Date: Fri, 19 Mar 1999 17:01:04 +1030 From: Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com> To: Tony Jones <tony@rtd.com>, questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Postscript/lpr question Message-ID: <19990319170104.W429@lemis.com> In-Reply-To: <199903190438.UAA06359@zebedee.local>; from Tony Jones on Thu, Mar 18, 1999 at 08:38:08PM -0800 References: <199903190438.UAA06359@zebedee.local>
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On Thursday, 18 March 1999 at 20:38:08 -0800, Tony Jones wrote: > > I recently purchased a HP2100M Postscript laser printer and am having > some printing problems. > > Have it connected to my FreeBSD parallel port using the > following printcap entry: > > lp|local line printer:\ > :sh:\ > :lp=/dev/lpt0:sd=/var/spool/output/lpd:lf=/var/log/lpd-errs: > > I also access the printer from Windows (NT and 98) using Samba. > >>>> When printing documents from NT, I get a blank page emitted after > the last real page. > >>>> Usually from Unix the activity light will remain flashing after the > job has printed, indicating data in the buffer. Eventually it times out, > no trailing blank page is printed. > > > I moved the PS files over to Unix, to isolate NT from the picture > and noticed the following results. > > 1) If the following lines are in the PS file (Windows driver adds them): > <esc>%-12345X@PJL JOB > @PJL ENTER LANGUAGE = POSTSCRIPT > %!PS-Adobe-3.0 > ... > %%EOF > <esc>%-12345X@PJL EOJ > <esc>%-12345X > > Then the printing works perfectly if I 'cat file.ps > /dev/lpt0' > If I use lpr, I get a blank trailing page each time. OK. If necessary, you can get printcap to do that for you. > Adding a 'sf' (supress formfeeds) to the printcap cures the problem > (for lpr) except that for single page documents, nothing is printed, > just the same flashing activity LED until timeout. What happens for two page documents? Do they both come out, or just the first one? > 2) If I remove the PJL/escape lines before the %!PS and after the %%EOF, > then I get the flashing activity light until timeout using either > the direct 'cat > /dev/lpt0' or lpr. No blank page. > > I read the Handbook entry about formfeeds, tried > '(cat file.ps ; printf "\f") > /dev/lpt0 > but it made no difference, still the activity light stays lit > until the timeout. > > The printer's physical controls are limited to one 'cancel' button, > and the documentation is limited to NT/Mac, no mention of Unix. > > Does anyone have any ideas ? Please CC: me directly. I must have > wasted 100 sheets of paper trying to figure out what exactly is > going on. I'm attaching a PostScript document that prints just fine on my HP LaserJet 6MP. Try it and see whether you can print it. If so, you need to collect the kind of document that you're actually sending to the printer and compare what's missing. If not, compare with the Windows output. Either way, you need a print filter which inserts the appropriate information. There's quite a bit of stuff about this in the online handbook, and of course in "The Complete FreeBSD". Greg -- See complete headers for address, home page and phone numbers finger grog@lemis.com for PGP public key To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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