YDL 3.0 install and Epson C40UX printer

[Stephen Harker]

I have finally bitten the bullet and upgraded my iBook from YDL 2.3 to
3.0 using the archive, install and restore approach.  I have a fairly
large amount of software installed on /usr/local which was on a
separate partition and could be used easily after the restore.

I mostly use the iBook for work and mostly run LaTeX for papers (I use
the TeXLive, http://www.tug.org/texlive/, distribution with binaries I
compile for my self) and ispell for spelling correction (I have not
been impressed with aspell).  For other a lot of statistics and
graphics I use R, http://www.cran.r-project.org/, and gnuplot, which
still comes with YDL.  A lot of the other software I use is Fortran
based and compiles well with g77.  I will be very pleased when g95 is
useful since there are some programs I can't compile on my machine
since they use the later features, particularly in array handling
which I would like to use in my own programs.  I also use a range of
crystallography related programs, see http://www.ccp14.ac.uk/ or its
mirrors.  I prefer simple window managers and have stuck with fvwm for
this. 

Installation went well, I chose custom installation.  One suggestion
is that the buttons for `minimal' and `everything' should be at the
top.  The first time I went through the list after a while I was
automatically clicking on things to see what choices existed.  When I
clicked on the `minimal' button (realising just too late) I had to go
back and choose again!  I found the selection insufficiently fine
grained for my purposes and had to install some options manually
later.  These included ipxutils and ncpfs as Monash university uses a
Novell network for general services and I need to access some of
these.

Having installed I did a text login, then made and installed fvwm from
the fvwm2-2.2.4-9.src.rpm I had been using under YDL 2.3 and had
obtained earlier in the year from http://www.fvwm.org/.  Since then I
have found I had to install manually j2re from the distribution CDs.
To date the utilities I use that I have found I had to download and
install include xlockmore, gv (I am not impressed with ggv), povray
(used by one crystallography program) and blt (a tcl/tk module for
graphing used by another crystallography program).

On the whole this was quite impressive and the iBook ran well.  I was
able to use CUPS to set up and print to the three network printers I
use: a HP LJ4MV, LJ8000N and a Konica 7155 printer/copier.  I had been
using these from YDL 2.3 and had obtained the appropriate ppds for
them from the manufacturers web sites.  Having done this I thought
getting my Epson C40UX printer at home working should not be too
difficult. 

At home I connected the printer to the USB port and could see it with
usbview, I connected to CUPS and tried installing printer drivers.
CUPS could see the printer and had a range of drivers that seemed
should work.  

*      I tried the foomatic+GIMP-print drivers that were installed.
       The result was nothing would print.

*      I tried the one CUPS Epson NewStylus driver and got garbage
       printed on the pages.  This seemed to confirm a driver
       problem.

*      I checked my 7600 running YDL 2.3 and found I was using the
       CUPS+GIMP-print 4.2.3 drivers.  Looking on the YDL 3.0 CD's I
       found a CUPS-gimpprint rpm and I installed it.  After
       installing these I restarted CUPS, selected the appropriate
       driver, but got no output.

*      I downloaded the source for gimp-print-4.3.8, (tar.gz), made
       and installed this.  Restarted CUPS, selected the appropriate
       driver, still no output.

*      I had the gimp-print-4.2.3 tar.gz on a CD from an earlier
       backup, so I made and installed this.  Restarted CUPS, selected
       the CUPS+GIMP-print 4.2.3 driver.  Bingo!  I got output.

Since a number of people have been having trouble printing to Epson
printers I would suggest they try manually installing the gimp-print
drivers.  If there is a common version that works then it is worth
reporting.  At the least my experiences agree with the previous
posters problems with printing to an Epson printer, but do give a
pointer to a trial and error method that _might_ lead to a solution.

-- 
Stephen Harker                           Stephen.Harker@spme.monash.edu.au
School of Physics and Materials Engineering
Monash University                       http://www.ph.adfa.edu.au/s-harker/
                                 Baloney Baffles brains: Eric Frank Russell