Evening, gang.
Just thought I should resurrect this, and mention it again so others are aware of it.
I've always run Epsons. Never even considered any other printers, 'cos they work so well for me. Some consider them "agricultural", since older ones in particular often didn't come with many of the fancy flashing lights/glitzy features that others did.......but they're built like a brick outhouse, and just seem to keep chugging away forever. I like 'em.
I get my drivers'n'stuff from the Epson download site, like many do. These come as either a .deb, or an .rpm file. Most of us will want the .deb package.
Like many of us, I started with Puppy back when Pups were 32-bit only. Installing the 32-bit .deb files never presented an issue, and it was always just a 5-minute job to get the printer/scanner/all-in-one up-and-running. However, when 64-bit Puppies appeared on the scene, this 'routine' no longer worked.
.deb packages almost always include a post-install script, that executes certain commands, maybe deletes old links/sets-up new ones, tells your system to do various things, etc. I'm guessing this gets automatically run by the Debian package management system.......but it won't automatically run under Puppy. I think the reason is because the post-install script is named
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postinst.....and the post-install script that Puppy expects to find is called
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pinstall.shTherefore Puppy doesn't "see" it.....and won't run it as a matter of course.
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Which leaves two options. You can extract the .deb package, rename the post-install script to 'pinstall.sh', then re-pack it as a .pet package. Which is a lot of messing around, and many folks will instantly say to themselves "To hell with this. Why can't Puppy be simple?"
The other, easy option is install Bill's 'eppi' .pet. Which is a tiny wee thing that lives in /root/my-applications/bin. It's command-line, but is very simple to use. All you do is:-
Open a terminal in the directory where your printer/scanner driver is.
Type in "eppi[space]filename.deb". Tab auto-completion means that if the package has a long complicated name - many Epson drivers do - then part-way through typing you can just hit the 'Tab' key.....and the package name will complete itself. Then, just hit "Enter".
"Done!" will appear to let you know the script has finished its task...
It installs the files just as dpkg will.....with one important exception. It will ALSO correctly run the Epson .deb's post-install script.....which does a shed-load of additional stuff after the files are installed, including deleting/setting-up a whole bunch of sym-links, and running a few other rather esoteric functions. It's no wonder Epsons still won't function if this lot doesn't get run!
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I had reason to be grateful for this earlier today. I've just re-installed & set-up my Xenialpup64 from scratch, a couple of days ago. (Updated the glibc to Busterpup's 2.28, and running Fossapup64 9.5's k5.4.53.....this now lets me use the HP desktop rig's built-in wifi/Bluetooth 'combo' chip here, as well). I'd forgotten about printing till this afternoon, so I thought I'd better take care of it.
It's been a few years. I knew printing worked in the old install, but I'd forgotten just how I did it. I installed the packages by clicking on the .debs, went to set it up, tried printing a test-page.......only to get the dreaded 'Filter failed' message. And THEN I remembered Eppi.
So; uninstall all the driver/utility packages again. Delete the printer in C.U.P.S. Install Eppi.
Run Eppi to install the packages again. Set everything up once more. Attempt a test-page, annnd.....bingo! Success. 
As always, Bill's packages are tiny, but "do exactly what they say on the tin". Thanks again, Bill! 
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I've attached the Eppi .pet to this post. I'm sure Bill won't mind.
Hope some of you may find it useful.
Mike. 
