Epson R1800 / gutenprint not working

Thanks for your question, you can see more details in this little how-to:

http://www.nabble.com/quickly-use-gutenprint-5.1.0-with-Ubuntu--t3588705.html

let me know, thanks many

Thanks for the reply and reference to the how-to. This fix looked promising, but it has made the system worse. I did the installatation as described (without removing 5.0.0-rc2 first), and all was smooth enough. In setting up the new print queue, the new driver appeared in the setup GUI (in KDE printer setup GUi). I was able to select it successfully, but the "test page" produced no output. Reading further in the how-to, there was reference to the need to remove older drivers first. so I used dpkg to remove the "gimp-print" driver, successfully. However, on trying to reinstall (or deinstall) the new print driver, I get an "E:gutenprint: subprocess pre-removal script returned error status 1", and can't get the new driver off the system, and also can't reinstall the old 5.0.0-rc2 driver. Any suggestions for cleaning up the mess and starting over? I'm not familiar with the dpkg, and the command line options for forcing the removal of whatever is left of the new driver.

Update: the problem wasn't exactly solved, but I was able to deinstall and then reinstall the 5.0.0-rc2 package, and at least restore the 5.0.0-rc2 functionality, even though I couldn't deinstall the new gutenprint driver without getting the "E:gutenprint: subprocess pre-removal script returned error status 1" error. I appreciate the reference to the procedure, and it did cause the new driver to appear in the KDE printer driver selection list, but when selected and tested, it did not print out anything. (At least the stock driver included with ubuntu printed out a "light" print. The new driver may have to be tested and integrated into an ubuntu update, before it works reliably, at least for the Epson R1800. I'm open for further suggestions, but it looks like it'sd no-joy for the reference. Thanks for passing it along, however.

I think I have not understud. You that the new driver will be integrated in the ubuntu 6.06. But the new driver is just integrate in the 7.04 version. thanks

I was enquiring about when the latest gutenprint update would be officially integrated and tested by the Ubuntu team, and made available as an upgrade package for 6.06. The "unofficial" solution that you referenced appears to apply the new gutenprint driver (at least it appears in the KDE driver selection GUI), but after selecting the driver and printing a test page, nothing printed to the R1800. At least the old 5.0.0-rc2 driver printed a "faded" page to the printer.

Ok I now understand, but I think that no new pkg will be integrated in Ubuntu 6.06. The politic of Ubuntu is to not upgrade version of pkg after stable release. Only security patch can be insert (but the patch don't change major number of release). I hope you understand what i said. Thanks

OK, I guess I didn't realize that the periodic updates that become available were only security updates (not feature updates, or bug fixes). I guess if I want it to work, I'll just have to compile the gutenprint source, and get smarter on the CUPS system, so that I can configure the compiled driver to work with CUPS (or wait until the next release of Ubuntu that has the improved driver). Thanks for all your help, and prompt replies.

Pkgs update that you are able to install are pkg fix security and bug situation (but it does not introduce new fettury). If you want to use the new driver you can download the newest Ubuntu desktop release (7.04). Thanks many