The plot thickens ...
I started with:
I attempted fixing it by deleting the printer and reinstalling it; I
chose a different driver: Epson Stylus Photo 870 Foomatic/Stp870p.upp.
Roger Leigh wrote:
This appears to be a Ghostscript UniPrint driver. I wouldn't
recommend this one.
Install cupsys-driver-gimpprint (stable) or cupsys-driver-gutenprint
(testing/unstable). This will support your printer correctly.
Go to http://locahost:631, and you can add a new printer, and choose
your model from the list.
Tried that; ended up with:
EPSON Stylus Photo 870 - CUPS+Gimp-Print v4.2.7
That seemed to work, generating a nice preview of my homepage:
http://www.georgesbasement.com/ but when I tried printing that, it went
through all the motions but nothing ended up in the print queue. That
is a typical sign of trouble in my recent experience. However, this
driver does let me print a PDF file successfully even when HTML files
go into the bit bucket instead of getting spooled.
Here's the routine:
...
Name: EPSON%20Stylus%20Photo%20870
Location: /dev/usb [/dev/usb/lp0 instead ?]
Description: Epson Stylus Photo 870
...
Device: USB Printer #1 (Epson Stylus Photo 870)
Model/Driver for EPSON%20Stylus%20Photo%20870
EPSON Stylus Photo 870 - CUPS+Gimp-Print v4.2.7
That's the only choice that appears when I pick "Device: USB
Printer #1 (Epson Stylus Photo 870)"
When instead I pick "MTINK directory (Epson Stylus directory)" it
offers the same driver (EPSON Stylus Photo 870 - CUPS+Gimp-Print v4.2.7).
All other MTINK choices produce the same list of drivers. It comes down
to a choice between "Epson Stylus Photo 870 Foomatic/Stp870p.upp" and
"EPSON Stylus Photo 870 - CUPS+Gimp-Print v4.2.7."
When I try:
sudo apt-get install cupsys-driver-gimpprint
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
cupsys-driver-gimpprint is already the newest version.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 1 not upgraded.
So I already have cupsys-driver-gimpprint, but it's not working.
What about ipp (Internet Printing Protocol) ?
When I try that route, CUPS asks for a URL such as:
file:/path/to/filename.prn
http://hostname:631/ipp/
http://hostname:631/ipp/port1
ipp://hostname/ipp/
ipp://hostname/ipp/port1
lpd://hostname/queue
socket://hostname
socket://hostname:9100
but I'm down to zero confidence as to the appropriate route. However,
your suggested print driver seems to reduce the problem's magnitude. I
can now print PDF's; OpenOffice (SXW) files print OK, too. But whether
I try HTML files with OpenOffice or from Firefox, they just disappear
into oblivion and no new jobs appear in CUPS.
For a while I thought I'd just give up on this printer and connect it
instead to a Windows PC ... but then I found out that Epson printers
are just about the best ones to use with Linux. So I'd have an even
worse hassle with a new printer.
If you use the appropriate driver (Gutenprint/Gimp-Print), you will
get superb output. Regards, Roger
Progress ! Excellent output from the PDF viewer and OpenOffice SXW's
but not with HTML files, even though OK previews appear on screen.
Best regards,
George
George Langford
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
