ardavan@ccs.carleton.ca (Ardavan Tajbakhsh) (03/25/91)
We have a Laserwriter II NT connected to a network of Apollos running
sr 10.2 (patch level PSK5) and we are using aegis print services. Everything
is fine except when a large postscript file is sent to the printer. The
printer acknowledges that it is receiving something, but doesn't generate
any output.
I suspected that because of the size of the file (150355 bytes), the printer
tried to XOFF the line but failed. I put a terminal in place of the Laserwriter,
verified that I was talking to it, sent the file and saw the output scrolling on
the screen. Typing <CTRL> <S> on the terminal had no effect.
I know that I can probably get around the problem by using the Unix print
daemon and associated software, but I'd like to understand what is happening
rather than using a workaround. Incidentally, here are the characteristics
of the line connected to the Laserwriter:
Status of Line 2:
Erase (character delete) character: 08 (hex)
Kill (line delete) character: 15 (hex)
End of file character: 1A (hex)
Quit character: 03 (hex)
Fault character: 1C (hex)
Suspend character: 1A (hex)
New line delay: 0
Speed: 9600
Raw: TRUE, Echo: FALSE, Cvt_NL: FALSE
CvtRaw_NL: FALSE, Host_Sync: FALSE, Input_Sync: TRUE
RTS: TRUE, DTR: TRUE, DCD: FALSE
CTS: FALSE, Quit_Enable: FALSE, Fault_Enable: FALSE
Susp_Enable: FALSE, DCD_Enable: FALSE, CTS_enable: FALSE
BP_Enable: FALSE, RTS_Enable: FALSE
Eight bits per character, Parity: None, One stop bit
Errors enabled: NONE
Polite: FALSE, Wait for DCD: TRUE,
Ardavan <Ardavan@ccs.carleton.ca>edwill@mars.lerc.nasa.gov (Glenn L. Williams) (03/30/91)
In article <1991Mar25.152157.25840@ccs.carleton.ca>, ardavan@ccs.carleton.ca (Ardavan Tajbakhsh) writes... > > > We have a Laserwriter II NT connected to a network of Apollos running > sr 10.2 (patch level PSK5) and we are using aegis print services. Everything > is fine except when a large postscript file is sent to the printer. The > printer acknowledges that it is receiving something, but doesn't generate > any output. > > I suspected that because of the size of the file (150355 bytes), the printer > tried to XOFF the line but failed. I put a terminal in place of the Laserwriter, > verified that I was talking to it, sent the file and saw the output scrolling on > the screen. Typing <CTRL> <S> on the terminal had no effect. > > I know that I can probably get around the problem by using the Unix print > daemon and associated software, but I'd like to understand what is happening > rather than using a workaround. Incidentally, here are the characteristics > of the line connected to the Laserwriter: > ,stuff deleted here, With the Mentor Graphics Postscript server, we had to set up the server config file correctly to get rid of illegal control characters in the first and last lines of the file. However, a line in the text somewhere that says letter 0 timeout resulted in a problem like yours. If this line was commented out (preceded with % or simply removed) then the printer printed fine. > Ardavan <Ardavan@ccs.carleton.ca>
gupta@prlhp1.prl.philips.co.uk (Ashok Gupta) (04/12/91)
In article <1991Mar25.152157.25840@ccs.carleton.ca> ardavan@ccs.carleton.ca (Ardavan Tajbakhsh) writes: > > We have a Laserwriter II NT connected to a network of Apollos running > sr 10.2 (patch level PSK5) and we are using aegis print services. Everything > is fine except when a large postscript file is sent to the printer. The > printer acknowledges that it is receiving something, but doesn't generate > any output. > > I suspected that because of the size of the file (150355 bytes), the printer > tried to XOFF the line but failed.I put a terminal in place of the Laserwriter > verified that I was talking to it, sent the file and saw the output scrolling > on the screen. Typing <CTRL> <S> on the terminal had no effect. > > Incidentally, here are the characteristics of the line connected to the > Laserwriter: > >New line delay: 0 >Speed: 9600 > Ardavan <Ardavan@ccs.carleton.ca> I've had similar problems when printing a largish paper (40 pages with 6 drawings, composed with DOC and PICED) on our DataProducts laser printer. The printer would take forever processing a page and then spit out a blank page ! Or a page which printed on one day would not print the next ! It'll help you home in on the problem if you find you get different results by changing the fonts or printing parts of the document at a time. The printer may have a preference for some fonts and may need to do a lot of computation if other fonts are used. Its memory is also limited and may not be up to the task. It may help to increase the `delay' parameter. The characteristics you showed in your message did not indicate the time the server waits for, between sending stuff to the printer. On our system there is a parameter `nlc_delay' which when set to 100 (the max) *really* helps. This delay gives the printer enough time to process the current page before its buffers are overwritten by new data from the server. I guess the problem stems from the communication error protocol between the printer and server being necessarily of minimal functionality. Another thing to look out for is the version of Postscript. Make sure its the latest. - Ashok