Date: Tue, 16 Jul 96 12:42:09 WET From: <E00114@vnet.atea.be> (Rob Schofield) To: <questions@freebsd.org> Subject: Printing probs. under a new 2.1 installation Message-ID: <vines.mmb7%2BCypulA@vnet.atea.be>
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Hello there Gentlemen (and any ladies who may be tuned in, of course).
My name is Rob Schofield, a software developer with UNIX sysadmin experience;
you can assume a reasonable jargon threshold and familiarity with UNIX guts.
After having a successful install experience with help from James Raynard, I
thought I'd bug you again with another problem.
I have installed 2.1 on a DEC applicationDEC fileserver machine, 486DX33, 16M
RAM, various other bits. The machine is a multi-processor, EISA bus based box.
Installed in there is a parallel printer port designated LPT1: under DOS,
registered and correctly configured under the EISA config scheme. Hanging on
the end of the cable is a brand-spanking new HP LaserJet 5L (I know, it was
all I could afford) with PCL (V6.0?). Under DOS, it prints OK, likewise Win
3.11 WFW. It also prints from Win NT with no probs.
Post FreeBSD 2.1 install, I tried to print a sample text file using the
handbook tutorial. After checking the existence of a /dev/lpt0 (equiv. DOS
LPT1) dev file and looking into the kernel to spot LPT support, I enabled
interrupt driven operation using the LPTCONTROL util (lptcontrol -i -u0) which
was acknowledged by the kernel with a SYSLOG message to console (I haven't
configured my syslog daemon yet, sorry!). The /etc/printcap file was present
but knocked out with #'s. Using LPTEST, I tried to spit out a page to the
printer for the first test before configuring the spooler and plan text
filters:
lptest > /dev/lpt0
and I got back:
"Device busy" after a timeout of a few seconds.
I swapped the operation mode over to polled using lptcontrol:
lptcontrol -p -u0
- and received another kernel acknowledgement at the console. I repeated the
test, and got the "Busy" message again.
I did notice in the FAQ that the newer HP printers seemed to have timing
problems, but this sort of message seems to imply that FBSD is not too happy
with it's internal hardware (the LPT port), rather than the external device
giving trouble.
Although I could plug at this a bit longer, I could do with any pointers to
get me going if anyone has already heard of a similar problem to this.
I appreciate all effort in advance, and can award honourary beer vouchers for
redemption during visits to the Netherlands (so start planning those vacations
now, kids!)
Looking forward to hearing from (anyone?)
Rob Schofield.
--
Happiness is a smoking processor.......(running FreeBSD, of course!)
Rob Schofield M.Sc. AMIEE
schofiel@xs4all.nl http://www.xs4all.nl/~schofiel
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