No printing...not even cat works

[MighMos]

I have an Epson C60 hooked up to my computer via USB. I have now managed to get most basic system stuff working under linux, and printing is the last one. It works under windows, but not under linux. It looks like its there, under /dev/usb/lp0 , but CUPS doesn't work, and I can't even do cat "some text file" > /dev/usb/lp0 (as root). I looked under /proc/bus/usb/devices, and it sees it:

T: Bus=01 Lev=01 Prnt=01 Port=00 Cnt=01 Dev#= 2 Spd=12 MxCh= 0
D: Ver= 1.10 Cls=00(>ifc ) Sub=00 Prot=00 MxPS= 8 #Cfgs= 1
P: Vendor=04b8 ProdID=0005 Rev= 1.00
S: Manufacturer=EPSON
S: Product=USB Printer
S: SerialNumber=W35050110120642450
C:* #Ifs= 1 Cfg#= 1 Atr=c0 MxPwr= 2mA
I: If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 2 Cls=07(print) Sub=01 Prot=02 Driver=usblp
E: Ad=01(O) Atr=02(Bulk) MxPS= 64 Ivl=0ms
E: Ad=82(I) Atr=02(Bulk) MxPS= 64 Ivl=0ms

So I'm sure it sees it. Do I need to pass any kernel options perhaps or something? I went so far as to build all USB modules directly in, to make sure they were there. It didn't work under 2.4.* or 2.6.0_test*. Any help would be appriciated.

[bigrigdriver]

There are many of us who would like to help, but we need more info from you. What distro are you trying to run cups under? Did cups come with the distro, or did you download it from the 'net? Did you get rpm or tarball? Did you read the README and INSTALL notes? Is there anything in the docs about which version of gcc the package was compiled under? Does your system have the same version of gcc? Did you try to recompile the cups package?
Input. Need more input. per Jhonny 5.

[MighMos]

Ok, sorry about that. I am running Gentoo, so it (cups) was built from source. But I figure at least I should be able to cat data to it right :confused: ? I'm using devfs if that makes a difference.

[je_fro]

http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/printing-howto.xml

That worked for me. If it fails, what step?

[DerekKraan]

I have the Epson C82, and it is(or should be) a very similar printer in how it works.

Steps to success(or things you might've screwed up. ;)):

Don't use /dev/usb/lp0. It wouldn't work for me when I tried that device. Instead, make sure your printer is turned on and connected before you power up. You will see a different option to connect to in the web based CUPS interface.

Check the output of gs -h to make sure the settings are correct. If you're not sure, attach a file with the output in it. Then we can tell you.

Install the gimp-print drivers. They're the ones I use.

I've heard that you can't cat files to these printers. I'll try it and get back to you if you can.

Change your CUPS configuration to print debug messages to its log file. Then check the log file to see at what steps it's failing. I'm not sure how to do this anymore, but I could find out if the above steps don't work for you.

[MighMos]

OK, gs -h displayed this:

ESP Ghostscript 7.05.6 (2003-02-05)
Copyright (C) 2002 artofcode LLC, Benicia, CA. All rights reserved.
Usage: gs [switches] [file1.ps file2.ps ...]
Most frequently used switches: (you can use # in place of =)
-dNOPAUSE no pause after page | -q `quiet', fewer messages
-g<width>x<height> page size in pixels | -r<res> pixels/inch resolution
-sDEVICE=<devname> select device | -dBATCH exit after last file
-sOutputFile=<file> select output file: - for stdout, |command for pipe,
embed %d or %ld for page #
Input formats: PostScript PostScriptLevel1 PostScriptLevel2 PDF
Available devices:
x11 x11alpha x11cmyk x11mono x11cmyk2 x11cmyk4 x11cmyk8 x11rg16x x11rg32x
x11gray2 x11gray4 bbox bff bit bitcmyk bitrgb bmp16 bmp16m bmp256 bmp32b
bmpa16 bmpa16m bmpa256 bmpa32b bmpamono bmpasep1 bmpasep8 bmpgray bmpmono
bmpsep1 bmpsep8 ccr cfax cgm24 cgm8 cgmmono cif dfaxhigh dfaxlow epswrite
faxg3 faxg32d faxg4 inferno jpeg jpeggray mag16 mag256 mgr4 mgr8 mgrgray2
mgrgray4 mgrgray8 mgrmono miff24 pbm pbmraw pcx16 pcx24b pcx256 pcx2up
pcxcmyk pcxgray pcxmono pdfwrite pgm pgmraw pgnm pgnmraw pkm pkmraw pksm
pksmraw plan9bm png16 png16m png256 pnggray pngmono pnm pnmraw ppm ppmraw
psgray psmono psrgb pswrite sgirgb sunhmono sxlcrt tiff12nc tiff24nc
tiffcrle tiffg3 tiffg32d tiffg4 tifflzw tiffpack alc2000 alc4000 alc8500
alc8600 ap3250 appledmp atx23 atx24 atx38 bj10e bj10v bj10vh bj200 bjc600
bjc800 bjc880j bjccmyk bjccolor bjcgray bjcmono cdeskjet cdj1600 cdj500
cdj550 cdj670 cdj850 cdj880 cdj890 cdj970 cdjcolor cdjmono chp2200 cljet5
cljet5c cljet5pr coslw2p coslwxl cp50 declj250 deskjet dj505j djet500
djet500c djet820c dl2100 dmprt dnj650c epl2050 epl2050p epl2120 epl5800
epl5900 epl6100 eps9high eps9mid epson epsonc escp escpage escpc fmlbp
fmpr fs600 gdi hl1240 hl1250 hl7x0 hpdj1120c hpdj310 hpdj320 hpdj340
hpdj400 hpdj500 hpdj500c hpdj510 hpdj520 hpdj540 hpdj550c hpdj560c
hpdj600 hpdj660c hpdj670c hpdj680c hpdj690c hpdj850c hpdj855c hpdj870c
hpdj890c hpdjplus hpdjportable ibmpro imagen iwhi iwlo iwlq jetp3852
jj100 la50 la70 la75 la75plus laserjet lbp310 lbp320 lbp8 lex2050 lex3200
lex5700 lex7000 lips2p lips3 lips4 lips4v lj250 lj3100sw lj4dith lj4dithp
lj5gray lj5mono ljet2p ljet3 ljet3d ljet4 ljet4d ljet4pjl ljetplus ln03
lp1800 lp1900 lp2000 lp2200 lp2563 lp3000c lp7700 lp8000 lp8000c lp8100
lp8200c lp8300c lp8300f lp8400f lp8500c lp8600 lp8600f lp8700 lp8800c
lp8900 lp9300 lp9400 lp9600 lp9600s lq850 lx5000 lxm3200 lxm5700m m8510
md1xMono md2k md50Eco md50Mono md5k mj500c mj6000c mj700v2c mj8000c ml600
necp6 npdl oce9050 oki182 oki4w okiibm paintjet pcl3 photoex picty180 pj
pjetxl pjxl pjxl300 pr1000 pr1000_4 pr150 pr201 pxlcolor pxlmono r4081
rpdl samsunggdi sj48 st800 stcolor t4693d2 t4693d4 t4693d8 tek4696
uniprint xes cups ijs omni nullpage
Search path:
. : /usr/share/ghostscript/7.05/lib : /usr/share/ghostscript/fonts :
/usr/share/fonts/default/ghostscript : /usr/share/fonts/default/Type1 :
/usr/share/fonts/default/TrueType : /usr/lib/DPS/outline/base :
/usr/openwin/lib/X11/fonts/Type1 : /usr/openwin/lib/X11/fonts/TrueType
For more information, see /usr/share/ghostscript/7.05/doc/Use.htm.
Report bugs to bug-gs@ghostscript.com, using the form in Bug-form.htm.

And how would I tell cups to echo back debugging messages?

[DerekKraan]

Open up /var/log/cups/error_log

If that has any errors that might point you in the right direction, then don't bother with editing the config file. If it doesn't, then edit a line in /etc/cups/cupsd.conf. There will be a line somewhere in there that says LogLevel info. Change it to say LogLevel debug.

After that, try to print something, check back with /var/log/cups/error_log and post anything suspicious looking to here.

BTW, your gs looks fine, so you're not experiencing the same stupid mistake as I was. :P