[GAVE UP] trying to print via usb/parallel cable

lalebarde · Last edited by lalebarde on Fri May 25, 2012 7:08 am; edited 1 time in total

Hi all,

This is not the first thread on that topic :
http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-752357-highlight-uri.html
http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-549055-start-0.html

But they are old post with hal which is deprecated. Nevertheless, I am in the same situation. I have an old EPSON LQ 500 printer with a parallel port. My PC does not have parallel port. Then I bought a usb to parallel port adapter.

CUPS does not find the printer.

Does anyone has made that working - printing throught a usb to parallel port adaptor ? How ? Or does someone has some clues ?

Some info :

It looks like the adaptor is seen (Prolific Technology, Inc. PL2305 Parallel Port) :

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Mon May 14, 2012 5:18 pm Post subject:

lalebarde,

Consider the USB/Parallel port as part of the printer, not part of your PC.
You attach it and have a USB printer.

Google indicates the power up order is important - the printer must be powered up before you boot the PC.
You have

lalebarde · Posted: Tue May 15, 2012 8:36 am Post subject:

Thanks for your help NeddySeagoon.

After having followed your advices, here is what I obtain :

i92guboj · Posted: Tue May 15, 2012 8:48 am Post subject:

As far as I know, parallel devices do not have that kind of magic power (to report themselves). So, you will either need some cups script to probe for it, or you will need to set it up by hand, using the correct port, driver, ppd and whatever, and hope for the best.

If your little test succeeded, though, you are on the right way. The communication between the pc and the printer is already set up. You just need to configure cups. The only problem is you won't get to it automagically.
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lalebarde · Posted: Tue May 15, 2012 10:49 am Post subject:

Thanks i92guboj.

It still does not work. Here is what I did :

1) download Epson-LQ-500-epson.ppd from http://www.openprinting.org/driver/epson and put it in /etc/cups/ppd with some additional symbolic links since I am not sure for the format :

lalebarde · Posted: Wed May 16, 2012 8:28 am Post subject:

1) Except the ppd file, I don't find drivers, like I have for my HP inkjet. Is it normal ?

2) I don't find information for the building of the printer URI when it has to be hand made i.e. when cups cannot find the printer. Even in the CUPS documentation. If you have some know-how to transmit, you are welcome.

3) If you have a dot matrix EPSON, even used with a normal parallel port, I would appreciate to get your configuration (/etc/cups/printers.conf), ppd, driver.

i92guboj · Posted: Wed May 16, 2012 11:07 am Post subject:

lalebarde · Posted: Wed May 16, 2012 12:38 pm Post subject:

I have already gutenprint installed, but it is of no help here :

i92guboj · Posted: Wed May 16, 2012 1:17 pm Post subject:

About the printer URI: nowadays, I usually configure cups using its localhost:631 web frontend. There you can find some tips about these URIs when creating a new printer. You can provide your own ppd and it should set it up for you.
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lalebarde · Posted: Wed May 23, 2012 8:05 am Post subject:

Thanks i92guboj. I had a look into the CUPS interface of course, and the CUPS online documentation also. But it is of no help. It is very minimalist, with a single example for network printers. I found other examples on the web, but nothing works.

I wonder if Linux is design to allow devices to be connected throught links that are not the original/former ones ? In other words, is there a solution to this problem ?

I would have liked a PCI card solution, but I have no PCI plug left ! Probably I will be obliged to give up and to connect this printer to a second PC where I have room for the PCI card and share it on the network. But having to switch it on just to print makes me crazy.

i92guboj · Posted: Wed May 23, 2012 2:47 pm Post subject:

I don't think this has to do with how linux handles things, since it can actually see your printer, and you said that the printer reacts when you echo text to the device node.

I think this has more to do with the arcane knowledge that you need to use cups, and how it's designed. This, alongside alsa, has been probably what has given me the worst linux experience above anything else you can think of. Even my old conexant hfs winmodem with its proprietary driver behaved better than cups. I think cups is evil.

To make it worse, cups seems to be deprecating quite some things with 1.6. There's some debate about that on the internet. We all can start shivering now. :evil:

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lalebarde · Posted: Thu May 24, 2012 9:19 am Post subject:

lol

& cry

So I am going to buy a PCI card !

i92guboj · Posted: Thu May 24, 2012 10:31 am Post subject:

Not that this will solve your problem, but in case you want to keep an eye on it in the future, there's someone developing something that could some day fix this mess. I am keeping an eye on printerd, but I have no idea whether this will end up being something or not. In case you want to take a look (even though there's little for you to look at at this moment), here you have some links.

http://cyberelk.net/tim/2012/05/10/announcing-printerd/
http://cyberelk.net/tim/2012/05/23/some-benefits-of-printerd/
http://gitorious.org/printerd
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lalebarde · Posted: Fri May 25, 2012 7:08 am Post subject:

Thanks for the information. It is worth keeping an eye on it.

DirtyHairy · Posted: Fri May 25, 2012 7:18 am Post subject:

Hi lalebarde! Sorry I didn't see this post earlier, I do have a parallel port printer (HP laserjet 5L) working via a USB -> parallel cable. However, newer CUPS versions use libusb and _not_ the kernel USB printer driver to communicate with the printer. So, you'll have to either blacklist usblp or remove it from your kernel config; after that, it should work. The fact that you have a /dev/usblp0 shows that the conflicting driver is active and has claimed the interface. If it doesn't work even after removing the kernel driver, check /dev/bus/usb --- if you plug in the printer, a new node should appear down there somewhere, belonging to the lp group. In my case, this looks like

schoett · n00b Joined: 26 Jan 2003 Posts: 62

lalebarde · Posted: Tue May 29, 2012 4:28 pm Post subject:

Thanks DirtyHairy,
I have fullfilled your recommandations, and a node is actually created :

DirtyHairy · Posted: Wed May 30, 2012 8:55 pm Post subject:

The relevant part of /etc/cups/printer.conf is

destroyedlolo · Posted: Thu May 31, 2012 8:48 am Post subject:

lalebarde · Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2012 7:03 am Post subject:

Nothing works for me :cry:

except direct echo that actually prints !!!

destroyedlolo · Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2012 8:16 am Post subject:

For me, I can print a test page from CUPS meaning the printing system works ... but applications can't see the printer .

I really duno what/how printer are exposed to applications ... but it's starting to be very annoying : the only thing I didn't tried yet is to rebuild my kernel without USB support, but CUPS' build message said it should work as it is.