fedor@dsg.csc.ti.com (Lee Fedor) (06/30/89)
This is to recap what I did to fix my problem, I wish to thank all the other sun-spots readers who gave me their suggestions and put me on the right track. What I actually did was to change the setting on our Omni-laser 2115 Postscript printer to 34.8k baud. If you have the same type of printer, you go through the software setup on the front panel to change this. If you have some other type of printer you will need to check the users manual on how to change your baud rate. Then I went into our /etc/printcap file and changed the entry on the 4th line of the postscript section from br#9600: to br38400: as it shows below *. lp|lw|ps|postscript|PostScript:\ :lp=/dev/lw:sd=/usr/spool/lw:\ :lf=/usr/spool/lw/lw-log:af=/usr/adm/lw.acct:\ *------>:br#38400:rw:fc#0000374:fs#0000003:xc#0:xs#0040040:mx#0:sf:sb:\ :if=/usr/tran/sparc/lib/psif:\ :of=/usr/tran/sparc/lib/psof:gf=/usr/tran/sparc/lib/psgf:\ :nf=/usr/tran/sparc/lib/psnf:tf=/usr/tran/sparc/lib/pstf:\ :rf=/usr/tran/sparc/lib/psrf:vf=/usr/tran/sparc/lib/psvf:\ :cf=/usr/tran/sparc/lib/pscf:df=/usr/tran/sparc/lib/psdf: There was no need to change anything else to get this to work. Anyway, here are the responses I received from the various other helpful sun-spots readers: ---------------- >From: daniel@unmvax.cs.unm.edu (Tommie Daniel) We are sending data to our postscript printer via an ethernet gateway that connects our ethernet (tcp/ip) to the apple share network. This way the Suns take advantage of the 38.4Kbaud apple nettwork connection on our Laserwriter IINX. Gateways are kind of expensive but it sure beats 9600 baud. Tommie ---------------- >From: sylvman!root@uunet.UU.NET (Root Operator) Have you considered using the parallel port on an ALM-2 and standard trancript. When you do the transcript installation you have to modify the 'confi_lw' file variable `TTY` to mcpp0. If you are using a printer with a parallel port, this should work. I personally have NOT run a postscript printer this way , by I have run a shinko CHC-65 Color printer with not problems. Let me know what the results are. Ed Haggerty ___________________ >From: berg@lindy.Stanford.EDU (Eric M. Berg) > My sales rep from Sun says that they don't sell anything like that, > and even if I bought a parallel board from a third party vendor the > software wouldn't support postscript. This sounds like nonsense, but there may be an element of truth in it. It's nonsense because PostScript is merely printable ASCII text, so how could it not be supported? The element of truth is that most PostScript printers (I assume you're using something other than an Apple LaserWriter, since it doesn't have a parallel port) can "talk back" (i.e. send status messages) to the host. (Of course, it's up to the host software to listen for them and pass them to the user; I'm not sure if Transcript does so or not.) The relevant point is that parallel port drivers probably aren't made to listen for messages coming back from the printer, which serial line drivers are. Sorry this message isn't more specific, but maybe this will shed some light on your question. -- Eric M. Berg 415/322-0606 Internet: A.Eric@GSB-How.Stanford.EDU Price Waterhouse Technology Centre UUCP:...decwrl!gsb-how.stanford.edu!a.eric 68 Willow Road, Menlo Park, CA 94025 Disclaimer: Don't confuse my opinions with those of my employers. --------------------- >From: ekrell@ulysses.att.com There are Postscript printers which can run their serial interface at 38400 baud (which is how fast ttya and ttyb will run). If you have a printer which can't run that fast, you can buy a serial to parallel converter (make sure it runs at 38400) and use it to drive your printer on the parallel interface. I got one of these from "Black Box Corp." for $150 or so. -- Eduardo Krell AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, NJ UUCP: {att,decvax,ucbvax}!ulysses!ekrell Internet: ekrell@ulysses.att.com -------------------------- >From: Ken Yap <ken@cs.rochester.edu> I don't see why the software cannot support a parallel interface. All Transcript (for example) wants to see is a device to open. The XON/XOFF handshake would be replaced by the ack/busy of the parallel interface. I don't know what one would do about the reverse channel needed for status messages though. Maybe these parallel printer interfaces are bidirectional? ------------------------ >From: sysrick@cfht.cfht.hawaii.edu (Rick McGonegal) The alm-2 board from Sun has a parallel interface on it that is centronics compatible. Try "man alm". We have not got it to work yet on our Sun 4/280 but that is mainly due to lack of engineering time to install and test. I would be interested in a summary if you get around to it. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rick McGonegal INTERNET sysrick@cfht.hawaii.edu C.F.H.T. Corp. BITNET sysrick@UHCFHT ------------------------ >From: Alexander Dupuy <dupuy@cs.columbia.edu> Have you tried increasing the speed of the laserwriter serial line? It is possible to run laserwriters at speeds of up to 38400 (if the Sun can keep up). The laserwriteer manual tells you how to increase the speed of the laserwriter in postscript, then you merely have to change the speed entry in the printcap file. @alex -------------------------- Hope this is all helpful. If you have any questions feel free to give me a call and I may or may not be able to answer them for you. Have a nice day!!! Regards, Lee Fedor fedor@dsg.csc.ti.com Texas Instruments Incorporated 12501 Research Blvd Mail Station 2201 Austin, Texas 78714-9149 (512) 250-7573