Will my printer work with ubuntu?

[TBSN]

Hi,

I have an old Epson Dot-matrix printer that I want to use with my Ubuntu computer. It's loud, but it prints pretty fast. I'm going to use a USB to Parallel adapter.

Obviously, the drivers that are supplied on the Epson site are windows only, but are there some kind of generic drivers built in that might work? I don't really know how printers work.

I haven't tried it yet because I'm waiting for new ink to arrive.

Anyone have experience printing with Linux?

Thanks

 

[xSauronx]

for future reference, model numbers of hardware is *always* going to give you more information than just a brand name or general description. some epson printers will work better than others, so the specific model number will help find a good answer for you

in fact, if you go to google and search epson $model_number printer $ubuntu-version or something similar, youll probably find your answer

you can also check OpenPrinting at the Linux Foundation and search by Epson and then model number to see what comes up.

Hell, given the ease of installing a printer in Ubuntu, I'd just plug the thing in and see if it detects it. If it does, and it has a driver, you may not have to do the first thing to get it to work. Cross your fingers

 

[TBSN]

Oh, right the model number...

It's an Epson FX-80. It's very old, and it's not listed on that site, but I think it may work as they have other FX model printers and some listed as generic 9-pin printers, maybe that will work...

I think I'll take your advice and try it once my ink and usb-to-parallel cable are delivered, and if not I'll do more searching on the interwebs. Thanks for the link to OpenPrinting, I hadn't heard of that...

 

[Fallen Kell]

Some quick searching resulted in trying to use any of the following driver with CUPS: "eps9mid", "epson", "eps9high", "epsonc", or "OKIDATA 9-Pin Series"....

 

[TBSN]

when I hooked it up, it downloaded and installed something, I think it'll work. I am not sure but I think it may have installed two drivers by mistake... Is there a way to see what drivers you have installed, like "device manager" in XP?