Getting the Epson XP-231 Multifunction printer to work in Fedora 31 KDE spin

This new version of Fedora gave me a bit of a headache trying to get the Epson XP-231 multifunction printer to work.  The main problem was that the OS would not enable the printer and, regardless of my attempts, I could not get the rpm package with the drivers installed.

The Plasma assistant detected the printer, but could not find any drivers.  So, I first tried what has been working before: using a local package called epson-inkjet-printer-201204w-1.0.0-1lsb3.2.x86_64.rpm (which I downloaded and keep around) using either Discover or dnfdragora. Discover told me that the installation was successful, but the Plasma assistant still refused to see the driver.

When I used dnfdragora, it would not start and issue an error message about insufficient permissions. I made my user a sudoer, but it did not help.

Little did I know that the solution was a lot simpler that I expected.

All I had to do was to start dnfdragora and search "epson." This gave me a package with a newer version of the drivers, which I installed and, after that, I simply configured the printer with the plasma assistant, where the drivers could be selected this time.

For the scanner, I used megatotoro's procedure here again.

Now everything is good!

 

The Changes that November Brought

I realized that Fedora 31 had been released on October 29, so I decided to install it to my laptop three days ago.

Putting on the Fedora is a touchy operation: generally, installing this distro implies a fresh install keeping my home partition, running DNF commands to install the RPM fusion repo afterwards, and finally configuring my brand new Fedora desktop.  Although that sounds pretty standard, the problem lies on the fact that I am dealing with a laptop that has OpenMandriva Lx 4, Mageia 7, PCLinuxOS, Elive 3.0, PicarOS Diego, and Pisi Linux.  The changes that Fedora makes to the OpenMandriva-controlled GRUB2 regularly lead to a kernel panic in OpenMandriva and a slow start in Mageia.

This time was no different.  Well, there was a difference: I required a considerable less time to fix the problems, which made me very happy as I needed the laptop for work today.  Yet, I made a change to make my life easier.  I moved OpenMandriva Lx 4 from rolling to rock.  Steam is working, too.  In Mageia 7, I keep avoiding the three mesa updates that want to remove Steam.

I am considering replacing Pisi... It is way too outdated and there is no word about it since 2016.

The question is what distro to pick.  I want something light and, if possible, not rolling.

Or maybe I should try BSD?  Say, MidnightBDS? My daughter and her cat, Mr. Midnight, would certainly like that! :)

I will give it a thought...