MX Linux Forum

I’ve been given some old 32 bit laptops which I am loading with MXLinux for use by disadvantaged kids in schools. I know a local Councillor whose remit is working to alleviate poverty locally.

I’ve installed Gutenprint on the first one (I use this print app successfully on my own Linux Ubuntu installation). However, it recognises and sends to my printer but there is no print. Any ideas how to troubleshoot this please?

Also - is there a favourite print app that works with most printers?

If anyone has a view on good apps to pre-install for kids please comment.

Printer: Epson ET-2815 ecotank

Computer: Fujistsu/Siemens Amilo Li 1718

Will your target users have access to an Epson Ecotank?

Found the Linux driver for it here;

https://www.havedrivers.com/2021/10/eps ... nload.html

Not 100% sure about 32 bit support though.

Hi j2mcgreg, gimcrack, No, it’s the only printer I have, so I’m testing with it. I used Gutenprint because it worked with my own installation and I’m trying to find something I can put out there on these MX units which has a good chance of working with whatever the new user can print to.

Thanks both for your input, ideas very welcome.

Jeffrey wrote: Sun Nov 12, 2023 7:55 am Hi j2mcgreg, gimcrack, No, it’s the only printer I have, so I’m testing with it. I used Gutenprint because it worked with my own installation and I’m trying to find something I can put out there on these MX units which has a good chance of working with whatever the new user can print to.

Thanks both for your input, ideas very welcome.

Not sure what you was trying to print out. But, if it was a .pdf file. You might need Ghostscript install as well.

I just wrote “test” on a LibreWriter doc and tried to print it. I’ll install Ghostscript too now.

Thanks.

@Jeffrey First off - good on you for doing this! I used to run 12 to 20 machines a year out to boys homes, church groups and disadvantaged youth programs and its very rewarding!

gutenprint was the best all around printer drivers set I could find and seemed to work really well when I was doing this. ( MX17 - mx19 and Mint). Interestingly, your printer is not listed in the print lists for the current gutenprint ( 5.2.7 version.) However, I still think this is the best thing you can do for 'generic printer driver' that covers many printers.

As for programs... I loaded up the machines I donated with:
As many games as I could find
Various software from image work to document editing (scribus and inkscape etc)
Several music players and a spattering of music (ya, I know shouldnt really have done that.)
Some *simple* programming tools
And preloaded the web browsers with good safety utils and then a host of links to all kinds of interesting, educational web sites. (including lots of science things and linux links.)

CharlesV wrote: Sun Nov 12, 2023 11:29 am @Jeffrey First off - good on you for doing this! I used to run 12 to 20 machines a year out to boys homes, church groups and disadvantaged youth programs and its very rewarding!

gutenprint was the best all around printer drivers set I could find and seemed to work really well when I was doing this. ( MX17 - mx19 and Mint). Interestingly, your printer is not listed in the print lists for the current gutenprint ( 5.2.7 version.) However, I still think this is the best thing you can do for 'generic printer driver' that covers many printers.

As for programs... I loaded up the machines I donated with:
As many games as I could find
Various software from image work to document editing (scribus and inkscape etc)
Several music players and a spattering of music (ya, I know shouldnt really have done that.)
Some *simple* programming tools
And preloaded the web browsers with good safety utils and then a host of links to all kinds of interesting, educational web sites. (including lots of science things and linux links.)

Thanks for the kind words!

I’m not particularly well versed in Linux so feeling my way along really. I don’t yet know enough for some of the choices I could make. Which safety utils should I look for? Which simple programming tools? I’ve used Qwant as the search engine.

Do you know how I could troubleshoot Gutenprint - which works just fine on my Ubuntu Dell laptop.

Thanks again!

j

For safety extensions: AdBlock Plus or uOrigin, Then I move to DuckDuckGo.com as the home page and also add their extension. And then I remove all other search engines. ( especially yahoo )

For programming: python is all the rage, so a good place to start is to install the Wing Personal Python IDE. It has pretty much everything needed to learn and build Python.
https://wingware.com/downloads/wing-personal

There are others too - I personally think Pascal is a great language to learn first, and on linux it is very strong too. Lazarus would be the best ide for that.
https://wingware.com/downloads/wing-personal

If the person truly wants into programming and to work it all, then they will figure out the rest :-)

In my experience, most Gutenprint problems are between CUPS and Gutenprint, or not having a driver that really works with your printer.

Since I know that the EcoTank printers work in linux, yet I dont see a Gutenprint driver for that printer... I have to believe that is where the issue is. Personally, I would not work too hard at trying to get that printer working for machines you are going to send out, unless your wanting to ship out or recommend THAT printer.

If your wanting to get it working on your machine, then I would just use CUPS and set it up there, but make sure you install the epson ESC/P-R driver. ( MX Package Installer | Enabled Repos - search for printer-driver-escpr ) If it already installed then reinstall it. As I recall, that was all I needed to setup the EcoTanks.

I found the driver as suggested & installed - still unable to print. I understand that you question my concern over a printer which would be unlikely to be the one which will be the user’s target. However, as this in my first machine for this project I need to be confident that it can print - and this is the only printer I have.

Jeffrey wrote: Tue Nov 14, 2023 11:33 am I found the driver as suggested & installed - still unable to print. I understand that you question my concern over a printer which would be unlikely to be the one which will be the user’s target. However, as this in my first machine for this project I need to be confident that it can print - and this is the only printer I have.

A better plan of attack would be to ask your friend the councillor to loan you one of the printers they plan to use in the project and the work on setting it up.

Ok, I really appreciate all your help, encouragement and advice in this.

Best wishes - Jeffrey

@Jeffrey Also, if your ok with it obviously, you might volunteer a couple of hours to help getting the machine setup for printing etc. (if they need it.) I provided 10 hrs of tech for my first large computer donation to the boys school, (they were all 'linux?) lol... using something like teamviewer or anydesk you could help them remotely.

Thanks again. BTW, It seems that Wing Python and Lazarus Pascal are not now available for 32 bit machines…..

I’ll take a look at teamviewer and anydesk.

j.

Lazarus still shows 32bit linux downloads ?

https://www.lazarus-ide.org/index.php?page=downloads

For Python, both Eric and Idle are good and will do a job for learning how to.

Hi

IMHO gutenprint is not answer. Not sure what the package name on 32 bit is....but on my 64 bit its called printer-driver-escpr

Changing maker to Epson I can see on 64 bit......... models ET-2800 & ET-2810 ....suggesting 2810 try first

https://imgur.com/h3rn8Pv

This came as a surprise to me, we used to include the printer-driver-escpr package preinstalled in our official ISO builds!

My suggestion is to install the packages for the most common printer models you have in your counrty/area. Here it's Brother, HP and Epson. HP drivers are already installed through the packages hplip and hplip-data but their UI element hplip-ui is not. I do not recommend you preinstall the UI, leave that to the individual users. There is however no harm in preloading the following;
printer-driver-brlaser
printer-driver-escpr
printer-driver-gutenprint

Note, the modern Gutenprint will download drivers on-demand as printers are set-up, rather than put them all on your system at installation.

MX is shipped with the ahavi daemon enabled at startup, so it will detect all networked printers that use Rendezvous or Bonjour to advertise their existence on the network. With the appropriate driver packages installed, the correct driver should be automatically added and the printer should just appear in the CUPS list of configured printers. This does however cause some conflicts and often the printer is set up with the Bonjour URI, which is doomed to fail.

Special note to be aware of with networked printers, I always set up or change the URI for network connected printers to use ipp/ip-address:631/ipp This seems to never fail, however, I also always pin printers to a single IP address at the router first, then using the printers control panel. I found as a mobile IT Tech that most of my call-outs for network printer related issues were due to dynamic IP addressing issues. With a dual-point static address setup, the network could be on the brink of falling over but the printer would still work.

Lots of good advice here - thank you everyone!