Change to lsb package in 16.04+ breaks backwards compatibility

[Patrick Then]

Since Ubuntu 16.04 Xenial Xerus, lsb has been changed (removed? numbering scheme altered?) in such a way that installation of various software becomes impossible due to missing dependencies.

Most prominently it has become impossible to install the Linux driver packages for Epson printers (available from Epson).
While the repositories contain a package (escpr) for epson printer drivers, this package provides only limited functionality (indicated by the r suffix in the package), which in some cases prevents any reasonable work with Epson printers (e.g. no support for duplex printing, additional paper cartridges, etc.).
In my case, a Stylus Office BX925 (compatible to Workforce 840) can't be used with Ubuntu anymore, except for the most simple printing tasks.

This issue affects the drivers and utilities for other printer brands as well.

Further affected software seems to be e.g. Google Earth.

While it's reasonable to assume that Google Earth will be eventually updated, there's no such guarantee for affected printer drivers/utilities, given the notoriously bad official Linux support of some hardware.

lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 16.04 LTS
Release: 16.04

lsb version 9.20160110

[Jeremy Bícha (jbicha)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. Unfortunately, we cannot work on this bug because your description didn't include enough information. You may find it helpful to read "How to report bugs effectively" http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/bugs.html. We'd be grateful if you would then provide a more complete description of the problem.

We have instructions on debugging some types of problems at http://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingProcedures.

At a minimum, we need:
1. The specific steps or actions you took that caused you to encounter the problem.
2. The behavior you expected.
3. The behavior you actually encountered (in as much detail as possible).
Thanks!

[Patrick Then (patrickthen)]

Gladly!

1.
a) Download the Epson printer driver for Workforce840/BX925 series (however, other printers are affected as well) available from
http://download.ebz.epson.net/dsc/du/02/DriverDownloadInfo.do?LG2=EN&CN2=&DSCMI=16839&DSCCHK=3d7bc6bdfca08006abfb859fb1967183156a7252
b) try to install the .deb file
2. The .deb should install, fetching the dependencies from the repos, enabling full-fetured printing with Epson printers
3. The installation fails due to requirements for lsb ("lsb>=3.2") not being met.

In the meantime I have found a different bug report (#1536353) for this issue and have followed a workaround outlined there (add Trusty repos, install lsb from there).

I'll mark this bug report as a duplicate!