The Epson installation information that comes with the ET-4500 does not mention Linux & the DVD offered no Linux installation or drivers.
I searched the Epson dowloads site for ET-4500 and Linux. This offered 3 downloads:
I downloaded ESC/P-R Driver (generic driver).
The notes said that for Ubuntu I should install lsb first. In a terminal window I entered:
sudo apt-get install lsb
It installed a lot of stuff!
The drivers downloaded from the Epson page above had huge long file names with different suffixes for different file types with the unstated message: Here you are guys, you figure it out!
I chose the epson-inkjet-printer-escpr_1.6.21-1lsb3.2_amd64.deb file from the downloaded files. The user shouldn’t have to guess, but I guessed I needed a .deb file as I guessed Ubuntu is a Debian based distribution. I guessed I needed amd64 as the PC has a 64 bit Intel processor. When I double-clicked
epson-inkjet-printer-escpr_1.6.21-1lsb3.2_amd64.deb
Ubuntu Software Centre opened epson-inkjet-printer-escpr Epson Inkjet Printer, Driver (ESC/P-R) for Linux. I have no idea if lsb, whatever that is, was used.
Then I installed the Printer Utility in the same way from the epson-printer-utility_1.0.2-1lsb3.2_amd64.deb file.
It is probably a good idea not to wear good clothing for this bit, but filling the ink tanks was quite straightforward. I emptied the whole of the bottle of each colour into the appropriate tank. It is nice to be able to see the appropriate ink level.
I used a LAN patch lead to connect the printer from its LAN socket to the switch on the network. In the printer settings I set the Network Settings to have a manual IP address of 192.168.n.m (n and m as per my local network; I picked an unused address) with a network mask of 255.255.255.0 and I also set the gateway to the router’s local IP address. I haven’t tried a networked printer before.
Opening System Settings/Printers, I could see: “There are no printers configured yet“. I clicked Add.
“Epson Inkjet Printer #1” was listed as the first device. I wonder where this item has come from?
I selected Network Printer/Find Printer. It added Epson ET-4500 I(IP network printer via DNS-SD) as the next entry. I selected that & clicked Forward. It displayed searching for drivers.
It displayed Describe Printer. The defaults looked OK, so I clicked Apply. It offered me a test page. Amazingly, this worked.
It always amazes me when anything involving a computer works, especially when a network is involved.
So far I’ve installed the printer drivers on Ubuntu 14.04 & 16.04. I haven’t tried installing scanner drivers yet.
g3yjr 