I'm following this guide and trying to print anything, a jpeg, a webpage, results in this format page and then 100's of blank pages.

Why does everything on Linux have to be so hard?!

Unfortunately I have never seen anything like that happens before. Keep in mind that Bazzite is an immutable os, so you can't make system changes like on other systems.

Your best option is to look for a driver on the Fedora repository (documentation).

Or you could layer that driver you found, but it would be uninstalled next time you update the system.

Unfortunately you picked a distro that doesn't allow much customization. This is the price you pay for a system that is almost impossible to break.

But...

Why does everything on Linux have to be so hard?!

As a counter example, I installed Bazzite on my dad's laptop. Previously it was Windows for games + Mint for internet and productivity; now it's Bazzite for everything. A couple days ago he was dealing with some important documents, he had a guest that needed a print. He called me "(My name) what did you do to the computer? I can't print anymore!". Panic 😫 There and then, I realized I completely forgot about the printer. On Mint I had to install proprietary drivers to make it work. So I rushed there, fully prepared for a fight with the system. But no, I just pressed "Add printer", Bazzite automatically detected it from the same network, and with a second click I added it to the system. 1 minute later my dad managed to print, the guest was happy, my dad was happy, I was happy. Bazzite is amazing.

For reference, the printer is an Epson ET-2815.

Bazzite might not install printer-driver-brlaser by default. If you ran rpm-ostree install printer-driver-brlaser in a terminal what does it say? If you get an "already provided by" error than disregard this but, if it does install it then reboot.

That guide is definitely not going to work on Bazzite.

I'm on Fedora Silverblue and that package is installed by default. My printer (HL-2395DW) was automatically detected and required no configuration.

Unfortunately It doesn't seem to find mine like that, and I'll be honest I think I was just grumpy that this isn't a simple, "click on the executable" system like windows, this is my fiancees PC, but issues like this are why I'm hesitant to actually switch to Linux in the first place

So I keep hearing this phrase "this isn't going to work on bazzite" in your opinion, what OS would you hear that with the least? I don't care about immutability, I just got that because this is my fiancee's PC and I wanted it to be easy for her

What's the most widely compatible Linux OS?

Hello. I'm not here to talk about bazzite or printers.

But I am here to talk about blatant generalization in IT, since I really hate it.

Why does everything on Linux have to be so hard?!

This is really an annoying attitude. Especially for people trying to help. It's also not true - have you recently used your phone or a website? 99% chance it worked just fine and easy with Linux as base. And no, you're not even talking about Linux but ranting about gpl software you're interacting with.

Having options makes things hard sometimes. But you could pick another distro that maybe better caters to your needs.

You know what an annoying attitude is? "Just switch to Linux" that's a generalization I'm pretty damn sick of hearing

I'm not an expert but Fedora or Mint.

Bazzite is more suited for gaming than general use, as I understand it.

In that case maybe Linux is not ready for you yet. You might have to give it a few more years.

Bazzite in particular is a bit unique, so you will find even less help online. I have to agree with the other users here, maybe try with Linux Mint instead.

Or if you'd really want to insist with Bazzite, you could try with layering. But keep in mind that layers are temporary, and you have to reapply your layer every time you install a system update. Let us know if you really want to try this way, I couldn't find an easy step-by-step guide, but someone else might be able to write one for you.

EDIT: oh another thing... printers are removed on Linux. Unfortunately printer companies do not seem to like open-sourcing their drivers, and Linux support is sometimes bad or none at all. Do not expect this many issues with everything. Linux is usually pretty nice after all.

I want to believe you, I really do, but I'll have to see it first

On Linux, it is just more important that guides be written for the distro you are using or at least related ones.
So, more popular long-standing distros just end up with more guides or better documentation.

If you layer packages with rpm-ostree, they are not temporary.
Although, I would try to keep it to only things in the distros default repos because dependency issues will just cause updates to no longer apply.

Thanks I'll give mint a try on my laptop

Not from me, but that's an easy evade. But yeah you're right with that.

If you want the easy expensive client road, imo go to macos but that has degraded too.

I'm still playing on windows myself but just because the pain isn't enough yet and it's only a gaming client and I'm lazy.

I love using some Linux distros but it heavily depends on the use case.

So yeah, do whatever is good for you!

Bazzite is atomic fedora with steam and other stuff installed. If you like it try fedora with a KDE desktop otherwise mint should be good too. If you want a non atomic gaming distro I hear cachy is great but that is arch based not fedora. I personally use bazzite for my home theatre/gaming rig and it has been fantastic

In my experience fedora has just worked more than Ubuntu, I don't remember if I tried mint

Printers might actually be the hardest part about switching to Linux. Took me almost an entire day to get my Dell printer working.

The main issue is that printer manufacturers often neglect printer drivers.

As others have said in this thread, I would probably avoid Bazzite for now. If you need to change anything its a huge pain, and it often gets reverted in an update. I would only use Bazzite if I were using the device solely as a gaming PC or a media center PC.

Replying six months late — not for OP (glad you found your way, Mint is a solid choice), but for everyone who lands here later with the same problem, the way I used to land in old threads like this one.

1. You may not need a driver at all. The "install the driver" guides are often outdated advice. Driverless printing has been an industry standard for over a decade: Apple's AirPrint since 2010, and IPP Everywhere / Mopria since 2013, when the printer manufacturers (Canon, HP, Samsung, Xerox and others) formed the Mopria Alliance. Practically every network printer built since ~2013 speaks at least one of these — the printer itself tells the system what it can do, no vendor driver involved. And here's the proof you already own: your smartphone has been printing exactly this way all along. Nobody has ever installed a printer driver on a phone — Android and iOS simply have no other mechanism than these open standards. If your printer works from your phone, it can work driverless from Linux too, on every distro including immutable ones like Bazzite. The "garbage page + hundreds of blank pages" symptom is typically a wrong driver rendering junk — removing the vendor driver setup and re-adding the printer as a network/driverless printer (CUPS picks "IPP Everywhere" as the model) often just fixes it. That's also why the Epson story above worked in one click: that wasn't Bazzite being magic, it was driverless printing doing its job.

2. Shameless-but-honest plug: I'm a 45-year-old car mechanic from Austria, not a dev — probably not the typical person you'd expect in these threads. Printing was my own "why is this so hard" moment on Linux, so I built a small FOSS tool for it: PrintEase (https://github.com/MrHaku81/print-ease). It's a GTK4 app that auto-discovers driverless printers/scanners on your network (IPP Everywhere + eSCL scanning) and shows you honestly what the device itself reports — capabilities, paper sizes, duplex, the lot. No vendor drivers, no config files. GPL, 34 languages.

Install options by distro:

• Ubuntu 24.04+ / Mint 22+ / Zorin 18+ (and other noble-based): sudo add-apt-repository ppa:haku81/printease && sudo apt install print-ease
• Arch / CachyOS / EndeavourOS / Manjaro: paru -S print-ease (AUR)
• Fedora / openSUSE / others: from source — git clone, pip install -e . (deps: GTK4, PyGObject, pycups; see README)
• Bazzite / Silverblue / immutable distros: honestly, no first-class option yet — a Flatpak is in the works precisely for this case. Until then: run it in a distrobox (Ubuntu or Arch box), or just use the driverless tip above, which needs no extra software at all.

One honest limitation: if a printer genuinely needs a legacy driver (some older Brother laser models want brlaser), or is USB-only without network, no tool talks around that — driverless only works if the printer speaks the standard. Check your printer's build year and spec for "AirPrint" or "Mopria" support; if it's from ~2013 or later and has WiFi/LAN, you're one network discovery away from never thinking about printer drivers again.

I don't hang around social platforms much, but if you find this and have questions — issues and questions on the GitHub repo are welcome, I do answer.

Yeah... this is AI.