# Printing will not work

## ed-gentoo

Hello. I have the following printers:

parallel printer Epson 880

usb printer Epson 810 (on usb hub)

cups, gimp-print-cups, and ghostprint

usbprinting modules, parallel print support in the kernel

Cups is working and starts at boot too. When I go to the administration page and add the epson 810 with corrosonding driver it is neatly visable on the printer page. It says /dev/usblp0 but it won't print. It stops at 6%. When I look in /dev there is no usblp0 but there is a empty folder usb, as well as a empty folder parralel. I can't make a parralel printer in cups for there is no option "parralel" in the pull down menu.

During the boot there are no visable errors. The usb hub is regonised and the it says usblp0 bidirectional ... (it goes to fast to read)

Questions are:

- how can I get a parralell printer configured using my cups

- how can I get usblp0

thanks in advance

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## pjp

Moved from Installing Gentoo.

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## kermitjunior

I'm going to recompile my kernel for good measure, but I'm certain I have parallel printer support compiled in.  Cups runs great... shows everything fine.  Weird part is there are about 7 Epson Stylus Color 900  listed in CUPS.  I'm currently emerging -u world; emerge openoffice

so it could be awhile  :Smile: 

BTW, I went through the entire Gentoo Printing Documentation and also the n00b's guide.  No luck.

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## sleek

For the parallel printer you need to do this:

emerge ghostscript

emerge cups

emerge gimp-print-cups

emerge ghostscript

Yes, you need to do the ghostscript twice in that order.  In the kernel enable these:

Parallel port support (compiled in)

PC Style Hardware (compiled in)

Character Devices -->

Parallel printer support (compiled in)

Save the configuration, then compile your kernel as usual.  Reboot into the new kernel and then point your browser to http://localhost:631

Once you get there, click on Manage Printers.  Then Add Printer.  If you are asked to log in, use your root username and root password.  From there you'll do this:

Name:  Epson_Stylus-880

Location:  /dev/lp0

Description:  My cool parallel port printer

Device:  Parallel Port #1 (Epson)

Make:  Epson

Mode:  EPSON Stylus Color 880, CUPS + GIMP-Print v4.3.5 (en)

Then print a Test Page.

If you've followed all these steps then you should have a nice pretty page printed on your printer.

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## kermitjunior

 *sleek wrote:*   

> For the parallel printer you need to do this:
> 
> If you've followed all these steps then you should have a nice pretty page printed on your printer.

 

Followed to the letter.  Nothing.  I tried unmerging all printer related stuff, etc.  Nothing anymore.  I'm hitting the 24 hr mark for printer crap and I'm actually about to give up on it.  That means I'll have to wait another few months until I feel like dealing with gentoo again.   :Mad: 

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## sleek

In /etc/cups/cupsd.conf change the LogLevel configuration line to this:

LogLevel info

Then do:

/etc/init.d/cupsd restart

Now try to do all the instructions from my previous post and then try to print the test page.

/var/log/cups/error_log will contain any errors that cups has found

Perhaps they will help you solve your mystery problem  :Wink: 

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## ed-gentoo

I changed some things in the kernel. I know have the following when typing lsmod:

printer module loaded (unused)

usbcore module loaded 1 (printer)

what can I do now to get the printer to work?????

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## bLanark

Are you still having trouble? I have just got my old epson parallel printer working.

In the kernel, I have 

```

CONFIG_PARPORT=m

CONFIG_PARPORT_PC=m

```

I also have a module called "lp", I have no idea which kernel option builds this, possibly this one from .config:  

```

CONFIG_PRINTER=m

```

Before I can print, I have to modprobe lp (I could autoload it, of course), which loads parport_pc, which loads parport.

Now I can copy a text file to the /dev/lp0 device 

```

cp fee /dev/lp0

```

which shows that the printer is working OK. 

Does this help you any?

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