I just read a very similar thread on this subject with OpenSuse 12. The problem was resolved by switching to the proprietary Epson drivers. I’ve installed every driver that I could find for my Epson NX420, and I can’t be sure which drivers I’m actually using anymore. I’ve installed Gutenprint with Yast, and I’ve downloaded a number of rpms from the Epson website and installed with zypper. The key rpm, I believe, is epson-inkjet-printer-nx420-1.0.0-1lsb3.2.i486.rpm.
I have accessed the Cups interface, or whatever you call it, a number of times, edited my printer, and manually selected the ppd file. Here is the one that I have selected.
adam@linux-gb27:/etc/cups/ppd> ls /etc/cups/ppd/Epson_Stylus_NX420.ppd
/etc/cups/ppd/Epson_Stylus_NX420.ppd
It didn’t fix anything. Even after a reboot.
There’s a boat load of ppd and ppd.gz files in here
Yes, I think I recall a similar thread whereby the open-source drivers caused an issue as you’ve described, and the answer was to use the Epson drivers.
How do I know that I am using the right drivers? How do I get the colors on my printer to line up?
To check which driver is use, have a look at the printer configuration file /etc/cups/printers.conf
The printer configuration will start with ‘<DefaultPrinter…>’, or ‘<Printer…>’. The printer name will correspond the name of a .ppd file in the /etc/cups/ppd/ directory.
For example, I have 2 two printers defined like this
# lpstat -v
device for Brother_DCP-7055: usb://Brother/DCP-7055
device for Brother_HL-2150N: socket://192.168.90.13
and 2 corresponding ppd files
# ls -l /etc/cups/ppd/
total 56
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 10144 Dec 15 14:49 Brother_DCP-7055.ppd
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 10272 Dec 16 15:14 Brother_HL-2150N.ppd
You may already know this, but I note that one peculiarity with the proprietary Epson drivers is that they are installed by default in the ‘/opt/epson-inkjet-printer-nx420/ppds/Epson/’ directory. Did you navigate to that location when configuring the printer?
The problem was the open source driver. Here is the printer.conf file.
adam@linux-gb27:/usr/share/cups/model> sudo cat /etc/cups/printers.conf
root's password:
# Printer configuration file for CUPS v1.5.4
# Written by cupsd on 2014-03-01 06:58
# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE WHEN CUPSD IS RUNNING
<Printer Epson_Stylus_NX420>
UUID urn:uuid:c5ea58c7-434e-3429-497e-0566232cdc85
Info Epson Stylus NX420 with driver Epson Stylus NX420 - CUPS+Gutenprint v5.2.9
MakeModel Epson Stylus NX420 - CUPS+Gutenprint v5.2.9
DeviceURI usb://EPSON/Stylus%20NX420
State Stopped
StateMessage Unplugged or turned off
StateTime 1393678682
Reason paused
Type 8425484
Accepting Yes
Shared Yes
JobSheets none none
QuotaPeriod 0
PageLimit 0
KLimit 0
OpPolicy default
ErrorPolicy stop-printer
</Printer>
I went into Yast and selected configure printers in there. It listed a number of drivers in there. I switched from the Gutenprint driver to the Seiko-Epson one. Here is the printer.conf file again.
adam@linux-gb27:/usr/share/cups/model> sudo cat /etc/cups/printers.conf
# Printer configuration file for CUPS v1.5.4
# Written by cupsd on 2014-03-01 20:26
# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE WHEN CUPSD IS RUNNING
<Printer Epson_Stylus_NX420>
UUID urn:uuid:c5ea58c7-434e-3429-497e-0566232cdc85
Info Epson Stylus NX420 with driver Epson Stylus NX420 Series - epson-inkjet-printer 1.0.0-1lsb3.2 (Seiko Epson Corporation LSB 3.2)
MakeModel Epson Stylus NX420 Series - epson-inkjet-printer 1.0.0-1lsb3.2 (Seiko Epson Corporation LSB 3.2)
DeviceURI usb://EPSON/Stylus%20NX420
State Idle
StateTime 1393727183
Type 8433676
Accepting Yes
Shared Yes
JobSheets none none
QuotaPeriod 0
PageLimit 0
KLimit 0
OpPolicy default
ErrorPolicy stop-printer
</Printer>
Yes, as I suspected. You’ll find that even though the printer name is the same as before (Epson_Stylus_NX420), the ppd in /etc/cups/ppd (of the same same) is now ‘Epson-Stylus_NX420_Series-epson-driver.ppd’ renamed to match the desired printer name.
