NOTE: As of DR3, MkLinux uses Linux-standard serial ports.  (The printer
      and modem devices were swapped.)  Here are the current assignments.

      Modem:   /dev/cua0  /dev/ttyS0
      Printer: /dev/cua1  /dev/ttyS1

from:       urbach@husc.harvard.edu
subject:    Epson Stylus Color 500 HOWTO
sender:     owner-mklinux-setup@public.lists.apple.com
size:       3040


Hello all,

        A greater than expected number of folks e-mailed me to request I
post this procedure. So here is the current, working procedure to print to
an Epson Stylus Color 500 printer via the serial port under MkLinux.

        So here's how you do it:

(1) Install the following rpm's from ftp.linuxppc.org:

lpr-0.19-1B.ppc.rpm
printtool-3.2-1B.ppc.rpm (useful because it takes care of a lot of the
     configuration, generating nice scripts for using ghostscript, etc.)
control-panel-2.6-1B.ppc.rpm (this may be optional)
ghostscript-4.03-2a.src.rpm (other versions of gs may work too)
ghostscript-fonts-4.03-2a.src.rpm

(2) Make sure your stylus is connected to the printer port, /dev/cua0. Add
a script to /etc/rc.d/rc3.d containing the following:

              stty raw 57600 crtscts < /dev/cua0

This sets the portspeed... setserial does not seem to work on mklinux.

At this point, you can dump a file to my printer by the following command: 

gs -sDEVICE=stcolor -sOutputFile=/dev/cua0 \
    /usr/lib/ghostscript/4.03/stcolor.ps file.ps

If you pipe in from another app, you will want to add -dNOWAIT.

(3) Run printtool to configure the stylus.  Select add, then in the dialog
box, name the printer (e.g. stcolor) and the spool directory (e.g.
/var/spool/lpd/stcolor). The printer device is /dev/cua0 (or /dev/cua1 for
the modem port or in linux-pmac). For the "Input Filter" field, hit
"Select". From the list, select "Epson Stylus Color" for the printer type,
360x360 resolution, select letter paper size, and "send EOF after job to 
eject page". Lastly, add the following options to the "Addional Ghostscript
Options" box:

-dNOPAUSE -dnoWeave -sDithering=fscmyk -dSAFER -sOutputFile=- stcolor.ps

What is especially important here is -dNOPAUSE, without which pages 2 and
up are garbled, and the stcolor.ps, which supplies the interpreter with
some important information for printing (without which, there are
sometimes, but not always, curious spaces in the printout- thank you
Albert Lai for suggesting this).

(4) Hit ok on everything, and restart lpd. To enable print spooling, type:

  lpc enable stcolor (or whatever you named your printer).

That is pretty much it.  There is a driver setup file, stc500pl.ps to replace 
stcolor.ps (from /usr/lib/ghostscript/4.03/stcolor.ps). It is supposed to fix
some problems with the Stylus 500. I haven't tried it yet.  It is available from

  http://byron.biochem.ubc.ca/tidbits/print/epson/epson1.html 


Jonathan Urbach
urbach@fas.harvard.edu

This FAQ will not work for Epson Stylus Color 600 and 800 printers.  For a 
discussion of the problems associated with these printers, see

  http://x8.net/lobomusic/linuxppc/epson/index.html

Walker M. White
wmwhite@math.cornell.edu