quirk@hubcap.clemson.edu (12/03/88)
We have a couple of Apple LaserWriters attached to Sun 3 servers.
Periodically the daemon gets "hung" and the jobs just sit in the queue.
The first job in the queue is flagged as "active". The status is of the
printer is "ready and printing" and the daemon is still present. The only
fix seems to be to "abort" and "start" the daemon. The "restart" command
doesn't do it. This never seems to happen with the line printer but
happens far too often with the LaserWriters. I was hoping going to
Release 4.0 would fix things, but it hasn't. Can anyone offer any insight
into this problem?
Chris Reynolds uucp: ... !gatech!hubcap!quirk
CS Dept, Clemson University domain: quirk@hubcap.clemson.edu
phone: (803)656-{2639,3444}rodgers@maxwell.mmwb.ucsf.edu (12/13/88)
We have experienced intermittent problems with the LaserWriter over the years. I'm sorry not to be more systematic in my description; it would be a genuine service to the user community if someone more knowledgable could make a systematic technical summary of the various difficulties posed by this device.
papowell@vlsi.cs.umn.edu (Patrick Powell) (12/30/88)
quirk@hubcap.clemson.edu writes: >We have a couple of Apple LaserWriters attached to Sun 3 servers. >Periodically the daemon gets "hung" and the jobs just sit in the queue. >The first job in the queue is flagged as "active". The status is of the >printer is "ready and printing" and the daemon is still present. The only >fix seems to be to "abort" and "start" the daemon.... The PLP (Public? Powell's? Line Printer) software is a reverse engineered version of the Berkeley LPD software. It has (gasp!) error messages. Timeouts. Automatic restart of hung jobs, if you want. Try getting it from julius.cs.umn.edu, anonymous ftp, /public/PLP.3.0.tar.Z. If you have a transcript source license, I can send you a "fixed" version that appears to solve several problems on Sun4/4.0. If you have a binary license, I can send you a binary... I have observed the problem with the laserwriter several times before, and it has usually been tracked down to serial line noise problems. Patrick Powell Prof. Patrick Powell, Dept. Computer Science, EECS 4-192, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455 (612)625-3543/625-4002