knoppix first-timer can't print

I have installed knoppix 3.4 to my hard drive for the first time. Looks 
like the answer to my prayers (i.e. sound works out-of-the-box). There 
are not many choices when installing to the hard drive (via sudo 
knoppix-installer) so I couldn't choose to install cups. However, the  
installer did advise that "kdm cupsysd will start with each boot". Alas, 
I can't print.

When I open 'Configure-Printing Manager' I get 'Initializing Manager..' 
then:

Error - KDE Control Module
Unable to retrieve the printer list. Error message received for manager. 
Connection to CUPS server failed. Check that the CUPS server correctly 
installed and is running. Error: conection refused.

Trying to restart the Print Server I get:

Error - KDE Control Module
Unable to restart print server. Error message received for manager: 
Unable to find a running CUPS server.

Any ideas for steps to troubleshoot this? I read the man page for cupsd 
-- it's short and no help for this. My printer is a new-ish epson stylus 
c84.

At one point I was actually able to create the icon for my printer 
(correctly detected) -- but it disappeared without doing a successful 
test print.

I have done a successful printer self-test -- that rules out the printer 
as the problem.

I did a cupsd as root -- it gave no error, and allowed me to create a 
printer icon, which is good, but still I can't print. the jobs do not 
appear under Jobs.

Chris