HARDWARE_EPSON_CX3200_CX3700_CX3800_CX4200_and_Others

The Hard Path

Introduction

I have bought a Epson CX3700, and after many hours I found the solution to print!
Gutenprint News

6) Preliminary support for the Epson Stylus C87, C88, CX3200 CX3700,
CX3800, CX3810, CX4200, CX4700, CX4800, CX5800, CX7700, CX7800,
DX3800, DX3850, and DX4800.  These printers are expected to be
fully functional (for the multi-function devices, this package
supports only the printer function).

Note: I found official? drivers for printing and scanning available from AVASYS.

Install Gutenprint from the gimp-print-5.1.3 ebuild

Add media-gfx/gimp-print to /etc/portage/package.keywords, and then:

# emerge gimp-print

The current ebuild of gimp-print is actually gutenprint 5.1.3, and it supports many printers with high quality. This is much easier than trying the CVS installation which is described below. If this works, you can skip the rest of these instructions.

Install Gutenprint 5.0.0-rc1 CVS version

Gutenprint 5.0.0-rc1 has support for CX3700 and many other similar printers, but doesn't install .ppd files. However the CVS version works fine!

#cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/gimp-print login
#cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/gimp-print co -P print

#cd print
#./configure --disable-nls --with-readline --with-cups \
--enable-cups-ppds --with-foomatic3 --with-ghostscript \
--with-escputil --with-gimp2 --with-gnu-ld \
--disable-user-guide --disable-samples

#make
#make install

#/etc/init.d/cups restart

OK! Lets print!

If you can't compile the CVS version, you can make changes to the 5.0.0-rc1 source:

src/main/printers.xml: 

     <printer name="EPSON Stylus CX3810" driver="escp2-cx3810" manufacturer="Epson" model="66">
       <parameter type="float" name="Gamma">0.470</parameter>
       <parameter type="float" name="Density">1.0</parameter>
     </printer>

src/foomatic/foomatic-printermap:

     #gptofoo escp2-cx3810 printer/Epson-Stylus_CX3810

Then make & make install.

A similar trick works for the scanner:

#cat /proc/bus/usb/devices 

And look for your Epson's device & vendor ID. For my CX3810, it's:

P:  Vendor=04b8 ProdID=0818 Rev= 1.00

Then edit /etc/sane.d/epson.conf and add:

usb 0x4b8 0x818

And your scanner will work in sane.

For more info goto HARDWARE_EPSON_CX3650_&_DX3850

Another Work Around

Here was my suituation: I bought a CX3810 and couldn't find anything that worked, but I worked it out:

1. make sure you have the following flags enabled (and if you have to run emerge -vauN world to make sure everything is updated): X dbus jpeg nls pam php png ppds samba slp ssl tiff cups foomaticdb gtk nls readline
2. install (or reinstall) cups, foomatic, and gimp-print (and samba if your printer is on a windows computer)
3. emerge gimp-print (unmask it, if masked. the current version is 5.1.2, and is working fine with Epson DX-4000) (this will install the needed ppd files to the cups)
4. (alternative: download gutenprint 5.0 from the site (doesn't have to be the cvs version, which I could never download anyway), follow the install directions for it and install it (I had to tell the configure script to compile only the default english ppd files).)
5. restart cups (and restart samba if you installed it)
6. go to localhost:631 and install your printer (use root and the root's pass for username/pass)
7. print a test page, and if it worked you should get a pretty test pattern =)
   

Thats it! pretty simple eh?