Bug #1536353 (Many Epson printers no It's possible that the reason a package is removed from the repositories is because it wouldn't work with other package versions in the release.longer work as of 16.04)

[Pasi Lallinaho]

On 2016-05-10 19:09, Richard Elkins wrote:
> Pasi,
>
> I know that lsb is not maintained by Xubuntu; it was part of the 
> Ubuntu core up until 15.10.  I wrote to this list because I am a 
> Xubuntu user and I was once active as a tester.
>
> Aren't we at all concerned that users who have Epson printers might be 
> leaving Xubuntu, Lubuntu, etc.?  I had to convert someone's laptop to 
> Linux Mint Debian edition just to get that individual reconnected back 
> to an Epson printer.  The various *buntu release notes could have 
> warned Epson printer users that they should consider finding a new 
> distro which includes the lsb packages.  This was a total surprise for 
> Epson customers.

Yes, but most of do not have the time to actively keep on top of the 
issue. Which is why every package has their dedicated maintainer...

To be honest, if every change in the distribution that could in any way 
affect any users (pretty much all changes) were listed in the release 
notes, they would be a useless wall of text. I don't have an alternative 
suggestion either, but do you seriously think anybody would advice 
anybody to choose another distribution in their release notes?

> Yes, it is possible that the reason a package is removed from the 
> repositories is because it wouldn't work with other package versions 
> in the release and still meet the release date requirement.  Someone 
> could have explained that.

The Xubuntu team had no idea this was being done as we do not follow 
specific packages that can affect specific hardware, unless they are 
affecting some of the "core" packages or functionality in Xubuntu itself.

> I am not affected because the printer-driver-escpr package is a good 
> enough solution for my Epson XP-410 and the way I use it. However, if 
> this issue is not addressed, then I'll try to find time to explore lsb 
> myself but this is difficult given my personal time being donated 
> elsewhere for the last 2 years.

On 2016-05-10 22:39, Richard Elkins wrote:
> My curiosity got the better of me.  I added the lsb packages from 
> Trusty to my 16.04 installation and it is an effective work-around; 
> the driver from the Epson site can now install.  I documented the 
> work-around in detail in message #34 for 
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/lsb/+bug/1536353.
>
> Therefore, there seems to be no reason for excluding the lsb packages 
> from 16.04.

I'm happy that this solution worked for you. On the bug comments, Till 
implied a new distribution-independent printer driver packaging was 
planned - let's hope the work on that proceeds quickly so too many 
people won't end up with similar problems to yours.

Cheers,
Pasi

-- 
Pasi Lallinaho (knome)                » http://open.knome.fi/
Leader of Shimmer Project             » http://shimmerproject.org/
Ubuntu member, Xubuntu Website Lead   » http://xubuntu.org/

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