Bugzilla – Bug 121838
Add support for Epson C86 and C66 printers
Last modified: 2006-02-01 08:15:36 UTC
The Epson C86 and C66 printers aren´t supported directly by YaST by now. At least the C86 works if I configure it as a C84. It also works using the Avasys Linux drivers. Since these are very common printers please add the according .ppd files. I attached the logs when a C86 was detected.
Created attachment 52026 [details] YaST2 logs
C86 is already known to LinuxPrinting.org, see http://www.linuxprinting.org/show_printer.cgi?recnum=Epson-Stylus_C86 Therefore this model will be available in the next Suse Linux version. The C66 seems to require Gutenprint (the successor of Gimp-Print). When Gutenprint is included in the next Suse Linux version, the C66 will be available in the next Suse Linux version. Note that we cannot test the drivers for all models (simply because we only have a few models to test). Therefore there is no guarantee that the models will actually work in the next Suse Linux version.
I´m always testing the latest alpha :) Will this support be in Alpha2? And will GIMP-Print be replaced by gutenprint?
Regarding Gutenprint: Not in 10.1 alpha2. But at some time later (i.e. "when it is ready").
Right. Gutenprint is not stable yet. Therefore its not included. As soon as there exists a final release version, we will test the gutenprint drivers and then decide to replace gimp-print by gutenprint. But in the meantime we don't want to get a inconsistent system. If a single user decides to use an alpha version in his system: fine for him. If gutenprint works robust for him, even better. But this doesn't say anything about the remaining 500 included printer drivers. Therefore, even if we see good experience from a single user, this doesn't say anything relevant to us, as we need to support all printer drivers. Thanks for understanding.
Ok I understand this, of course. Since Gutenprint 5.0 rc2 is out, will you include the final release (or the rc) in 10.1 ATM most of the modern printers (C66 for example) aren´t supported.
Sorry, but I don't see any new arguments at your site?! As said before: we want to ship a stable versions. Gutenprint-5.0rc2 "incorporates extensive feedback from the first release candidate" as the annoucement says. Therefore it seems not to be close to a final version according to my understanding.
Ok you said you don´t want to ship beta drivers. Most of the drivers you ship with SuSE are beta, think of wireless LAN (which often doesn´t work even with the corresponding driver) or sound drivers. Why should there be an exception for printer drivers? I can live with gutenprint not being included, but for many people an OS has no sense if you can´t print with it. The C66 is almost half a year old, and many people use it. I don´t know what the situation is with printers from other vendors. And it´s virtually impossible for non-experts to add support for an external printer. That´s a thing I have also written for other hardware components. IMHO SuSE should focus more on supporting hardware, perhaps not the cutting-edge one but "recent" hardware. If for example the user has a notebook but SuSE doesn´t support the wireless card in it it´s totally useless. And there are many pieces of hardware around which could be supported but aren´t. Just my 2 cents, it´s your decision.
Regarding which printers are recommended to buy so that you don't need to hunt for newest drivers, see http://portal.suse.com/sdb/en/2000/08/jsmeix_print-kompatibel.html Alternatively watch the various comments of our experienced users on our mailing lists, or see my comments for example on the German suse-linux mailing list: http://lists.suse.com/archive/suse-linux/2005-Feb/0159.html If you like to get more details about which printer drivers we can include from manufacturers, see http://portal.suse.com/sdb/en/2003/11/jsmeix_print-info-for-manufacturers.html