For CUPS (Intrepid and newer) to work the printer needs to return something useful on a request for the device ID, as the CUPS backend identifies printers based on the device ID, as with more than one printer connected it is not guaranteed which one gets which /dev/usb/lp... The hal CUPS backend, which is not maintained any more, used the USB vendor and product ID numbers, but for Epson printers the vendor and product ID numbers are the same for nearly all models, which made device IDs the safest way to distinguish printers on the USB.
You could report an upstream bug for CUPS on http://www.cups.org/str.php but chances are low, as Mike Sweet, author of CUPS, does not like very much to add workarounds for buggy hardware (in this case the adapter cable). ** This bug is no longer a duplicate of bug 278069 hal CUPS backend does not work with libusb ** Changed in: hal-cups-utils (Ubuntu) Status: Incomplete => Won't Fix -- USB/Parallel adapter cable: Printer works in Hardy, not in Intrepid https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/308788 You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list [email protected] https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
