Unexpected Printer Problem In Kubuntu and a Happy Ending

When I reinstalled Linux a couple of weeks back, I switched from Ubuntu to Kubuntu. No real firm reason, just a feel thing. Everything has been groovy since the switch, but everything was groovy before the switch, too.

I don’t print very often so it took me a while to find out that my install of Kubuntu did not have a driver for my Epson Stylus CX4800. When I set up the printer in Ubuntu, it was just a couple clicks on the next arrow and everything was set up.

Kubuntu knew that I was using the Epson Stylus CX4800. It kept telling me so on this screen:

When I click on Next however, the option to install a driver for the Epson Stylus CX4800 was not anywhere under the Epson list.

Rather then reinstall like I did when I had trouble with the NVIDIA graphics card, I decided to do some grasping at straws. I tried several things and it eventually worked. I can print again.

I’m not sure exactly which thing was needed, but here are some things that I know are currently happening on my computer.

These packages are installed:

• cupsys-driver-gutenprint
• foomatic-db-gutenprint
• ijsgutenprint
• libgutenprint2

I’m thinking the real magic was in this mess. I read a little about Gutenprint and Foomatic while trying to find an answer. So I gave them a shot. That didn’t magically fix it, but when I had to choose the driver, both options had Foomatic, Gutenprint, and ijs listed. If I remember correctly, installing one of them installs the others because of their intertwined dependencies.

Go get ‘em Adept Manager!

That didn’t quite seem to get us all the way working so I tried a trick that chejrw recommended in a comment on another one of my posts that (s)he said would have fixed my NVIDIA problem without a complete reinstall.

I edited the command to:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure cupsys

Then clicked through the options without changing anything. Lo and behold, the Epson Stylus CX4800 was an option when I tried adding the computer and is happily running on Kubuntu now.

Does anybody know what difference there could be between Ubuntu 7.04 and Kubuntu 7.04? I thought they were pretty closely related besides using Gnome versus KDE. So maybe the better question is what difference could there be between Gnome versus KDE that would result in printers working by default in one but not the other?

I’ll get around to testing the scanner part someday.