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installing a printer

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Can anyone tell me how to install a printer?

It's my first week with debian and the printer installer doesn't seem to work.

What is a simple operation doesn't happen with this debian 4 etch O/S, although i have installed the same printer easily on Mandriva and on Ubuntu Hardy Heron.

There are confusing questions in the dialog box and then the installed printer refuses to work.

I have an Epson D92 printer on port usb#1 and i need to install the Epson D68 driver for it from the drop-down list, as Linux doesn't do D92 drivers.

When i try to select the D68 driver, nothing seems to happen, but there is a dialog box at the bottom of the page, which suggests installing a driver i do not need called Standard? So how can i install an Epson D68 driver with this debian software? Am I missing an instruction somewhere?

After that the dialog boxes try to get me to install an Adobe PPD file and direct me to the desktop, which is empty. Why this happens i do not know. I have never heard of a ppd file, and no other O/S asked me for one. What's going on.

Does debian printer software actually work? Or is it one of those common Linux half-finished programs? Help required.

Regards
Kureyamu

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Re: installing a printer

Submitted by Eeltje on Fri, 2008-05-09 04:11.

You are not very specific about what you use to install a printer!
Do you use CUPS? In a browser type as address localhost:631.

--
Eeltje de Vries

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Re: installing a printer

Submitted by kureyamu on Sat, 2008-05-10 14:21.

Hello Eeltie

I am not specific because I do not understand the jargon or concepts.

To install my printer previously on Ubuntu and Mandriva, English and common sense were sufficient.

However, this is debian, and there are several basic functions which just are not user friendly. Anyway, I shall persist and thank you for offering to help.

I had never heard of localhost 631 so i used a browser as you said (on Ubuntu) and wow, it gave so much information and I printed out a test page :-D

but that was Ubuntu

I switched computers to my other (I have two elderly comps) which has Debian, tried localhost 631 and tried to add my printer - it would not allow me to add a printer because it refused to recognise my user name/password and my root name/password ... also it did not recognise that there was a printer on a usb port

Concerning Cups, I have not tried installing with it because my computer is not part of a network ... as far as I know ... (the two computers are connected to a modem-router but I have made no attempts to link them together so that they can share each other's data)

I have been to Desktop/Administration/printing and tried to add the printer as a local printer - it appears to be added and it says "ready" but it doesn't function - I have removed it several times and re-added it, to no effect ... and I still don't know why it asks me for an Adobe PPD file (whatever that is).

If you know of any command lines that I can use in a root terminal I should be grateful:
I tried "detect printer" for example, but of course it didn't work ...

Thank you.
kureyamu

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Re: installing a printer

Submitted by kureyamu on Sat, 2008-05-10 19:17.

Hello

I managed to cure the problem by that long-winded method of re-installing the whole O/S, using exactly the same procedures as before, but on re-installation the printer installed and worked immediately.

Regards
Kureyamu

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