Linux Other because it does not give me an option for my Distro.@JulyRC :-
I'm curious as to why you chose "Linux Other". Do I take it that you're not running a 64-bit distro.....that you are in fact looking for 32-bit stuff?
I've been an Epson man for I can't remember how long. Late last year, a WF-2930 replaced a 16-yr old Stylus SX218. And before that, it was a Photo Stylus 830U for around a decade. Prior to that, I was running one of their old dot matrix printers; don't ask me the model, I've long since forgotten..!
Admittedly, their printer drivers are not as good as they used to be, and don't seem to ship with anywhere near the degee of granular control they once had. I still find myself looking for functions - from years gone by - that simply don't exist any longer.
In most cases, that functionality is still there.....but you're NOW supposed to access it from the tiny display on the printer itself! Grrrr.....
Mike.
Linux and Printers Conundrum
- Thread starter JulyRC
- Start date
@JulyRC :-
Ah. See, with the Epson site you don't bother trying to "match" an exact distro. That may be the way other manufacturers do it on their websites, but there's a rather turbid 'history' behind the provision of Epson's Linux drivers.
Originally, they never provided their own Linux drivers at all, but instead farmed that chore out to another Japanese company called Avasys. There was some big bust-up between the two companies, Avasys pulled out of the arrangement - and shortly afterwards 'went under' for unknown reasons.
Epson took over maintenance of the Linux driver repository, but never really had the interest in doing things properly. Ever since then, their driver quality has not been what it used to be. They're functional, yes - they certainly work - but a lot of 'features' have been dropped compared to years gone by.
Be that as it may, you "match" the package architecture type with Epson.....which for most of us is going to be either 'Linux Deb(x64)' OR 'Linux RPM(x64)'.....depending on which 'family' your distro is in (either Debian-based, or RedHat-based).
I would assume you know which package type your distro uses. And what distro DO you run? If that information was provided in this thread, I can't find it...and such basic information always helps, and is usually appreciated 'cos it makes OUR job a wee bit easier. "Groping in the dark" is never conducive to providing quality assistance with ANY kind of problem!
Mike.
Ah. See, with the Epson site you don't bother trying to "match" an exact distro. That may be the way other manufacturers do it on their websites, but there's a rather turbid 'history' behind the provision of Epson's Linux drivers.
Originally, they never provided their own Linux drivers at all, but instead farmed that chore out to another Japanese company called Avasys. There was some big bust-up between the two companies, Avasys pulled out of the arrangement - and shortly afterwards 'went under' for unknown reasons.
Epson took over maintenance of the Linux driver repository, but never really had the interest in doing things properly. Ever since then, their driver quality has not been what it used to be. They're functional, yes - they certainly work - but a lot of 'features' have been dropped compared to years gone by.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Be that as it may, you "match" the package architecture type with Epson.....which for most of us is going to be either 'Linux Deb(x64)' OR 'Linux RPM(x64)'.....depending on which 'family' your distro is in (either Debian-based, or RedHat-based).
I would assume you know which package type your distro uses. And what distro DO you run? If that information was provided in this thread, I can't find it...and such basic information always helps, and is usually appreciated 'cos it makes OUR job a wee bit easier. "Groping in the dark" is never conducive to providing quality assistance with ANY kind of problem!
Mike.
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Mike and whom it may concern:
I run Linux Mint Cinnamon Zena 22.3 Deb based (X64) on all 3 laptops. Insyde with core i3, nvidia gforce graphics; Nitro 5 with core i5, nvidea graphics; HP elite 8440 (my little Beast), with core i5, Intel graphics. I just finished totally wiping out the hard drives. I mean everything. Deleted unused or unneeded partitions and formatted. Reinstalled Linux erasing prior install, did all the downloads, installs, tweaks etc. Did not run the Driver Manager. I find that running and installing additional recommended or open source Drivers does more harm than good. My machines run smoother and cleaner now. All printers show up and work.
No need to install the HP or Canon utilities. WI-FI and Plug and play works fine for now. will inform if it goes out of wak again.
I run Linux Mint Cinnamon Zena 22.3 Deb based (X64) on all 3 laptops. Insyde with core i3, nvidia gforce graphics; Nitro 5 with core i5, nvidea graphics; HP elite 8440 (my little Beast), with core i5, Intel graphics. I just finished totally wiping out the hard drives. I mean everything. Deleted unused or unneeded partitions and formatted. Reinstalled Linux erasing prior install, did all the downloads, installs, tweaks etc. Did not run the Driver Manager. I find that running and installing additional recommended or open source Drivers does more harm than good. My machines run smoother and cleaner now. All printers show up and work.
No need to install the HP or Canon utilities. WI-FI and Plug and play works fine for now. will inform if it goes out of wak again.
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I'm having the same issue with my Epson ET-3850 printer. No matter what I try I keep getting CUPS error msgs and Mint will not install the printer. I've been trying different distros besides Mint and this is the only distro that refuses to recognize my printer. After I installed Zorin OS my printer showed up with no problem and the same with MXLinux. I was able to get Ubuntu 24.04 to recognize it after tweeking the OS a little but Mint just won't cooperate. I don't know what Mint's problem is but it would be nice if the devs fixed it.
On IPP Everywhere there are 2 flavors of the epson driver for my ET-3850, neither of which actually work. All I get are CUPS error messages. Very frustrating.
I always install the Drivers first...if I install the printer first then the Drivers it won't work...you just get blank pages.
Umm...Lets see about this...When I start the install and setup process, it promts you to log on to the wi-fi network. During the setup process, [Linux Mint] picks up the printers right away. So, how do you install the drivers first? Unless you don't have the wi-fi set up and have the physical driver cd and connect via usb.
What happens if you restart CUPS?
http://localhost:631 is your admin page for CUPS.
Restarting CUPS once solved a stubborn 'printer not found' situation for me.
http://localhost:631 is your admin page for CUPS.
Restarting CUPS once solved a stubborn 'printer not found' situation for me.
That printer picker you have there never worked for me, on different computers. Even if my printer was in the list (usually wasn't), no luck getting it to work right. (In retrospect, I think that perhaps the printer makes and models there didn't have the proper drivers in the kernel.)
Remember, this is Linux, not Microsoft Windows.
Linux has most device drivers built right into the kernel; so unlike Windows, you don't have to install a driver for most devices (including most printers).
Now, is your printer fairly new on the market? Such printers can be too new to be included in the Linux kernel. In that case of course, you need to find and install. (It's always best to restart after that.)
What Linux distro are you using? Whether it's a conservative distro like Debian or a cutting-edge, latest bleeding-edge kernels etc. distro can make the difference in a newer printer being recognized, for reasons that should be obvious.
The only printer driver that I had to install was for an old Brother, years ago. I finally found the driver with Google; some guy had written the driver himself and made it available for others online.
I recall that Real men write their own drivers was on that site, IIRC. (Yeah, right. I guess I'm not a real man, but thanks for the driver, friend.)
Remember when printer packaging's had labels that said, "compatible with Windows so and so"?That printer picker you have there never worked for me, on different computers. Even if my printer was in the list (usually wasn't), no luck getting it to work right. (In retrospect, I think that perhaps the printer makes and models there didn't have the proper drivers in the kernel.)
Remember, this is Linux, not Microsoft Windows.
Linux has most device drivers built right into the kernel; so unlike Windows, you don't have to install a driver for most devices (including most printers).
Now, is your printer fairly new on the market? Such printers can be too new to be included in the Linux kernel. In that case of course, you need to find and install. (It's always best to restart after that.)
What Linux distro are you using? Whether it's a conservative distro like Debian or a cutting-edge, latest bleeding-edge kernels etc. distro can make the difference in a newer printer being recognized, for reasons that should be obvious.
The only printer driver that I had to install was for an old Brother, years ago. I finally found the driver with Google; some guy had written the driver himself and made it available for others online.
I recall that Real men write their own drivers was on that site, IIRC. (Yeah, right. I guess I'm not a real man, but thanks for the driver, friend.)
I wish printers came with similar labels for specific Linux Distros.
.I am not willing to give up my distro because of a printer issue. I want to get my printer to work with my Distro of choice.
I think most of this community would agree.
As I said...install the Drivers first...I then connect my printer to USB port and turn it on...Mint then sees and installs the printer...simple.
Connect and turn on printer...
You'll see printer icon an panel...
The printer/scanner was installed today in Mint Cinnamon 22.3 on my spare SSD.
The scanner also works...
I see...so leave the printer offline until then. Got it. Thanks. The problem is finding the driver.
.That didn't work either. Bunch of giberish stuff comes up. When I download the driver, A folder appears. I open the folder and a plethora of files show up. From there I'm lost because there is no actual install.Not true...did you go here...
https://epson.com/Support/wa00821
You must type the correct name eg XP-2205. If you just type ET it won't work.
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Printers disappeared again. If I go to admin / printers / add / I can add them via Network Printer. The cups runs and finds the printer and it's added and I'm able to print. So, I guess this is the way for me to do it from now on until there is a more permanent fix.
Cheers.
Cheers.
Well ... my LAN printer has disappeared plenty of times. Apparently, there was a bug in the pfSense router software.
Well, then there's a gremlin in the system. And also, now the ET-2800 does not print at all. Pages come out blank.
That's the fundamental difference between printer installation in Windows & the same in Linux.I see...so leave the printer offline until then. Got it. Thanks. The problem is finding the driver.
Under Windows, you install your printer package with the printer turned off. The package installs the driver, followed by the printer itself, all in one fell swoop. THEN you turn your printer on, and - hopefully! - everything is working. (This is all part & parcel of the same reason why installing anything under Windows requires a re-start; same mechanism, y'see.)
Under Linux, you still leave the printer turned off while installing the drivers...but you then turn the printer ON when you're ready to install the printer itself, because CUPS dynamically scans for & detects the printer in real time before beginning the actual install itself. Different system, different way of doing things.....different mechanism, y'see. Just one of the component parts of that 'learning curve'.
Windows obviously has a different hardware detection routine. I never got around to investigating the how & the why of it; my time with Windows was back in the days when I was a LOT less 'tech-savvy' than I am now.
Mike.
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