Date: Fri, 10 Dec 1999 10:32:19 -0800 From: "Ronald F. Guilmette" <rfg@monkeys.com> To: Christopher Michaels <ChrisMic@clientlogic.com> Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Help! Simple printer problem becomes a major documentation beef. Message-ID: <8761.944850739@monkeys.com> In-Reply-To: Your message of Fri, 10 Dec 1999 12:36:09 -0500. <6C37EE640B78D2118D2F00A0C90FCB4401105DF7@site2s1>
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In message <6C37EE640B78D2118D2F00A0C90FCB4401105DF7@site2s1>, you wrote: > man 8 lptcontrol > > It turns on 'extended mode'. Isn't that obvious?!? (note the >sarcasm). Yes, I _do_ note the sarcasm, and I think it is highly appropriate. >In actuality I did some digging and couldn't find anything about >"extended mode". That makes two of us. So, anybody know what the flock ``extended mode'' for a parallel port is? Well anyway, it sure sounds good/cool/nice. >The only thing I can think of is, it's refering to enabled >the extended features of an EPP parallel port... <sarcasm> Oh, well that explains it... NOT! </sarcasm> What the flock are ``the extended features of an EPP parallel port''?? >as opposed to just using it as >an SPP standard parallel port. but I'm just guessing. In lieu of actual documentation, I'm inclined to beleiev that your guesses are as good as any other theory. >> OK, so the first thing I try to do is to educate myself, and I start >> reading man pages. That leads me to look closely at the config file >> that I used to generate the kernel I am using now. Specifically, >> I'm lookup at the entries relating to the things called `ppbus' and >> `ppc0' and `lpt0'. And I'm reading whatever little documentation of >> these things is present in the LINT file, which is to say not bloody >> much. >> > man 4 ppbus > man 4 ppc > man 4 lpt > > All the information you are looking for is in those man pages. >(Yes, I looked before saying this). No, it isn't. Please quote me from the _standard_ 3.3 versions of those man pages and quote me the exact parts that document the following config file options for ppc: tty net disable I see now that the man page for ppc(4) _does_ document the meaning of `flags 0x40', but only in a rather perverse way (talking about ``flags bit 6'' rather than just documenting the meaning of 0x40, as is done in the earlier part of this same man page). But the meanings of the `tty', `net', and `disable' options still appear to be totally undsocumented. >> So here is my first-order complaint: Please excuse my abundant ignorance, >> but just where the blazes are all of these extra little doo-dads that are >> tacked onto the end of the `device' lines documented anyway? I guess >> that I can figure out `irq NN' and `iomem 0xNNNNN' and `port 0xNNN' for >> myself, but what the heck is all of this other stuff? What does the >> `tty' modifer do? What exactly does `isa?' mean? What does the `disable' >> modifier do? >> > look in the above referenced man pages. I did and came up empty. Are you looking at some different version of the man pages than I am? I'm looking at the stock 3.3 versions. >> I scrounged around for awhile and tried to answer these questions for >> myself, but all I found was a 6-year-old paper titled ``Building 4.4BSD >> Kernels with Config' (which it would have been nice if the config(8) man >> page had given me the URL for, rather than making me search for it). >> Unfortunately, the kernel config file syntax that is described in that >> document *clearly* doesn't agree at all with the *current* config file >> syntax that is understood by the current FreeBSD kernel config(8) program. >> >> OK, so where is the *current* (FreeBSD) config file syntax documented? >> > Not sure what you're asking for here? Different drivers have >different parameters and options. But the config file itself has an overall syntax. There are certain words and phrases that can be placed on a `device' line for example. Trying to put random crap on a device line, like: device xyz0 foobar! will probably get you into trouble. Look at the paper I mentioned, i.e. `Building 4.4BSD Kernels with Config'. That has a whole detailed BNF syntax fully laid out that describes what could (and what could not) be placed into a config file under plain old 4.4BSD. The syntax for FreeBSD kernel config files should likewise be documented somewhere. >> I mean geeezzz! I only want to cat a bleedin' Postscript file to my >> bleedin' Postscript printer fer cryin' out loud! Why can't I just do >> that? Why does life have to be so complicated? Why can Linux, straight- >> out-of-the-box, do this but FreeBSD (with a mostly GENERIC kernel) can't? >> > It should just work "out-of-the-box". And to your own admission, >you haven't eliminated the possability that it is a hardware related >problem. Right. I haven't. But before I start to go rampaging through the insides of this machine's mini-tower case, I really would like to first eliminate the possibility that I've just got the parallel port driver(s) misconfigured in my kernel. And I'd also like to eliminate the possibility that I'm just not running the parallel port in the proper `mode' (a la lptcontrol). One should always eliminate sofwtare configuration glitches before one even begins to contemplate blaming the hardware. But which `device ppc0' options are really the ``correct'' ones in my case? Should this thing be set to `net' or to `tty'? And what do those modifiers DO anyway? And which `lptcontrol' setting should I be using? I have no idea, and nothing in the man pages gives me any useful guidance whatsoever. >> This *shouldn't* require a degree in rocket-science. >> > It's doesn't, it requires a doctorate in computer science. (more >sarcasm) Gee, and here I was hoping that a Master's would be adequate. :-( >It really should be as simple as you ask, at least it has been in >my experience. <sarcasm> I guess I'm just lucky. </sarcasm> > Standard parallel ports are pretty dumb... Apparently not. If they're so dumb, then why all of the kernel and run-time options?? >... and aren't very verbose to begin with. Now its my turn to say it: See the man page. The man page for ppbus has a whole section on IEEE-1284. And as it happens, I _know_ that I have an IEEE-1284 cable running from the computer in questions to the printer in question, so I gotta figure that the printer itself _can_ do some of the (sophisticated?) talking back that is described in the ppbus man page. (And given my inability to get the printer to print, I happen to think that it would be Really Swell if I could get a chance to see anything that the printer may be trying to send back to the computer in this case.) >> P.P.P.S. The FreeBSD handbook (at www.freebsd.org) says that >> *bi-directional* >> communication over the parallel port... which might be useful for >> debugging >> problems, *especially* with a Postscript printer... isn't supported >> ``yet''. >> Is that information still true? If so, when will bi-directional >> communica- >> tions over the parallel port be supported? >> > UGH.. you're obsessed with P.S.'s. hehe. No idea. I would assume >that the man page is giving the current state of affairs. The problem is that ``the man page'' (specifically the ppbus man page) is *not* at all specific in answering the question ``Can I get/read status back from the parallel port device /dev/lpt0?'' The ppbus man page talks at length about IEEE-1284 *in general terms*, i.e. describing what the IEEE-1284 standard demands, and then it describes the layered approach to parallel ports used in FreeBSD, i.e. using ppbus and ppc, and lpt devices, and then it just ends saying: This achitecture should support IEEE1284-1994 modes. Swell. It should, but does it? If not, then when will it? >> I *really* would like to see any error messages that my printer might be >> trying to send back to the PeeCee. >> >> I mean who knows? Maybe the printer is sitting there desperately trying >> to say ``buy toner'' or something simple like that (but I don't think >> that it is). >> > There's no display, or lights, or anthing that would reflect this >state? (I don't have that specific printer). No. That's what I said earlier. The printer just sits and stares at me. No error lights. No pages printed. No nuttin'. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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