I've been playing around with a Epson Stylus Color 580, one of the "perfectly supported" gimp-print printers. I can't get it to work AT ALL.

So here's what does work:
1) I can see the printer in /proc/bus/usb/devices
2) I can see the printer in lsusb
3) dmesg reveals that the module is loaded,

Everything is great until I actually spool a job, then I get this in dmesg:

usblp.c: is on fire

The cable looks to be just fine, and I'm running 2.6.6 on Fedora 2. usblp.c is version 0.13, which is (I think) current.

Here's some of the outputs:

1) BEFORE PLUGGING IN (dmesg, last dozen lines)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
IA-32 Microcode Update Driver: v1.13 <tigran@veritas.com>
microcode: CPU0 already at revision 0x8 (current=0x8)
microcode: No new microdata for cpu 0
parport0: PC-style at 0x378 (0x778) [PCSPP,TRISTATE]
parport0: irq 7 detected
SCSI subsystem initialized
inserting floppy driver for 2.6.6-1.435
Floppy drive(s): fd0 is 1.44M
FDC 0 is a post-1991 82077
3c59x: Donald Becker and others. www.scyld.com/network/vortex.html
0000:01:0b.0: 3Com PCI 3c905C Tornado at 0xdc00. Vers LK1.1.19
divert: allocating divert_blk for eth0
divert: freeing divert_blk for eth0
ip_tables: (C) 2000-2002 Netfilter core team
ip_conntrack version 2.1 (2038 buckets, 16304 max) - 296 bytes per conntrack
3c59x: Donald Becker and others. www.scyld.com/network/vortex.html
0000:01:0b.0: 3Com PCI 3c905C Tornado at 0xdc00. Vers LK1.1.19
divert: allocating divert_blk for eth0
eth0: no IPv6 routers present
parport0: PC-style at 0x378 (0x778) [PCSPP,TRISTATE]
parport0: irq 7 detected
lp0: using parport0 (polling).
lp0: console ready

2) After plugging in: (dmesg, last few lines)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
microcode: CPU0 already at revision 0x8 (current=0x8)
microcode: No new microdata for cpu 0
parport0: PC-style at 0x378 (0x778) [PCSPP,TRISTATE]
parport0: irq 7 detected
SCSI subsystem initialized
inserting floppy driver for 2.6.6-1.435
Floppy drive(s): fd0 is 1.44M
FDC 0 is a post-1991 82077
3c59x: Donald Becker and others. www.scyld.com/network/vortex.html
0000:01:0b.0: 3Com PCI 3c905C Tornado at 0xdc00. Vers LK1.1.19
divert: allocating divert_blk for eth0
divert: freeing divert_blk for eth0
ip_tables: (C) 2000-2002 Netfilter core team
ip_conntrack version 2.1 (2038 buckets, 16304 max) - 296 bytes per conntrack
3c59x: Donald Becker and others. www.scyld.com/network/vortex.html
0000:01:0b.0: 3Com PCI 3c905C Tornado at 0xdc00. Vers LK1.1.19
divert: allocating divert_blk for eth0
eth0: no IPv6 routers present
parport0: PC-style at 0x378 (0x778) [PCSPP,TRISTATE]
parport0: irq 7 detected
lp0: using parport0 (polling).
lp0: console ready
usb 2-2: new full speed USB device using address 2
drivers/usb/class/usblp.c: usblp0: USB Bidirectional printer dev 2 if 0 alt 0 proto 2 vid 0x04B8 pid 0x0005
usbcore: registered new driver usblp
drivers/usb/class/usblp.c: v0.13: USB Printer Device Class driver

3) And now here's the final dmesg output with the line in question at the bottom
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3c59x: Donald Becker and others. www.scyld.com/network/vortex.html
0000:01:0b.0: 3Com PCI 3c905C Tornado at 0xdc00. Vers LK1.1.19
divert: allocating divert_blk for eth0
eth0: no IPv6 routers present
parport0: PC-style at 0x378 (0x778) [PCSPP,TRISTATE]
parport0: irq 7 detected
lp0: using parport0 (polling).
lp0: console ready
usb 2-2: new full speed USB device using address 2
drivers/usb/class/usblp.c: usblp0: USB Bidirectional printer dev 2 if 0 alt 0 proto 2 vid 0x04B8 pid 0x0005
usbcore: registered new driver usblp
drivers/usb/class/usblp.c: v0.13: USB Printer Device Class driver
usb 2-2: USB disconnect, address 2
drivers/usb/class/usblp.c: usblp0: removed
usb 2-2: new full speed USB device using address 3
drivers/usb/class/usblp.c: usblp0: USB Bidirectional printer dev 3 if 0 alt 0 proto 2 vid 0x04B8 pid 0x0005
drivers/usb/class/usblp.c: usblp0: on fire

Please Help!

In the spirit of disclosure, I feel I should mention that after extensive and exhausting googling, It seems that this exact problem also occured to another fellow while using the Paralell port. I wonder if there is some way to force a hardware reset on the printer?

When I first installed this printer, it began to spool a job, but due to my own stupidity, there was no paper in the printer. Now cups reports the error - "Media Tray Empty!" although it is not. Perhaps the printer is caching the error message and won't clear it?

In another bizzare twist of fate, I tried this printer on another computer, also with Fedora 2, but on kernel 2.6.5-1.358. The same message appears on that computer. I read someplace that USB printing support just isn't that good in Linux yet, but that seems like a cop out. Unfortunately, this printer only has USB, no LPT for me. I really need to get this working. Perhaps USB isn't communicating with the Printer FAST enough. How do I refine the max baud at which the USB cable will operate? Is that in usblp.c?

not sure which version of usb you are talking about.
but there is the deal.
usb v1.1 operates around 15mb/s
usb v2.0 operates around 400mb/s

This printer is being moved to a new computer from one who's PSU died during a storm. It is possible that the electricity touched the USB bus and shorted/damaged something in the printer?

then you probably need to contact the company right away and find your warranty material.
better get a new one or see if it still works on other system.

Resolution to this Problem: The printer was out of ink, and the driver will not allow any data into the printer without adequate ink. An incredibly lame ploy to sell more RGB cartridges when they really aren't needed.

I think the USBLP: on fire message was the kernel's way to telling me it didn't have a proper entry for the error code it was receiving. "Media Tray Empty" was a default error message, so that's what showed up in the GUI and under CUPS.

Hope my anguish can spare somebody else some trouble.