[comp.unix.ultrix] Problems with LAT printers...

rainwatr@ucunix.san.uc.edu (Don Rainwater) (01/23/91)

	We're having some trouble with LAT printers under Ultrix 4.1.
The jobs seem to print out okay, but then Ultrix doesn't let go of the
port (SHOW SESSIONS PORT 1 on the DECserver says that the port is still
connected to the Ultrix system).  The next time a job is submitted to
that printer queue, Ultrix thinks that the port is busy and marks the
queue as stalled.  I can logout the DECserver port, and Ultrix will
print again until the queue is empty.  Then it's locked up again.

	Most of our printers are shared by multiple systems, and all of
the rest of them are VMS systems.  The VMS systems have no trouble with
the port.

	The DECserver in question is a DS100, running version 2.0 of the
DS100 software.

	Has anyone else experienced this?  Better yet, does anyone know
how to fix it?  I'm almost tempted to set all the queues up to use lpr
to one of the VMS nodes!! :-)
-- 
Don Rainwater, Systems Manager, Univ. of Cincinnati Computer Center
Don.Rainwater@UC.Edu			rainwatr@ucunix.san.uc.edu
rainwatr@ucbeh.bitnet			...!uccba!ucunix!rainwatr

peirce@gumby.cc.wmich.edu (Leonard Peirce) (01/29/91)

In article <1991Jan22.164300.12034@ucunix.san.uc.edu> Don.Rainwater@UC.Edu writes:
>	We're having some trouble with LAT printers under Ultrix 4.1.
>The jobs seem to print out okay, but then Ultrix doesn't let go of the
>port (SHOW SESSIONS PORT 1 on the DECserver says that the port is still
>connected to the Ultrix system).  The next time a job is submitted to
>that printer queue, Ultrix thinks that the port is busy and marks the
>queue as stalled.
> [...]
>	Has anyone else experienced this?

I have.  We've had this problem for some time and have reported it to DEC
and gotten nowhere with it.  We share LAT printers between VMS and ULTRIX
all over campus and quite often ULTRIX will get ahold of the port and not
let go, stopping printing altogether until the port is logged out.

However, I was just at USENIX and someone there told me that he has exactly
the same setup that we have here and he has no problems.  He alluded to some-
thing in the release notes for 4.[01], although I didn't see anything that
looked like it would help.

In case anyone is interested, we're running LP27's on DECserver200's.  We're
running VMS 5.4 in a cluster and ULTRIX 4.1 on a MicroVAX II.  I'm not
sure what software version is running on the DECservers but I can find out.

If *ANYONE* has a fix for this, I would forever be in your debt.
--
Leonard Peirce                  Internet:  peirce@gumby.cc.wmich.edu
Western Michigan University                peirce@gw.wmich.edu
Academic Computing Services     UUCP:      ...!uunet!sharkey!wmichgw!peirce
Kalamazoo, MI  49008            Phone:     (616) 387-5469

peirce@gumby.cc.wmich.edu (Leonard Peirce) (01/31/91)

In article <1991Jan28.182034.7512@gumby.cc.wmich.edu> I wrote:
>In article <1991Jan22.164300.12034@ucunix.san.uc.edu> Don.Rainwater@UC.Edu writes:
>>	We're having some trouble with LAT printers under Ultrix 4.1.
>>The jobs seem to print out okay, but then Ultrix doesn't let go of the
>>port (SHOW SESSIONS PORT 1 on the DECserver says that the port is still
>>connected to the Ultrix system).  The next time a job is submitted to
>>that printer queue, Ultrix thinks that the port is busy and marks the
>>queue as stalled.
>> [...]
>>	Has anyone else experienced this?
>
>I have.

Well, I seem to have to made a little progress in solving this, although things
aren't exactly the way they should be.

Basically what I did was specify the server and port when starting lcp in rc.local
instead of putting them in the printcap entry.  Things don't hang anymore but for
some reason I keep getting errors in the log file about not being able to open the
device.  I have also noticed that *sometimes* when a job is pending, lpd won't start
up.

I say sometimes because I was testing this repeatedly the other day and it
would work perfectly about 90% of the time and the other 10% I would lpr a file
and lpd would just sit there.  The port was free; lpd just ignored the file.
After I would restart lpd, things would be fine.

I thought I was losing my mind for a while so I kept trying it and kept getting
the same results.  I decided to let it go for a while and see if anyone complains
and I haven't heard a word from anyone.  Hmmm....

So...

I have the printer in my office working again so I'm going to test this some more.
Maybe I was losing my mind (temporarily).....

At least the port doesn't hang up and our VMS users don't scream because they
can't get things printed.

If I only had source....:-)
--
Leonard Peirce                  Internet:  peirce@gumby.cc.wmich.edu
Western Michigan University                peirce@gw.wmich.edu
Academic Computing Services     UUCP:      ...!uunet!sharkey!wmichgw!peirce
Kalamazoo, MI  49008            Phone:     (616) 387-5469