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Mike Walsh
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#58 Post by Mike Walsh »

Hallo, Bill.

As you know, I was having major problems installing my printer in Tahr64, and ended up using your 'eppi-1.0.pet' installer.....which worked perfectly.

I'm slowly investigating more of the 64-bit Pups, since Google have dropped support for the 32-bit version of Chrome, which is my browser of choice. I've just installed Lighthouse64 'Mariner' Edition this morning; absolutely brilliant release, despite being a few years old. Same problem with installing the printer; so I tried 'eppi' once more.

I'm pleased to be able to report that it's worked its magic for a second time, and the old SX218 is behaving perfectly, I'm happy to say.

Thanks again.


Mike. :wink:

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#59 Post by rcrsn51 »

Excellent. But here is something to know about 64bit Puppies and their variants. Some use the folder /usr/lib64, some use /usr/lib and some have /usr/lib64 as a symlink into /usr/lib.

This makes it hard to design a general-purpose installer like eppi. It can only extract what's inside the Epson Debian package and hope for the best. After running eppi, you need to look in the filesystem to see if things went to the right locations.

For example, if your distro has /usr/lib64, are there new CUPS files in /usr/lib64/cups/filter? Or did they mistakenly go into /usr/lib/cups/filter?

And what works with eppi for a printer driver may not necessarily work for a scanner driver.

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Mike Walsh
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#60 Post by Mike Walsh »

Hallo again, Bill.

Fortunately, in my case, 'eppi' works just as well for the scanner data/driver packages as it does for the printer. I can't speak for anybody else, of course (and for myself, I'll confess I don't really care where those files end up!); for me, it all just 'works'.

And that's what's all about, when it boils down to it...


Mike. :D

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