Bug #1536353 (Many Epson printers no longer work as of 16.04)

[Richard Elkins]

A reprint of message #31 in bug report #1536353 .....

I cannot understand why Xenial (16.04) dropped lsb in the first place
given how much dependency exists. However, I have tried two of the
suggested solutions and the printer-driver-escpr package provides basic
printing functions for my Epson XP-410 (I lucked out).

I'll try to summarize this unhappy discussion:

1. Package printer-driver-escpr provides basic printer functions for
some Epson printers but not all models.
2. Even when printer-driver-escpr succeeds, some Epson functions are
missing (E.g. ink level inquiry).
3. Many (if not all) of the Epson site printer drivers are still
dependent on lsb and its co-packages; customers have nearly zero
leverage with Epson (I am still waiting for a 4-month-old request to
them to stop using lsb functions). I have also called them and customer
service "will get back to me".
4. There are other software (E.g. Google Earth) which needs lsb.

My request regarding the lsb packages of 15.10: PLEASE put them back
into 16.04. They might be "outdated" in some peoples opinion but the
users are at the mercy of 3rd party vendors who see no profit in
expending energy in this regard.

Other thoughts?

[Pasi Lallinaho]

Post by Richard Elkins
A reprint of message #31 in bug report #1536353 .....
I cannot understand why Xenial (16.04) dropped lsb in the first place
given how much dependency exists. However, I have tried two of the
suggested solutions and the printer-driver-escpr package provides
basic printing functions for my Epson XP-410 (I lucked out).
My request regarding the lsb packages of 15.10: PLEASE put them back
into 16.04. They might be "outdated" in some peoples opinion but the
users are at the mercy of 3rd party vendors who see no profit in
expending energy in this regard.
Other thoughts?

Hello Richard,

most individual packages (like lsb) available from the Ubuntu
repositories are not maintained by the Xubuntu team. What that
practically means is that the Xubuntu team does not make decisions about
them being in the archive or not.

If you want to discuss about putting some package back in the
repositories, you will at least need to talk to the maintainer of the
package. It's possible that the reason a package is removed from the
repositories is because it wouldn't work with other package versions in
the release. If you are lucky and this is not the case, you still need
to convince the package maintainer (or a new one) to reintroduce the
package and make sure it works. If you get this far, you will also need
the archive admins to approve the now "new" package.

You can increase your possibilities for reinclusion by volunteering to
doing one or more of the actual tasks I mentioned above.

Cheers,
Pasi

[Richard Elkins]

Pasi,

I know that lsb is not maintained by Xubuntu; it was part of the Ubuntu
core up until 15.10. I wrote to this list because I am a Xubuntu user
and I was once active as a tester.

Aren't we at all concerned that users who have Epson printers might be
leaving Xubuntu, Lubuntu, etc.? I had to convert someone's laptop to
Linux Mint Debian edition just to get that individual reconnected back
to an Epson printer. The various *buntu release notes could have warned
Epson printer users that they should consider finding a new distro which
includes the lsb packages. This was a total surprise for Epson customers.

Yes, it is possible that the reason a package is removed from the
repositories is because it wouldn't work with other package versions in
the release and still meet the release date requirement. Someone could
have explained that.

I am not affected because the printer-driver-escpr package is a good
enough solution for my Epson XP-410 and the way I use it. However, if
this issue is not addressed, then I'll try to find time to explore lsb
myself but this is difficult given my personal time being donated
elsewhere for the last 2 years.

Richard

Post by Pasi Lallinaho

Post by Richard Elkins
A reprint of message #31 in bug report #1536353 .....
I cannot understand why Xenial (16.04) dropped lsb in the first place
given how much dependency exists. However, I have tried two of the
suggested solutions and the printer-driver-escpr package provides
basic printing functions for my Epson XP-410 (I lucked out).
My request regarding the lsb packages of 15.10: PLEASE put them back
into 16.04. They might be "outdated" in some peoples opinion but the
users are at the mercy of 3rd party vendors who see no profit in
expending energy in this regard.
Other thoughts?

Hello Richard,
most individual packages (like lsb) available from the Ubuntu
repositories are not maintained by the Xubuntu team. What that
practically means is that the Xubuntu team does not make decisions
about them being in the archive or not.
If you want to discuss about putting some package back in the
repositories, you will at least need to talk to the maintainer of the
package. It's possible that the reason a package is removed from the
repositories is because it wouldn't work with other package versions
in the release. If you are lucky and this is not the case, you still
need to convince the package maintainer (or a new one) to reintroduce
the package and make sure it works. If you get this far, you will also
need the archive admins to approve the now "new" package.
You can increase your possibilities for reinclusion by volunteering to
doing one or more of the actual tasks I mentioned above.
Cheers,
Pasi
--
Pasi Lallinaho (knome) »http://open.knome.fi/
Leader of Shimmer Project »http://shimmerproject.org/
Ubuntu member, Xubuntu Website Lead »http://xubuntu.org/

[Pasi Lallinaho]

Post by Richard Elkins
Pasi,
I know that lsb is not maintained by Xubuntu; it was part of the
Ubuntu core up until 15.10. I wrote to this list because I am a
Xubuntu user and I was once active as a tester.
Aren't we at all concerned that users who have Epson printers might be
leaving Xubuntu, Lubuntu, etc.? I had to convert someone's laptop to
Linux Mint Debian edition just to get that individual reconnected back
to an Epson printer. The various *buntu release notes could have
warned Epson printer users that they should consider finding a new
distro which includes the lsb packages. This was a total surprise for
Epson customers.

Yes, but most of do not have the time to actively keep on top of the
issue. Which is why every package has their dedicated maintainer...

To be honest, if every change in the distribution that could in any way
affect any users (pretty much all changes) were listed in the release
notes, they would be a useless wall of text. I don't have an alternative
suggestion either, but do you seriously think anybody would advice
anybody to choose another distribution in their release notes?

Post by Richard Elkins
Yes, it is possible that the reason a package is removed from the
repositories is because it wouldn't work with other package versions
in the release and still meet the release date requirement. Someone
could have explained that.

The Xubuntu team had no idea this was being done as we do not follow
specific packages that can affect specific hardware, unless they are
affecting some of the "core" packages or functionality in Xubuntu itself.

Post by Richard Elkins
I am not affected because the printer-driver-escpr package is a good
enough solution for my Epson XP-410 and the way I use it. However, if
this issue is not addressed, then I'll try to find time to explore lsb
myself but this is difficult given my personal time being donated
elsewhere for the last 2 years.
My curiosity got the better of me. I added the lsb packages from
Trusty to my 16.04 installation and it is an effective work-around;
the driver from the Epson site can now install. I documented the
work-around in detail in message #34 for
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/lsb/+bug/1536353.
Therefore, there seems to be no reason for excluding the lsb packages
from 16.04.

I'm happy that this solution worked for you. On the bug comments, Till
implied a new distribution-independent printer driver packaging was
planned - let's hope the work on that proceeds quickly so too many
people won't end up with similar problems to yours.

Cheers,
Pasi

[Richard Elkins]

My curiosity got the better of me. I added the lsb packages from Trusty
to my 16.04 installation and it is an effective work-around; the driver
from the Epson site can now install. I documented the work-around in
detail in message #34 for
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/lsb/+bug/1536353.

Therefore, there seems to be no reason for excluding the lsb packages
from 16.04.

Post by Pasi Lallinaho

Post by Richard Elkins
A reprint of message #31 in bug report #1536353 .....
I cannot understand why Xenial (16.04) dropped lsb in the first place
given how much dependency exists. However, I have tried two of the
suggested solutions and the printer-driver-escpr package provides
basic printing functions for my Epson XP-410 (I lucked out).
My request regarding the lsb packages of 15.10: PLEASE put them back
into 16.04. They might be "outdated" in some peoples opinion but the
users are at the mercy of 3rd party vendors who see no profit in
expending energy in this regard.
Other thoughts?

Hello Richard,
most individual packages (like lsb) available from the Ubuntu
repositories are not maintained by the Xubuntu team. What that
practically means is that the Xubuntu team does not make decisions
about them being in the archive or not.
If you want to discuss about putting some package back in the
repositories, you will at least need to talk to the maintainer of the
package. It's possible that the reason a package is removed from the
repositories is because it wouldn't work with other package versions
in the release. If you are lucky and this is not the case, you still
need to convince the package maintainer (or a new one) to reintroduce
the package and make sure it works. If you get this far, you will also
need the archive admins to approve the now "new" package.
You can increase your possibilities for reinclusion by volunteering to
doing one or more of the actual tasks I mentioned above.
Cheers,
Pasi
--
Pasi Lallinaho (knome) »http://open.knome.fi/
Leader of Shimmer Project »http://shimmerproject.org/
Ubuntu member, Xubuntu Website Lead »http://xubuntu.org/