[ubuntu] Getting Acess to Printer

I am ruing Ubuntu 16.04 LTS on several PCs. But I am not using Unity/Dash as my primary Interface/file manager. Instead, I installed gnome-session-flashback, and that adds 2 more interfaces and uses Nautilus as the file manager. You get Compiz and Metacity as alteative interfaces, and can make a choice of the 3 for up to 2 users on the login screen.

I prefer Metacity over the several interfaces I've tried. It is very straightforwards witj 2 panrls. the default number, with one on the top of the screen and the other on the lower. By default, both panels are fixed and always visible, but this can be changed by each user.

I,ve tried to get this matter resolved in all three interfaces, but the solution eludes me. I attached an Epson Expression XP-320 multifunction printer (+ scaer = offline copier as well, and added the deb files you can find behind the scenes at Epson.com that provides the Linux software that can drive 491 Epson printer/multifunction models and series devices. One set of software for all that equipment. And it works, to a point. Under System > System Settings > Printers, I was able to Add the printer, and not only was it recognized as an Epson XP-320 Series. but I can print a test page correctly. It can also make other settings as well, and reports the device does not do a few things, like report low ink levels. So far so good.

But then the problem: Recognizing the multifunction in software. The printer troublrshooter says I may want to share it, but there is no server set up to do it. And it also says under System > Administration > there should be print settings, but that is not an opion in my setup. I have no print settings available.

Most people use cups it seems, which I have installed, but I don't know how to configure it or make it work. The Epson site says it follows Linux Standard Base (lbs), which is in the repositories and now installed, but the man and info file contens are very short, no instructions, and some links either broken or forwarded to linuxfoundation.org. Info did say it is a runtime and linusfoundatiom.org has apparently had several facelifts in the lapsed time, as nothing going in relates, not really.

using google and site:linuxfoundation.org, I got under the cover and found out more about lsb 5.0 coming out in 2015, but all references to it in a general search seem to have been made in 2009/2010. In othrt words, there is still interest in doing it, but it is not main stream. Seeing how hard it is getting documtation on it, that is not surprising.

Linux Standard Base is the idea that there should be an add-in for all Linux distros that would let them run any package that met the lsb standard. It is sort of like the ideac of a java runtime, making the software independent of the hardware, drivers, and operating system. Epson has printer software for its machines that is written to meet this standard, but that could be an old standard. There is no way to really tell.

Legacy hardware and software eventually go away. You can get around this if you know what you are doing. Old cars can appear to be made new again, and this is a big hobby and industry. You can write an emulator that takes old coded instructions for an Atari and perform the same equivalent actions on a totally different programmable device, like a PC, which is faster and more powerful, and relive that experience.

But compared to mode games and computer uses, the Atari games and machines were really limited. and the need or desire to do this goes away with time. Linux does this now in each distribution by abandoning what is outdated in favor of what is newer and better. The LTS releases of Ubuntu mean several years of continues support, but even then changes come almost weekly.

What I mean ro say is that apparently Epson was able to work out all the quirks of designing printer and scaer hardware and mating it to driver software for those devices. I counted 491 machines this software works with. And the printer got added and tested without problems. So it iks quite possible that cups or iscan/xsane should be able to treat it as a similar device from Epson. But how do I engage and make use of cups and iscan and/or xsane for this purpose?