This is a quick guide on how to install the official printer drivers by Epson on Linux (Debian/Ubuntu/Mint) and other distros (Fedora/OpenSUSE).

If you’re like me, you like things to “just work”, and fully too. While many modern printers including printers by Epson provide modern printing protocols which require no additional drivers, those protocols don’t always support all (proprietary) printer functions, especially for management of the printer.

Which is why I prefer to use my Epson printers with the official drivers, and today I will show you where to get them and how to install them.

Getting the drivers

First you’ll want to go to this site here and enter your printer model and click on search while making sure “Operating System” is set to “Linux”. In my case, that’s the XP-55 I’m looking for.

In the search results you might find multiple downloads for your printer. Under the “module” column you might see things like “ESC/P-R Driver (generic driver)” or “Epson Printer Utility”.

Choose to download the “generic driver” for now. This will open a new page showing all the supported models. Scroll down and “Accept” the license to reveal the downloads.

You will see a bunch of different files, here’s the explanation on which to choose:

  • On 32-bit Debian/Ubuntu/Mint you’ll want to choose *i386.deb
  • On 64-bit Debian/Ubuntu/Mint you’ll want to choose *amd64.deb (yes, even if an intel CPU! That’s just the name of the architecture)
  • On 32-bit Fedora/OpenSUSE you’ll want to choose *i486.rpm
  • On 64-bit Fedora/OpenSUSE you’ll want to choose *x86_64.rpm

Click on “download” next to the one for your system and choose to save the file.

Installing the drivers

To install these drivers, you need to install LSB package (version 3.2 or later) beforehand. So open your terminal of choice and run the appropriate command as follows:

# Ubuntu:
sudo apt install lsb

# Fedora:
sudo yum install lsb

# OpenSUSE:
sudo yast --install lsb

Now to actually install the drivers, assuming you downloaded them with a normal browser and having them in your ~/Downloads folder, it’s as simple as doing:

On Debian/Ubuntu/Mint

sudo dpkg -i ~/Downloads/epson-*.deb

Which might output something like:

Selecting previously unselected package epson-inkjet-printer-escpr.
(Reading database ... 381093 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../epson-inkjet-printer-escpr_1.7.7-1lsb3.2_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking epson-inkjet-printer-escpr (1.7.7-1lsb3.2) ...
Setting up epson-inkjet-printer-escpr (1.7.7-1lsb3.2) ...
Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.31-0ubuntu9) ...

And the drivers are now installed!

On Fedora/OpenSUSE

rpm -U ~/Downloads/epson-*.rpm

And the drivers are now installed!

Adding the printer

Now assuming you’re using a network printer, open your system or printer settings to add a printer. Choose to “Find Network Printer” and enter the IP address or host name in the search field and click “Find”.

Now wait for it to find all the available interfaces on that host. You should see a bunch showing up in the list.

Go through the list and look for one that says “LPD/LPR queue ‘PASSTHRU'” under “Connection” and click “Forward”.

You might see a message saying “searching for drivers” but since we already installed them, after a few seconds it should simply follow up by asking for a name for the printer which should already be filled out for you. Customize the name to your liking and choose “Apply”.

At this point it might ask you to print a test page. If you’d like to verify all things are working, you may do so now by clicking on “Print Test Page”.

It should now successfully print the test page, and we’re done here!

Enjoy your Epson printer on Linux!

PS, I run this blog in my spare time. I’m always happy for coffee donations. (: