I have an epson fx-800 , i cant install it under linux.

I have Ubuntu 9.04 , I installed it with generic drivers and works fine, but not enough , the quality sucks, and the characters printed are really small.

I am trying to use a driver for the FX-800 series and I fou in internet that the OMNI driver framework of IBM suport it.

so I download the omnidriver tar file, I follow every step in the omni/docs/build document, but when I try to build it , I have a lot of errors.

content of omni folder:

$~/OMNI/sources/Omni-0.9.2/Omni$ ls -F
autom4te.cache/ DevicePrintMode.hpp Omni Capabilities
BinaryData.cpp DeviceResolution.cpp Omni.cpp
BinaryData.hpp DeviceResolution.hpp OmniDevice.cpp
Brother/ devicesAll.list OmniDevice.hpp
Canon/ devicesBuild.list OmniDeviceOptions.cpp
Capability.cpp DeviceScaling.cpp OmniDevices.cpp
Capability.hpp DeviceScaling.hpp OmniDeviceTester.cpp
ChangeLog DeviceSheetCollate.cpp OmniDeviceValid.cpp
configure.ac DeviceSheetCollate.hpp OmniDevice.xsd
copyFromAll* DeviceSide.cpp Omni.hpp
copyFromEpson* DeviceSide.hpp OmniPDCProxy.cpp
copyFromLaserJet* DeviceStitching.cpp OmniPDCProxy.hpp
CUPS/ DeviceStitching.hpp OmniProxy.cpp
debian/ DeviceString.cpp OmniProxy.hpp
DebugOutput.cpp DeviceString.hpp OmniServer.cpp
DebugOutput.hpp devicesXML.list OmniServer.hpp
defines.hpp DeviceTester2.cpp Panasonic/
DeviceBlitter.cpp DeviceTester3.cpp PDC/
DeviceBlitter.hpp DeviceTester4.cpp PDCBlitterClient.cpp
DeviceBooklet.cpp DeviceTester5.cpp PDCBlitterClient.hpp
DeviceBooklet.hpp DeviceTray.cpp PDCInterface.cpp
DeviceCommand.cpp DeviceTray.hpp PDL.cpp
DeviceCommand.hpp DeviceTrimming.cpp PDL.hpp
DeviceConnection.cpp DeviceTrimming.hpp PluggableBlitter.cpp
DeviceConnection.hpp DitherLibraryExample.cpp PluggableBlitter.hpp
DeviceCopies.cpp docs/ PluggableInstance.cpp
DeviceCopies.hpp Enumeration.cpp PluggableInstance.hpp
Device.cpp Enumeration.hpp PrintDevice.cpp
DeviceCreationTool/ Epson/ PrintDevice.hpp
DeviceCreationTool.C++/ Epson.PDC/ PrinterCommand.cpp
DeviceData.cpp fixUp* PrinterCommand.hpp
DeviceData.hpp Foomatic/ RasterCapabilities.cpp
DeviceDither.cpp Ghostscript/ RasterCapabilities.hpp
DeviceDither.hpp GhostscriptInterface.cpp README
DeviceFontSandBox/ GhostscriptInterface.hpp RedHat/
DeviceForm.cpp gnome-print/ setit*
DeviceForm.hpp GplCompression.cpp setupDevices*
DeviceGamma.cpp GplCompression.hpp setupOmni*
DeviceGamma.hpp GplDitherInstance.cpp Star/
DeviceGammaTable.hpp GplDitherInstance.hpp StdioFilebuf.hpp
Device.hpp HardCopyCap.cpp StringResource.cpp
DeviceInfo.cpp HardCopyCap.hpp StringResourceEn.cpp
DeviceInfo.hpp HPLaserJet@ StringResourceEn.hpp
DeviceInstance.cpp HP LaserJet/ StringResource.hpp
DeviceInstance.hpp hppcl3/ test/
DeviceJogging.cpp IBM/ tools/
DeviceJogging.hpp installOmni* UPDF/
DeviceMedia.cpp JobDialog/ version.mak
DeviceMedia.hpp JobProperties.cpp vs/
DeviceNUp.cpp JobProperties.hpp XMLDevice/
DeviceNUp.hpp KS/ XMLLib/
DeviceOrientation.cpp Kyocera/ XMLParser/
DeviceOrientation.hpp Makefile.am XMLTools/
DeviceOutputBin.cpp MonoDither.cpp zipit*
DeviceOutputBin.hpp MonoDither.hpp zipit.bat
DevicePrintMode.cpp Okidata/ zipit.cmd

I try the fllowing commands that are in the build document:

command: ./setupOmni
result:
$~/OMNI/sources/Omni-0.9.2/Omni$ ./setupOmni
Found 0 Vendor Makefiles (includes vendor root).
Removing VendorSupplied from configure.ac
CONFIGURE_ARGS=""
MAKE_ARGS=""
NEW_DEVICES=""
BUILD_COMPILED_DEVICE=0
BUILD_XML_DEVICE=1
BUILD_UPDF_DEVICE=0
BUILD_VENDORSUPPLIED=0
BUILD_TEST_DEVICE=0
XML_DEVICELIST=Brother~ Canon~ Epson~ HP_LaserJet~ IBM~ KS~ Kyocera~ Okidata~ Panasonic~ Star~
XML_DEVICES=Brother~ Canon~ Epson~ HP_LaserJet~ IBM~ KS~ Kyocera~ Okidata~ Panasonic~ Star~
BUILD_DEVICES= XMLDevice~
Error: The current automake version is 1.10.2. Please install version 1.6 or greater

why it says to use a version bigger than 1.6 when I am using the 1.10 ????

---------------------------------------------------------------------------


command: make
result:
$~/OMNI/sources/Omni-0.9.2/Omni$ make
make: *** No se especificó ningún objetivo y no se encontró ningún makefile. Alto.

It says that I did not specify an objetive and it did not found a makefile to make.... why is that ???? i did not touch teh files i download

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

command: make install
result:
$~/OMNI/sources/Omni-0.9.2/Omni$ make installmake: *** No hay ninguna regla para construir el objetivo `install'. Alto.

it says that there is no rule for install


------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I cant install the omni driver, I cant install the FX-800 printer from epson .


I dont know what to do

help!

this is the link for this drivers:

http://omniprint.sourceforge.net/

http://omniprint.sourceforge.net/

Maybe opening up the file configure.ac with an editor (like gedit), and searching for "automake", and seeing if there is something like:

I'm speculating that it only reads one digit place; so, version 1.10 is read as version 1.1. If you can find it in the config file, and change it to "1.1" from "1.6", it may work. But, these drivers are pretty old; so, there may be other issues as well.

My other suggestion is to try installing and running printconf ("sudo printconf"). It's good at setting up printers. Maybe installing mtink, which is a status monitor tool for Epson printers, could help improve the quality of the generic drivers (but this is for inkjet, and I think your printer is a dot-matrix; so, mtink may not help.)

the omniprint drivers are supose to support a wide variety of printers, like epson LX-300

a varity of printers that are not native in cus for example, that means that if you use Ubuntu, you wont be able to use these printers , maybe, and sometimes you will be able to use the printers with generic drivers, but the performance and quality will go down.

thats my case, I have 2 printers, 1) Epson FX-800 series, 2) Epson LX-300 series.

no drivers for them in Ubuntu 9.04 with CUPS, I can only use them with generic drivers like the DotMatrix ons, or Text Only drivers.

the problem wih the Generic-DotMatrix ones, is that the quality goes down a loT!!! and the printting process gets slow. With the IBM generic driver quality increases a lot! but printing gets really slow .... really slow.
but this drivers allow me to print in custom pages, thats a good thing, and I need it.

the text only generic drivers, prints really fast, is the fastest one, the quality is ok, i tolerate it, but is doesnot allow me to print in custom page size, so thats why none of them is good enough for me.

i need specific drivers for them.

documentation says that omniprint drivers suport this printers,
i can not install it.

i try install it form the source ... imposible!!!!! I always miss something. something goes worg as I showed.

then i download the RPM´s and transform them using alien , i could installed but i cannot use it because the libomni.so lib is missing, i cant find it, dont know where is it .

i cant install this thing, and in really usefull (supouse)

any help ???? something ??? any tip ???

I do have a file called libomni.so and all installed in my sistem but the messages still appear says that the library is missing ,,, I am getting tired

Maybe openprinting-ppds would improve things. There are drivers from manufacturers in this package, rather than just generic drivers. There's also openprinting-ppds-extra, which also may be of help. Install them both, and then either run printconf (make sure you've installed printconf), or go to http://localhost:631 and set up the drivers yourself.

Quick correction: the openprinting-ppds does not have the manufacturers' drivers, but the openprinting-ppds-extra package does.

2nd quick correction: the openprinting-ppds actually DOES have drivers that the actual manufacturers have released. Yikes, time for me to hit the hay.