[unix-pc.general] line printer problems with 3.51m

bruces@daneel.rtech.com (Bruce Stewart) (02/18/90)

Well, 3.51m was looking good until I tried to use my parallel printer.  Instead
of a nice, steady stream of output, what I get is one line ... pause for 10
minutes ... next line ... pause for 10 minutes ... etc.  Needless to say, I
wasn't pleased (8-)).  Anyway, after checking everything else (cables, lp
configuration, permissions, interface file, printer hardware), and
rebooting several times, I tried running the 3.51 kernel -- presto! --
the printer started performing correctly again.  I know the 3.51m
release had a (minor?) change that could have affected the printer, but
I don't recall the exact nature of the change.  Any information,
reports of similar experiences, etc. appreciated.  My configuration is:

3B1 -- 3.5Mbytes memory, 3.51m operating system
40 Mbyte disk
StarSG15 printer (wide carriage version of StarSG10), parallel, 16k resident
print buffer 
printer defined as StarSG10 to lp spooler 
printer device:  /dev/rawlp (tried /dev/lp, no better).

I have occasionally gotten the printer to react normally by adding set -x to
the interface file (why this should affect anything, I don't know, unless it
has something to do with the buffering), but this is not a consistent result,
and may be coincidental.

Help appreciated.  ADVTHANKSANCE.

-bruce stewart

rwright@novavax.UUCP (Ronald K. Wright) (02/18/90)

In article <4772@rtech.rtech.com> bruces@daneel.rtech.com (Bruce Stewart) writes:
>Well, 3.51m was looking good until I tried to use my parallel printer.
>I know the 3.51m
>release had a (minor?) change that could have affected the printer, but
>I don't recall the exact nature of the change.  Any information,
>reports of similar experiences, etc. appreciated.  My configuration is:
>
>3B1 -- 3.5Mbytes memory, 3.51m operating system
>40 Mbyte disk

I get double panics with one of my machines using an AT&T 470 printer.
(parallel)

Oddly, with my 9 other machines I have no problems.  Perhaps there is
something peculiar to certain printers.  The other machines use a
series of different printers none of them are 470's.

I too would appreciate any information

This is another line
This is another line
This is another line
This is another line


-- 
R. K. Wright MD JD                     | office: uunet!medex2!medexam!rkw
Chief Medical Examiner, Broward County | nova:   novavax!rwright
Associate Professor Pathology          | home:   uunet!medex2!love1!rkw
University of Miami School of Medicine | fax:    305 765 5193

pat@rwing.UUCP (Pat Myrto {rwing}) (02/19/90)

In article <4772@rtech.rtech.com>, bruces@daneel.rtech.com (Bruce Stewart) writes:
> Well, 3.51m was looking good until I tried to use my parallel printer.  Instead
> of a nice, steady stream of output, what I get is one line ... pause for 10
> minutes ... next line ... pause for 10 minutes ... etc.  Needless to say, I
> wasn't pleased (8-)).
> [ ... config and test with old kernel, etc deleted ... ]

Well, I don't know what to tell you - I have this Citoh 310 printer
configured to look like an Epson FX series hooked in, and it works
fine with 3.51m.  Note that I did not use the User Agent (office) to
set it up, I did it from the command line with lpadmin, etc., and gave
it the name 'citoh', class parallel.  My interface file is rather
heavily hacked up to restore stuff that was claimed to not be
supported, making it conform to the manual pages in the binders
supplied with the Utilities pkg.  None of the hacks were done to make
it function, just to make it work the way *I* wanted it to.

Just a guess is that there may have been something wrong with the
setup all along, and changes in 3.51m are being affected by it, whereas
3.51 ignored it.

If all else fails, perhaps you should go in, and re-configure the
thing FROM SCRATCH, and from shell level, and forget the 'convenient'
method provided by the User Agent and the install login.  Just be sure
to run /usr/lib/lpshut and su to lp and do all the install as user
'lp' to ensure all files have the correct ownership, etc.  If
everything is right, enabling and running accept, finally re-starting
lpsched, lpsched should stay running and the printer will work.  If
there is a problem, lpsched will not stay up and running.  Read the
manuals first, though, its been awhile since I have done this, so I am
probably missing something.

If you think it will help, send me an e-mail message and I will send
you my interface script.

-- 
pat@rwing                                       (Pat Myrto),  Seattle, WA
                            ...!uunet!pilchuck!rwing!pat
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