# Epson Stylus Color 760 problems :(

## invalid account

Hello,

I am following the Gentoo printing guide http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/printing-howto.xml

and I am having some problems. I have installed cups and foomatic. The printer is using USB and I have usb printing support module loaded.

I can print to the deveice using:

cat > /dev/usb/lp0

hello

^L 

The control L is needed to feed the page out

However when I select a printer driver Epson Stylus Color 760 *

I try to print a test page, but the printer always reports " Media tray empty" when it isn't and no jobs print. If I use a RAW driver then the test page just prints some PS junk.

Please can anyone help here.

Thanks

NeilLast edited by invalid account on Tue Jan 20, 2004 7:35 am; edited 1 time in total

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## Ian Goldby

Is it possible that the PPD file allows a choice of media trays, and the default (or the one you have selected) doesn't exist?

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## invalid account

This is all I have on my configure printer page:

 Choose default options for Epson.

                        General

                Page Size: [A4______________]

   Resolution, Media Type: [360x360dpi, plain paper__]

                           Continue

                        Banners

          Starting Banner: [none________]

            Ending Banner: [none________]

                           Continue

Unless there is another location I can set the media from. (I have only just got the web interface to work with lynx so there may be something I am missing)

Cheers

Neil

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## invalid account

Mmmm

I have now also lost the ability to use:

cat > /dev/usb/lp0

hello

^L

and printing RAW test pages also fails ?

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## Ian Goldby

I'm baffled. There must be something different now that is stopping it receiving even raw text via cat. Do note however that non-ancient Epson printers go into 'packet mode' when you print graphics, and have to be reset before they can print raw text again. Also, check to see if CUPS is trying to use the device and hence stopping cat from accessing it. You didn't say what error you get, or precisely what order you did things. That could be rather important. You do keep a log book, don't you?  :Wink: 

I'd also advise leaving foomatic out of the equation. Although the Gentoo Printing Guide recommends it, it really is completely unnecessary, at least with Epson printers. On the other hand, it is a very good idea to install gimp-print (make sure you have CUPS in your use variables). gimp-print gives you a much higher quality driver. You'll need to reinstall the printer after emerging gimp-print of course to use the new driver.

You may be lucky and that alone might mysteriously solve the problem.

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## invalid account

OK

I plugged the printer back into my windows box (shudder) and printed  a test page. Then plugged it back into my Gentoo box and I can now cat to the device.

I am just emerging gimp-print now (I am not sure what to do with it when it is merge?), but it is not fast, and sleep is quicly catching me up, so I will report how I get on with it tomorrow.

Thanks

Neil

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## invalid account

I had to wait up to see if it worked 

Great the gimp-print sovled it.

Thank you 

Neil  :Very Happy: 

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## Ian Goldby

Glad to hear it!

Some more information about packet mode - it doesn't quite add up, but have a read anyway:

 *http://cvs.sourceforge.net/viewcvs.py/gimp-print/print/doc/FAQ.html?rev=1.5 wrote:*   

> I tried to test my Epson printer by 'cat .cshrc > /dev/lp0' and nothing prints!!!???
> 
> The classic test of printer connectivity -- sending an ASCII file to it -- doesn't work on many Epson printers out of the box (or after printing from Windows or Macintosh). Epson printers from the Stylus Color 740 and newer use a special "packet mode" in which they do not recognize standard commands or ASCII text. They must be sent a special sequence that takes them out of packet mode. The command 
> 
> escputil -u -s -r /dev/lp0
> ...

 

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## drekka

I have the same problem with the same hardware. It worked fine under 2.4.23, but under 2.6.3 I get the media tray empty bug. I've unmerged gimp-print, cups and foomatic and re-emerged them then reinstalled the driver. Still no change and still get the bug.

Any thoughts ?

ciao

Derek.

P.S. This is a bloody stupid bug that should have been picked up in testing.

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## rberry88

I had the same problem with my Epson CX5200 but instead of using gimp-print, I tried gimp-print-ijs and its been working fine ever since. Oh, this is with kernel 2.6.4-rc1.

rberry88

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