While screwing around my garage, I've found an ancient matrix printer, Epson LX-1050. Ubuntu recognised it without problems, and I was able to print several pages using it via CUPS.

Now, for some reason, I want to use this printer the way it was designed back in 1994: to write directly to parallel port. I've tried the most simplistic approach that works to operate my USB 3G modem:

```
echo "Y helo thar" > /dev/lp0

```

I've got an error:

```
bash: /dev/lp0: Access denied

```

I've tried sudo'ing this command with no success. Also tried to mirror the DOS approach of copying file to LPT1:

```
cp /etc/hosts /dev/lp0

```

Again with no success.

Any suggestions that I can try to get this approach to work?