Epson ET-3850 scanner

Has anybody got a solution to get the scanner function for the Epson ET-3850 working?

I downloaded the scanner driver (debian) from the Epson driver page, unpacked it and used debtap to convert it. After conversion I did makepkg < packagename> and installed it. On starting the Epson scan software it does not find the network connected scanner (does not see that there is an Epson scanner active on the network). Under Debian the scanner does work. So I’m afraid that, although installation of the software seemed to succeed, it might not matches Manjaro.

I have to try usb yet, but using my laptop I’m not always near to the printer

It should be this driver for the printer part:

AUR (en) - epson-inkjet-printer-escpr2

Look at the (short) list of dependencies.
Optional dependency is

AUR (en) - imagescan

The device also seems to be network capable - which probably means:
no driver needed

Here is one thing my search turned up:

[SOLVED] Network CUPS printer/scanner without Avahi / Newbie Corner / Arch Linux Forums

I don’t have a solution since I don’t own that device and cannot hands on test any of this. :man_shrugging:

2 Likes
pamac build epson-inkjet-printer-escpr2

For this to work, the Arch User Repository (AUR) must be enabled in Pamac;

1 Like

Epson website has downloads suitable for Debian (.deb) and Fedora (.rpm)
but recommends building from source files for other distributions

https://support.epson.net/linux/Printer/LSB_distribution_pages/en/escpr2.php

If you want to use the driver other than the above distribution,
we recommend that you build from the source file and install it.
If you want to use the source package for x86 CPU, please click here.

AUR (en) - epson-inkjet-printer-escpr2

Sources:
https://download3.ebz.epson.net/dsc/f/03/00/16/65/08/edc3c65a4f23c3d146ad23a276afe52355cd27d2/epson-inkjet-printer-escpr2-1.2.26-1.tar.gz

AUR (en) - epsonscan2

Sources
https://download3.ebz.epson.net/dsc/f/03/00/16/14/37/7577ee65efdad48ee2d2f38d9eda75418e490552/epsonscan2-6.7.70.0-1.src.tar.gz

AUR (en) - epson-printer-utility

Sources
https://download3.ebz.epson.net/dsc/f/03/00/15/43/23/b85f4cf2956db3dd768468b418b964045c047b2c/epson-printer-utility_1.1.3-1_amd64.deb

pamac-cli does not need AUR support enabled in pamac-manager to build AUR packages

$ grep AUR /etc/pamac.conf
## Allow Pamac to search and install packages from AUR:
#EnableAUR
## Keep built packages from AUR in cache after installation:
## When AUR support is enabled check for updates from AUR:
#CheckAURUpdates
## When check updates from AUR support is enabled check for vcs updates:
#CheckAURVCSUpdates
## AUR build directory:
$ pamac build epson-inkjet-printer-escpr2
Preparing...
Checking epson-inkjet-printer-escpr2 dependencies...
Resolving dependencies...
Checking inter-conflicts...

To build (1):
  epson-inkjet-printer-escpr2  1.2.26-1    AUR

Building epson-inkjet-printer-escpr2...
==> Making package: epson-inkjet-printer-escpr2 1.2.26-1 (Mon 03 Feb 2025 12:44:50 GMT)
==> Checking runtime dependencies...
==> Checking buildtime dependencies...
==> Retrieving sources...
  -> Downloading epson-inkjet-printer-escpr2-1.2.26-1.tar.gz...

epson-inkjet-printer-escpr2-1.2.26/ppd/Epson-ET-3850_Series-epson-escpr2-en.ppd

epson-inkjet-printer-escpr2-1.2.26/ppd/Epson-ET-3850_Series-epson-escpr2-en.ppd

Installing epson-inkjet-printer-escpr2 (1.2.26-1)...                                                               [1/1]
Transaction successfully finished.

1 Like

I had an Epson printer with scanner time ago and configuration was easy. Configure it with a fixed ip, be sure you can ping the printer ip. The printer name may be something like “EPSON48980A” (appears in the network status report), be sure you can also ping this name. If not, add name and ip of the printer to your /etc/hosts file. Then add a line in /etc/sane.d/epkowa.conf like this:

net ip_of_your_printer

You can also try with net autodiscovery but having a fixed ip is better the other one.

After that, the scanner should work…

2 Likes

Thank you all for your support. Although not complete, experimenting with the step of each of you did make me succeed that the scanner does work now with Documentscanner application, gscan2pdf and skanlite.
Epson Scan 2 still does not recognize the scanner.

But thanks to you three I’ve made progress.

Steps I’ve done:

  1. Installed imagescan and imagescan-network-plugin from AUR
  2. installed yay and afterwards yay -S epsonscan2
  3. downloaded the epson scan driver and compiled it from source
  4. Configuring via Cups. Cups already knew the printer, but that did not help for scanning