Need help installing Epson WF-3520 printer driver - SOLVED!

[brian_p]

administrator@administrator-Latitude-E5570:~$ lpinfo -m | grep WF-3520
lsb/usr/epson-inkjet-printer-201212w/Epson/Epson-WF-3520_Series-epson-driver.ppd.gz Epson WF-3520 Series - epson-inkjet-printer 1.0.0-1lsb3.2 (Seiko Epson Corporation LSB 3.2)
escpr:0/cups/model/epson-inkjet-printer-escpr/Epson-WF-3520_Series-epson-escpr-en.ppd Epson WF-3520 Series, Epson Inkjet Printer Driver (ESC/P-R) for Linux
administrator@administrator-Latitude-E5570:~$

Ah! It looks like you have the drivers from Epson installed. You will want this PPD:

lsb/usr/epson-inkjet-printer-201212w/Epson/Epson-WF-3520_Series-epson-driver.ppd.gz

to substitute in

Code: Select all

lpadmin -p WF3520 -v "URI" -E -m PPD

"But what do I substitute for URI" I hear you say? "Use your initiative" is my reply. It is all there earlier in this thread; you have done it already! The first page, I think.

[pdc_2]

Code: Select all

lpadmin -p WF3520 -v "usb://EPSON/WF-3520%20Series?serial=515A47593130353492&interface=1" -E -m "lsb/usr/epson-inkjet-printer-201212w/Epson/Epson-WF-3520_Series-epson-driver.ppd.gz"

you might find it good to change the name above from

WF3520

to something like

WF3520USB

so you can tell which setup is which

[UltraNewbie]

you might find it good to change the name above from WF3520 to something like WF3520USB so you can tell which setup is which

Is that because I will be creating a new printer icon (in addition to the 3 that already appear on my new laptop)?

And am I correct to assume that I should only change the first "WF3520" to "WF3520USB"? So change "lpadmin -p WF3520 -v" to "lpadmin -p WF3520USB -v", but no change to other 2 places where "WF3520" appears in that long command you helpfully spelled out for me?

Everything needs to be explained very, very thoroughly to an UltraNewbie, or else things could go horribly, horribly wrong

And just to satisfy my curiosity, could someone please explain to me what "PPD" actually means? Keep it very simple -- remember you're explaining to an UltraNewbie!

Thanks!

[pdc_2]

PPD is a postscript printer description file https://file.org/extension/ppd
a list of instructions/options ?

change "lpadmin -p WF3520 -v" to "lpadmin -p WF3520USB -v", but no change to other 2 places where "WF3520" appears in that long command you helpfully spelled out for me?

..... indeed ......... that is what I meant

___________________________________________

I will be creating a new printer icon (in addition to the 3 that already appear on my new laptop)?

indeed; you seem to have a tremendous fondness for 3 icons that don't work; harsher souls would just delete them; so you should be the proud owner of 4 icons shortly in your PRINTERS folder

[rossdv8]

I skipped a couple of pages, but I haven't seen anyone explain 'why' deleting the icons that do not work, is a good idea.
Ultranewbie is worried that deleting the icons from the 'new laptop' might somehow automatically delete them from the 'old laptop, or stop the print function of this particular printer working on the 'old laptop'.

It might be time for a quick and simple explanation about how deleting the icons from one laptop cannot delete them from the other one, or stop the printer working on the other one, provided they are not on a network and sharing a folder with those icons in it.

How to explain that 'simply' ? I might leave that up to the people in this discussion

[pdc_2]

time for a quick and simple explanation about how deleting the icons from one laptop cannot delete them from the other one,

........ ok .... ok ...........

.. or someone could come up with a hypothesis that would explain how deleting an icon on one computer;

...... would simultaneously delete an icon on another computer ..............

________________________________________________________________________--

How to explain that 'simply' ? I might leave that up to the people in this discussion

.... are you fearful that if you delete an icon on one of your computers? .. that icons will disappear on some of your other computers; or even, worse, those of some of your neighbours?

[UltraNewbie]

As I have attempted to explain before, the two printer icons which have long been on my old laptop appeared on my new laptop as soon as I turned the new laptop on. I can't recall if I had already plugged the one printer that is here, into the new laptop, but I obviously hadn't plugged in the other printer, because it's 1000 miles away (and powered down and obviously not connecting to any network anywhere). I assume that the magical duplication of the two printer icons onto my new laptop happened via the wireless router that both laptops were connecting to, but I certainly didn't *do* anything to cause the duplication.

Since I don't understand how the original old-laptop-to-new-laptop duplication happened, and no one has been able to provide any real explanation for it, it's not completely unreasonable of me to be concerned that duplication could go in the other direction, with printer icons that are deleted from the new laptop proceeding to disappear from the old laptop. I'm not going to worry about my neighbors' computers -- the only networks I can see are secured so I'm pretty sure I couldn't disable their printers even if I knew what I was doing and really tried to, and my two nearest neighbors don't even own computers (rural area, lots of people don't; the older guy who mows my lawn doesn't even have a phone, not even a landline!). Once I have one printer icon that's fully functional on the new laptop, I'll be happy to delete the others. But in the meantime, I'm protecting my only fully functional printer setup, which is on the old laptop, as diligently as I can.

Given the tremendous and still-ongoing group effort involved in getting the present printer fully functional on the new laptop (for which I am very grateful indeed), I am not unreasonably concerned that any disruption to the printing functionality on the old laptop would not be a quick and easy thing to fix. And given the substantial progress that has been made with getting the printer functional on the new laptop (scanning is now fully functional and printing is partially functional), I am quite optimistic that the entire mission can be accomplished without first deleting the magically self-duplicating old printer icons from the new laptop. Hopefully I won't be proven wrong . . .

I will attempt to carry out the latest set of instructions I've been given, and will report back on the resulting status of my new laptop's printing functionality. Onward!

UltraNewbie (who is still wondering what "PPD" is)

[UltraNewbie]

I'm back. So I pasted that long command into the terminal, with the modified printer name. I feel like I've seen this message before.

administrator@administrator-Latitude-E5570:~$ lpadmin -p WF3520-USB -v "usb://EPSON/WF-3520%20Series?serial=515A47593130353492&interface=1" -E -m "lsb/usr/epson-inkjet-printer-201212w/Epson/Epson-WF-3520_Series-epson-driver.ppd.gz"
lpadmin: Printer drivers are deprecated and will stop working in a future version of CUPS.
administrator@administrator-Latitude-E5570:~$

Now what do I do?

[pdc_2]

have a look in your PRINTERS folder; do you have an icon that says

WF3520-USB

If yes, open LibreOffice or somesuch; and try to print a page; using WF3520-USB

if yes, right-click; scroll through PROPERTIES etc and set up for duplex; whatever you wish

[rossdv8]

As I have attempted to explain before, the two printer icons which have long been on my old laptop appeared on my new laptop as soon as I turned the new laptop on. I can't recall if I had already plugged the one printer that is here, into the new laptop, but I obviously hadn't plugged in the other printer, because it's 1000 miles away (and powered down and obviously not connecting to any network anywhere). I assume that the magical duplication of the two printer icons onto my new laptop happened via the wireless router that both laptops were connecting to, but I certainly didn't *do* anything to cause the duplication.

Since I don't understand how the original old-laptop-to-new-laptop duplication happened, and no one has been able to provide any real explanation for it, it's not completely unreasonable of me to be concerned that duplication could go in the other direction, with printer icons that are deleted from the new laptop proceeding to disappear from the old laptop.
UltraNewbie (who is still wondering what "PPD" is)

Ok, my turn

First off, the PPD file.
Someone described briefly what the PPD is in another post. Also, as you are new to computers, I'll let you into a little secret - and I am NOT being sarcastic when I say this.
It is one of the first things I would tell my computer students once we had completed the migration from learning by reading books, to learning by reading screens.
There is a wonderful tool on the Internet, called a search engine. I use one called 'Duckduckgo'. There's a similar tool called 'Google'. Mr Google, and Mr Ducky are your friends. You can ask them, almost anything.

Asking Duckduckgo what a PPD printer file is, gets a lot of answer links, but this one might explain it in a bit more detail that the member who described it earlier did.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PostScrip ... escription

Now, about those icons.

Printer icons are mostly generic. The ones in Windows should look different from the ones in a Mac or a Linux computer, and even though a Linux computer running the same flavour of mint can have different looking printer icons from another computer running that flavour of Mint (you can change the style of icons if you want them to be prettier), - all the Printer icons on any 'one machine' should look the same.

So, any time your computer thinks it has found a printer, it will stick an icon in the system.
You might have two printers connected - the printer will create two icons.
You might have one printer connected on USB and the computer finds that same printer on the WiFi network. It will create an extra icon.
So, if you think that is confusing - it gets better. Mint, and some other Linux distributions can use a 'driver' set of files provided by a Printer manufacturer.

You already downloaded one I think. The .deb file from Epson. If you clicked 'Install' when the little window popped up after you clicked on that file to see what it did, your laptop automatically added an icon to say it was installed.

If you found a 'ppd' file somewhere and installed that, the Laptop added another icon.

If your laptop detected your printer when you plugged it into the USB port and turned it on - chances are Mint installed the printer as a 'driverless' printer, with limited functions, but still able to print. Just no extra options to change stuff. You already know it did that, but the point is - the laptop created an icon for that.

So, my guess is that two icons were installed by the laptop.
One was when the laptop detected the Epson as being able to do basic printing and installed it without special drivers.
Two was when you installed the .deb file (or attempted to install Epson drivers some other way.

The fact that the icons look the same as the icons on your other computer is simply that all printer icons in your version of mint (as long as you haven't changed the look in settings) will look identical. If it is the same printer - even the words should be the same.

So deleting the icons that are NOT working on this laptop should not be able to delete the ones 1000 miles away.
Of course, after explaining all that it sort of gets easier.

When you delete those icons that are not working, from this new laptop - make sure the old laptop is turned OFF if you can, and that the printer is not connected to it.
Then do all the deleting and reinstalling and stuff on the new one.

[brian_p]

• UltraNewbie's requirement is to use a USB connection on her new laptop to print. This is the principal requirement. On this list the (non-paying) customer is always right . Everything else (icons, printers located a 1,000 miles away, an old laptop etc) is a distraction and not relevant to the main task

• As was said: I have never used the printer wirelessly and do not want to. Rather a strange statement when we know two latops and the printer are connected by wireless. Without this stipulation, setting up a print queue wirelessly would have been a minute's work. But, for some unknown and unexplained reason, it wasn't wanted.

• On page 1 of this thread a solution was proposed. It worked and the issue was essentially solved. However, it did not fulfill UltraNewbie's special needs.

• It was explained that these needs required getting drives from the Epson site. UltraNewbie has now download and installed them and correctly set up the queue, WF3520-USB.

• What remains is for her to test whether WF3520-USB can be printered to. This is the only remaining important task. Everything else is flim-flam and can be dealt with later.

[UltraNewbie]

It works! All the options are now available! Thank you to all who helped!

I just have one more question, to prepare myself for the future: What is the meaning of the message shown on the terminal after I installed this wonderful driver?

Printer drivers are deprecated and will stop working in a future version of CUPS.

Obviously it would make me very sad if my hard-won perfectly-working driver stopped working. What can I do to prevent this terrible fate, or at least delay it as long as possible? Is "a future version of CUPS" something that will install itself as part of an update to Mint 20.3? Or is it something that will only appear with a new version of Mint? Is there anything I can/should do to ensure that the current version of CUPS on my new laptop will *not* be replaced by a future version?

[brian_p]

It works! All the options are now available! Thank you to all who helped!

Now you can mark the issue as solved.

I just have one more question, to prepare myself for the future: What is the meaning of the message shown on the terminal after I installed this wonderful driver?

Printer drivers are deprecated and will stop working in a future version of CUPS.

Obviously it would make me very sad if my hard-won perfectly-working driver stopped working. What can I do to prevent this terrible fate, or at least delay it as long as possible? Is "a future version of CUPS" something that will install itself as part of an update to Mint 20.3? Or is it something that will only appear with a new version of Mint? Is there anything I can/should do to ensure that the current version of CUPS on my new laptop will *not* be replaced by a future version?

in 2/3 years CUPS will stop using printer drivers and Mint will fall in with that change. No one can delay or stop this. You will be given an alternative method to keep your printing system working. Don't worry. We have everything under control .

[brian_p]

in 2/3 years CUPS will stop using printer drivers and Mint will fall in with that change. No one can delay or stop this. You will be given an alternative method to keep your printing system working. Don't worry. We have everything under control .

I forgot to mention: you can future-proof your system against the changes to come by putting your printer on the network with wireless, which you have eschewed.

[UltraNewbie]

Responding to rossdv8:

I am actually quite an advanced Google Search user. 20+ years experience with that, home page on my browser is always set to Google's Advanced Search page, and it's a rare day that I don't run at least a couple of dozen searches using various filters and often using the intext: command, since Google destroyed the functionality of using quote marks around search terms/phrases several years ago, and now returns piles of fuzzy results instead of only results containing the precise term/phrase inside the quote marks. I inquired about PPD here in order to get a simple, limited explanation suited to the context of my inquiry.

I'm obviously not "new to computers" either, though I'm very new to trying to grasp the inner workings of computers as needed to do things like install drivers on Linux Mint that are not available directly from the built-in Software Manager. I'm definitely at the clumsily crawling infant stage as far as that aspect of computers is concerned. I aspire to toddle some day.

Re the two printer icons that mysteriously jumped from my old laptop to my new laptop, they represent two printers, of identical models, acquired by me at different times, and currently located 1000 miles apart. The icons are labelled on both laptops as:

EPSON_WF_3520_Series_user_Latitude_E6510
EPSON_WF_3520_Series_user_Latitude_E6510_2

The first icon appeared on the old laptop when I had just bought it, with Mint 17.3 preinstalled, and had a computer service shop install the printer driver. The second icon, sporting the "_2" appeared with no help from anyone, the first time I connected the second printer to the old laptop via USB. It has always been necessary to select the correct icon, corresponding to the printer that is physically present, in order to print (on the old laptop, but not on the new laptop, the Device URIs shown in Printers>Properties include the correct serial number for each printer).

E6510 is the model number of the old laptop, and I can't fathom any possible way that the new laptop could have acquired both of these detailed printer icon labels containing the old laptop's model number, without communicating with the old laptop (probably via the wireless router that I'm currently using). I can see how it might have learned directly from the one printer that is present, that that printer is using the icon label that contains the old laptop's model number, since that printer has wireless capability and current access to the same wireless network that both laptops have access to. Obviously the new laptop could not have learned of the existence of the faraway printer directly from that printer, since that printer is not only faraway, but completely powered off and not connected to any network, and not presently capable of communicating with anything. So somehow, the new laptop found and adopted the two printer icon labels by communicating with the old laptop. I did nothing to initiate this laptop-to-laptop communication, but it is clear to me that it occurred, and thus I have reason to be concerned that further uncommanded communication between these two laptops might occur. I always lean toward a "don't fix what ain't broke" policy, and not just with computers.

Happily, this new installation of a driver on the new laptop with a new icon, has been thoroughly successful, despite the continued presence of old nonfunctional printer icons in the new laptop. Thank you for your help and insights. You are an adventurous and hardy soul to have chosen to wade into this complicated effort when it was already so far along and still struggling.

[UltraNewbie]

Brian:

in 2/3 years CUPS will stop using printer drivers and Mint will fall in with that change. No one can delay or stop this. You will be given an alternative method to keep your printing system working. Don't worry. We have everything under control .

I'm glad you have everything under control. And I'm very impressed with your commitment to deal with me AGAIN in the future, regarding my printing needs.

I forgot to mention: you can future-proof your system against the changes to come by putting your printer on the network with wireless, which you have eschewed.

After finally achieving victory over the USB printing-scanning arrangement, I'm putting my "Don't fix what ain't broke" policy on steroids for the foreseeable future. Besides, I think you could all use a break from me. Will I get any warning when a modernized version of CUPS is about to kill my current printing arrangement? Or will I just be surprised when I suddenly can't print any more, and have to come running back here in a panic and throw myself at the mercy of you Wise Ones?

[brian_p]

Now for those pesky icons.

Icons represent print queues. The working WF3520 queue was installed by you at the start of this thread. Do you really need this queue? I would delete it with

Code: Select all

lpadmin -x WF3520

The other two printt queues are the result of aut-setup by cups-browsed from what it finds on your network. Do you really want auto-installation when you have your new working USB queue? I would do

Code: Select all

apt purge cups-browsed

[brian_p]

Will I get any warning when a modernized version of CUPS is about to kill my current printing arrangement? Or will I just be surprised when I suddenly can't print any more, and have to come running back here in a panic and throw myself at the mercy of you Wise Ones?

Everyone has been warned well in advance .

lpadmin: Printer drivers are deprecated and will stop working in a future version of CUPS.

It would also be expected that the Mint developers will have something to say on the matter closer to the time.

[UltraNewbie]

brian_p wrote: The working WF3520 queue was installed by you at the start of this thread. Do you really need this queue? I would delete it with

I got very, very brave and did that. The world did not come crashing down around me! Eventually I may get brave enough to delete the other two. But first I need to get all my files moved over and do other little housekeeping chores, so I can fully relocate to my shiny new Mint 20.3 laptop.

Thanks for all your help!

UltraNewbie