How to completely delete and reinstall a printer driver?

Question

The printer has some issues and I believe that if I delete completely the printer driver and then I reinstall it, it will work.

How can I do this?

Removing the printer and then adding it again doesn't deletes the driver I guess.

Solution

There are a few methods to find out which package got installed when trying to install the driver for the printer. Here are 3 that I know:

1. Seach for currently installed printer releated packages

   aptitude search printer | grep ^i
   i   epson-inkjet-printer-escpr      - Epson Inkjet Printer Driver (ESC/P-R) for 
   i   indicator-printers              - indicator showing active print jobs       
   i   printer-driver-c2esp            - printer driver for Kodak ESP AiO color ink
   i   printer-driver-foo2zjs          - printer driver for ZjStream-based printers
   i   printer-driver-foo2zjs-common   - printer driver for ZjStream-based printers
   i   printer-driver-gutenprint       - printer drivers for CUPS                  
   i   printer-driver-hpcups           - HP Linux Printing and Imaging - CUPS Raste
   i   printer-driver-min12xxw         - printer driver for KonicaMinolta PagePro 1
   i   printer-driver-pnm2ppa          - printer driver for HP-GDI printers        
   i   printer-driver-postscript-hp    - HP Printers PostScript Descriptions       
   i   printer-driver-ptouch           - printer driver Brother P-touch label print
   i   printer-driver-pxljr            - printer driver for HP Color LaserJet 35xx/
   i   printer-driver-sag-gdi          - printer driver for Ricoh Aficio SP 1000s/S
   i   printer-driver-splix            - Driver for Samsung and Xerox SPL2 and SPLc
   i   system-config-printer-common    - Printer configuration GUI                 
   i   system-config-printer-gnome     - Printer configuration GUI                 
   i   system-config-printer-udev      - Printer auto-configuration facility based 
   

2. Search through your APT history for recently installed printer related packages

   cat /var/log/apt/history.log | grep -e ^Install | grep printer
   zcat /var/log/apt/history.log.*.gz | grep -e ^Install | grep printer
   

3. Use the Ubuntu packages site to search for packages that provide drivers for your printer by searching for package names and package descriptions. You should not only search for the exact model number but also try just searching for the maker. Most packages have a uniform naming scheme.

By combining these methods you should be able to find the proper package and remove it with apt-get purge $package-name. In my case I found that I installed a package named epson-inkjet-printer-escpr.

You may want to also remove the packages from /var/cache/apt/archives/ and /var/cache/apt/archives/partial/ or purge the entire local package cache with sudo apt-get clean.

Caution: You should be careful when removing packages, removing all printer related packages with a wildcard may damage your installation. Usual indicators for removing the wrong packages is a very long list of packages that will be removed or the ubuntu-desktop package being among them.

Comments

[Hannu]

Generally "System Settings" > "Printers" should list your printers There may be several for each printer - with differing settings (I have one for photos, another for text - output to same printer). Right click the one you wish to change/delete - find the "uri" field and COPY & KEEP the text in there - as a backup at least. Remove the printe: right click and select "Delete" in the menu. This search should help you back. It should be as simple as clicking "Add +" and then enter the "Uri" from above.

[Ionică Bizău]

@Hannu I already did that, but does it really deletes the driver?

[Hannu]

"delete driver" - no not likely, for that you will need to find out which package that contains the driver and apt-get purge driver on that. But before doing so I'd google some on +printer_name +ubuntu +driver - you might find other having the same "issue".