koenker@uiucuxc.Uiuc.ARPA (07/01/85)
Has anyone had experience connecting a serial printer to an IBM-AT running xenix? If so, could you send me a note describing the necessary voodoo? Experience with the hplaserjet would be especially helpful; neither ibm nor hp seem willing to admit that this is possible. Ibm says "we don't support serial printers in xenix" and hp says "xenix, what's that?" Roger Koenker koenker@uiucuxc
beaucham@uiucuxc.Uiuc.ARPA (07/02/85)
I don't see why there should be any particular problem with RS232 serial interfaces and Xenix. Isn't a serial port a serial port? I.e., it's much more standard than parallel is. You might have trouble with printer driver tables if you need other than the standard fonts available by punching buttons on the printer panel, but otherwise I would think it would be duck soup. Some printers come with a choice of serial or parallel interfaces. If it only has parallel and your computer only supplies serial, you can buy a box to convert from serial to parallel. Again, I haven't encountered your specific situation, but it seems that it should be an easy problem to overcome.