Printing problem

[T J Tulley]

When I started using LinuxMint (my first and only Linux) with Bianca I was impressed by the rapid effectiveness of the selection and installation of an appropriate driver from CUPS for my Epson Photo Stylus 915 printer.

This has continued to be effective, with an occasional re-install, until recently - through Celena, Cassandra and now Daryna. Elyssa is on a CD waiting for time to install it after appropriate backups.

Now however the printer (USB connected) is refusing to respond - it shows status as Printing, with file details and job number, and after a short while the status reverts to Ready. It prints when corrected to my laptop with the original Windows driver supplied with the printer. Currently I have to copy files for printing to a flash stick for transfer to the laptop for printing. I have tried different USB sockets, which are effective for other devices.

Any suggestions?

BTW, I found an effective CUPS driver called 24-pin for my ancient Epson SQ2550 - which printed a test page. Unfortunately this awaits a thorough jet clean, probably using a solvent on blotting paper.

[GrayWizardLinux]

I too cannot print - that is a no-no for me. Overall - most other stuff works great with Daryna and my thinkpad. There are still issues with Linux, and NO - I am not bad mouthing linux. Just wish it would work. My macs just run and plug and play and never an issue across numerous macs over 7-8 years now.

[rivenought]

Are you using the same driver in CUPS that you used in previous versions of Mint? Do you have the printer set as the default? I am tossing ideas out. This does sound unusual.

[T J Tulley]

Thanks - I have just removed and re-installed the printer, and again it prints - but for how long?

I guess I've done this half a dozen times in the last fortnight: clearly the hardware is OK - corruption somewhere? Hardly likely to be a bug.

The current installation of Daryna has been running a few weeks - I don't keep a diary - is it logged somewhere? The unused (empty) folders in my Home all date from 5th May so I guess that's when I installed it.

The driver is what CUPS gives me under the name of my printer. It is a "detected printer" and shows at first as being on the printer port, but the next screen in the install sequence asks Where? and I insert USB.

[rivenought]

The reason I was asking about choosing the driver is because CUPS gives me three choices for my printer: Foomatic, Gutenprint, and Gutenprint simplified. Having tried them all, I get the best result from Gutenprint simplified.

You may wish to make note of when you installed the current driver. Then, you will know how long it stays put. I hope it is wedged in good and tight.

I have never had to reinstall a printer in this manner before, but I had a friend whose printer kept getting lost every week or so in openSUSE. He switched to Mint a few months back and has had no further printer problems.

[T J Tulley]

Thanks - I forgot about the alternatives - I always choose High Quality; I think it's the default. I've not seen Foomatic offered - perhaps that doesn't come with all printers.

At present the printer is still behaving OK from yesterday - it was switched off overnight, but came back remembering a second page of a job which I missed printing yesterday - it was an overflow after editing.