[Bug 1536353] Re: [regression] Printer drivers install is broken as lsb package is not available anymore

[Richard Elkins]

I cannot understand why Xenial (16.04) dropped lsb in the first place
given how much dependency exists.  However, I have tried two of the
suggested solutions and the printer-driver-escpr package provides basic
printing functions for my Epson XP-410 (I lucked out).

I'll try to summarize this unhappy discussion:

1. Package printer-driver-escpr provides basic printer functions for some Epson printers but not all models.
2. Even when printer-driver-escpr succeeds, some Epson functions are missing (E.g. ink level inquiry).
3. Many (if not all) of the Epson site printer drivers are still dependent on lsb and its co-packages; customers have nearly zero leverage with Epson (I am still waiting for a 4-month-old request to them to stop using lsb functions).  I have also called them and customer service "will get back to me".
4. There are other software (E.g. Google Earth) which needs lsb.

My request regarding the lsb packages of 15.10: PLEASE put them back
into 16.04.  They might be "outdated" in some peoples opinion but the
users are at the mercy of 3rd party vendors who see no profit in
expending energy in this regard.

Other thoughts?

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Title:
  [regression] Printer drivers install is broken as lsb package is not
  available anymore

Status in cups-filters package in Ubuntu:
  Confirmed
Status in epson-inkjet-printer-escpr package in Ubuntu:
  Fix Released
Status in lsb package in Ubuntu:
  Confirmed
Status in system-config-printer package in Ubuntu:
  Invalid

Bug description:
  Starting with Xenial, lsb compatibility packages were dropped (besides
  lsb-release and lsb-base):

  lsb (9.20150826) unstable; urgency=low

    * Drop all the LSB compatibility packages besides lsb-release and lsb-base
      - Drop packages-availability checking in lsb-release
      - Truncate README.Debian to a minimum
      - Document this in lsb-base.NEWS.Debian
    * Change the versioning number to avoid any ambiguity; use joeyh's
      version.date, with version being Debian next stable's

   -- Didier Raboud <odyx at debian.org>  Wed, 26 Aug 2015 12:00:00 +0200

  The problem is that downloadable printer drivers (like the ones from
  Openprinting, but also from other available providers) that are
  suggested when installing a printer on Ubuntu depends on lsb, which is
  not available anymore:

  epson-inkjet-printer-201106w:
   Dépend: lsb (>=3.2) but it is not installable

  This triggers a regression where it is not possible to setup a printer
  this way (downloading a driver where no local driver is available)
  anymore.

  I see two possible solutions:

  - Add a proper replaces field to one of the remaining lsb-* packages,
  to hopefully fix missing lsb package (maybe it would be useful to also
  replace other compability packages that are not built anymore).

  - Re-introduce LSB compatibility packages, but that might be an
  overkill.

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