Date: Mon, 30 Nov 1998 11:34:45 -0800 (PST) From: David Wolfskill <dhw@whistle.com> To: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Unix and FreeBSD Message-ID: <199811301934.LAA01270@pau-amma.whistle.com> In-Reply-To: <199811260323.VAA00991@n4hhe.ampr.org>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
>From: David Kelly <dkelly@hiwaay.net> >Date: Wed, 25 Nov 1998 21:23:53 -0600 >Arrgghh! You can't be serious about their print system? My worst >nightmares with Solaris 2.5.1 has been printing. The only way I've >gotten one printing The Way I Like has been to install Sun's >SparcPrinter E package and to not configure any other network printer on >the box. HP JetDirect software is essential for HP printers. >Without special "drivers" from Sun and/or HP, was never able to convince >its over-intelligent print system that the printer expected and only >would accept PostScript. The default print system is OK for most >printers if you don't mind stairstepped output if somebody happens to >throw raw text at it. Or as long as you can convince your users to >always run their text thru a2ps or similar. Big problem was our HP 4MV >really blew up on whatever was being sent so 40 or 100 almost blank >pages at the printer wasn't unusual. Although I sympathize with respect to a lot of the hassle with "lp", dealing with both PS & text has not been a problem for me (without "special drivers") -- once I found out that the brain-dead implementation of lpd in the JetDirect cards does have a mildly redeeming feature: Recall that since that lpd treats the IP address of the LaserJet as that of the server; it knows about multiple logical printers reachable at that server, including one called "text". (The reason I refer to that implementation of lpd as "brain-dead" is that lpd is supposed to queue requests, as any other SPOOLiing system does. I have seen no evidence that the lpd in question does so, nor have I seen any evidence that it provides a negative acknowledgement when an attempt is made to print something while the printer is already busy. Further, I find that while it copes with some PostScript just fine (such as output of "man -t" for some man pages), similar PostScript gets silently dropped on the floor (output of "man -t" for other man pages) -- even if I specify "maximal brain-damage" for groff. Weird. In such cases, instead of printing the PS here at work with FreeBSD, I take it home & print using Solaris 2.6 on a SPARCstation; at home, my LaserJet is connected via parallel port, so I don't need to deal with HP's lpd implementation.) >Have heard both BSD lpr/lpd and LPRng are ported to Solaris, and have a >modest following. I can understand why. :-), david -- David Wolfskill UNIX System Administrator dhw@whistle.com voice: (650) 577-7158 pager: (650) 371-4621 To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?199811301934.LAA01270>