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Atlante

Member

Registered: 2025-05-01

Posts: 14  

Inability to install printer

Hello everyone.

The printer in question is my old Epson XP-2101. CUPS detects it as an Epson XP-2100 (Series) with a USB connection.

The procedure I follow, once CUPS detects the printer, is as follows:
1) I download the printer and scanner drivers from the official Epson website. I verify the architecture (64-bit), and the only ones available for download are those labeled DEB X 64 (ARM).

2) I extract them using Xarchiver (using the "Extract Here" option). Xarchiver graphically displays the extraction process. I've also used the "Extract To" option.

3) I go to the localhost 631 website and register as a user.

4) I go to "Add Printers." I select my printer, which has already been detected.

5) I add the URI provided by the CUPS graphical wizard. 6) I enter my printer name correctly, exactly as CUPS detects it.
7) The procedure ends with the message "Printer added."
8) I restart the computer, try to print, and the printer neither prints nor scans.

I've successfully performed this procedure several times with KDE Plasma and Cinnamon. I'm not sure if the problem lies with Xarchiver, as I understand it's a very powerful tool.

Some important details:

A) The drivers from the official Epson website are downloaded in tar.gz format, so I have to convert them to .deb format. I did this using the Alien program. After completing this operation, the terminal output was as follows:

"mkdir: cannot create directory ‘epson-inkjet-printer-escpr-1.8.6’: The file already exists
unable to mkdir epson-inkjet-printer-escpr-1.8.6: at /usr/share/perl5/Alien/Package.pm line 257, <FILELIST> line 718."

Does this mean that the package already exists in .deb format? If so, where is it? How can I find it? How do I install it?

B) The CUPS graphical wizard doesn't respond to the "Troubleshooting" screen; that phase never opens (the mouse cursor is stuck in a spinning circle).

What am I doing wrong? Thank you for your comments.

P.D. Please excuse the syntax errors. I speak Spanish and I'm using an automatic translator. Thank you and my apologies.

rolfie

Member

Registered: 2017-11-25

Posts: 1,412  

Re: Inability to install printer

1) I download the printer and scanner drivers from the official Epson website. I verify the architecture (64-bit), and the only ones available for download are those labeled DEB X 64 (ARM).

If you really mean ARM as architecture then that is wrong, cannot work. You need an AMD64 deb package.

3) I go to the localhost 631 website and register as a user.

I am used to administer my printer as root.

Last edited by rolfie (Yesterday 23:27:39)

Dutch_Master

Member

Registered: 2018-05-31

Posts: 319  

Re: Inability to install printer

First error in step 3: you need to log in as root, not a regular user.

Chances are Cups already has the drivers as it only needs the ppd files. Try installing the printer in step 3 as root first, if that fails we go from there.

Andre4freedom

Member

Registered: 2017-11-15

Posts: 253  

Re: Inability to install printer

All what's said is correct.
One additional point:
If you want to manager printers as  "user", this "user" has to be added to the lpadmin group.

If needed, you can extract the ppd file from a driver package, preferably from X86-64. But I've always found the driver CUPS proposes works well. Mostly I have to add no other software to make it work.
Good luck.

kapqa

Member

Registered: 2019-01-02

Posts: 628  

Re: Inability to install printer

you can find driver for the rpinter here

https://download-center.epson.com/softw … anguage=en

Atlante

Member

Registered: 2025-05-01

Posts: 14  

Re: Inability to install printer

I followed the instructions to log in with my superuser (or "root") password. But first, I removed the printer connected by the administrator (or "sudo").

I updated the CUPS Administration log with my new password (the superuser or "root" password). A detail about the "root" username: it's my first name in lowercase, so there was no need to change it.

So, I saved the new password (the "root" password). I closed the CUPS page and reopened it to log in. The "This page asks you to log in" pop-up window appeared. I checked that my username was there (my first name in lowercase, no problem), and I checked that the new password (the "root" password) was saved. It was saved... I clicked "Log in"... And eternally the pop-up window "This page asks you to log in" appears, allowing me to press the "Log in" button for eternity, which repeats and repeats and repeats the same tedious and frustrating process.