Printer support?

[lawrence-joy]

Hello, I recently purchased an Epson ET-15000 printer and the only printer drivers they have is for Microsoft Windows. Their advertising does not state this and I would have considered a different manufacturer's printer, but I liked the idea of a super ink tank setup. Does Ubuntu have a driver for this particular printer?

[TheFu]

Drivers come from the printer vendors. Ubuntu/Canonical doesn't make any printer drivers. You might be able to find a commercial company that supports it. I think there's one in Germany that is known to create printer drivers for $50-$100. I don't remember the name, sorry. I've only looked it up for Canon printers. In the end, we decided to give away the Canon printer (to a grandchild) and buy a new laser printer that was well supported (plug-n-use) under Linux. The laser printer costs 1/10th per page, and has lasted almost 20 problem free years. I'm sure the Canon was a great printer, but I think life is too short to deal with hardware that doesn't support my OS.

The best supported printers use something called "driverless printing" and most current printers that aren't specialized support it. https://openprinting.github.io/driverless/

If you are a linux user, you know to always check the Linux support BEFORE buying any hardware. Sometimes we forget that step.

[grahammechanical]

What computer operating systems do you have? If you are dual booting Windows & Ubuntu then you can use that printer with Windows. If you have Ubuntu installed, then connect the printer to the computer and see if Ubuntu detects the printer and if the default Ubuntu utilities can make use of the printer.

Linux developers provide hardware drivers. It is called Linux Firmware. This firmware is part of every Linux installation. The Linux developers may have already worked out drivers for this printer. Or, you may find that only certain basic functions work.

The printer software for Linux is called CUPS (Common UNIX Printing System)

https://ubuntu.com/server/docs/insta...s-print-server

Check this out

https://www.epson.co.uk/en_GB/suppor...ected-os=Linux

https://help.ubuntu.com/stable/ubunt...-setup.html.en

This will give some idea of what you can try

https://askubuntu.com/questions/1441...ble-from-epson

Regards

[Dennis N]

It looks like there is one in Epson Support. See screenshot.

[Topsiho]

Hi,

I recently bought a "smart" HP printer, that needed a permanent internet connection for the smart function, which I don't want.
So I tried tot connect it with USB only and tried the reported printers one by one, and discovered that a "driverless" printer functioned marvellously. No HP updating the printer so that it doesn't accept non HP inkts anymore, no snooping on the use I make of the printer, no risk of having having private documents being sent to HP, no ... just fill in yourself.

Many thanks to the marvellous people of open printing!

I wish you the same success!

Greetz,

Topsiho

[lawrence-joy]

No, I didn't know about checking for Linux support before ordering this Epson ET-15000 printer. Next time I'll know. However, I wanted the ink tank capability, so I ordered it.

[lawrence-joy]

I have two solid state drives. One has Windows 10 on it and the other has Ubuntu version 22.04, which I use 99% of the time. The Epson ET-15000 printer shows up on available printers and I have it selected as the default printer. I can get 8 1/2" X 11" paper printed from the cassette (front paper tray). The problem is when I try to print 11" X 17" paper from the paper tray (the back paper tray) it won't print. I called the Epson support line and the guy told me that the Epson driver for the Linux OS is basic and i would have to find a driver somewhere else--he couldn't/wouldn't help me.

[lawrence-joy]

Again, the Epson printer driver for Linux is just basic and will not work for printing from the back tray. The guy I talked with at Epson support said I would need to find a driver.

[lawrence-joy]

Okay, it looks like I will try the searching for "Open Printing" or "Ubuntu Printing". There is just too much gobilty (sp) gook for me to understand. I will report back when I find an answer.

[TheFu]

There used to be relatively cheap, tiny, network adapters for non-networked printers that would accept PDF or PS files. Of course, these were just basic LPR servers. It is a way to make a printer that doesn't work with Linux work, since you just need to send either a PDF or PS file to that device.

Above, I mentioned a commercial company that did printer drivers for Linux. I've never used them, but I haven't heard anything bad about them either.
https://www.turboprint.info/printer_...k_ET15000.html They say you can use it for 30 days to see if it works for you. Reputable companies do that when they are small.

TurboPrint 2.56-1 (06-May-2024)
(multifunction devices: only printer unit is supported, not scanner unit)