aversa@ITSICTP.BITNET (03/18/91)
The subject says it. I've heard of OS/2 mode printing, what is it? how to? Thank you in advance. -fernando aversa (aversa@ictp.trieste.it)
craick@titan.trl.oz (John Craick) (03/21/91)
aversa@ITSICTP.BITNET writes: >The subject says it. I've heard of OS/2 mode printing, what is it? how to? >Thank you in advance. The essence of how to do it is _very_ simple. You place the appropriate line in the [ports] section of the win.ini file - and get it EXACTLY right, which I didn't the first couple of times I tried. The line is : LPTx.OS2= where x is the number of the DOS LPT port where you have netmounted a printer using NFS. With this line in place, LPTx.OS2 will appear as one of the available printer ports when you run cpanel - printers in Windows. Select that port for the printer type you have net mounted. NOTES, WARNINGS & RESERVATIONS (0) All this stuff is actually in the Windows manual or the Windows text notes files. A little cryptic, but it's there (1) Don't use a : character in the [ports] entry. Furthermore, if you do put in :'s anywhere, as far as I can tell, printing will _not_ work. If you're used to DOS you may, thru habit, put in a :. Well, DON'T. (2) You do _not_ need to be running OS2 for this to work. Maybe that's obvious, but it worried me for a while (3) You probably can't use print manager with LPTx.OS2 printing I think the documentation says this somewhere. (4) Netmount your printer (and disks, if any) _before_ starting Windows I have actually changed the netmounted printer from a DOS session inside Windows but I don't think this should have worked. Until everything's working, play it safe & mount everything outside Windows. (5) Why it works As I understand it, normal Windows printing uses direct hardware port manipulation & with a netmounted printer (port), there ain't no hardware there so nothing happens. LPTx.OS2 printing avoids the normal mechanisms and hands printing over for the operating system to look after. DOS ain't OS2 but this little job seems within its capabilities. (6) Warning - I have _only_ used LPT2.OS2 with this mechanism It's supposed to work with anything from LPT1 - LPT4 & others on the net have said it does. I have had trouble using LPT3.OS2 but I think that's a local problem. (7) Warning - I'm using Beames & Whiteside (B&W) NFS, not Sun PC-NFS Again, others on the net suggest this works with PC-NFS & I've no doubt that it usually does. I have some unknown, but possibly machine specific, problems with netmounted printers using PC-NFS, even under DOS. I tried B&W NFS & the problems vanished. B&W is also said to be better under Windows than PC-NFS. Another advantage of B&W as opposed to PC-NFS is that you don't have to set lastdrive = z: & you don't have Windows complaining about all the drives that aren't actually there. You can avoid this problem in other ways but that's another topic which I won't start on here. Hope some of this helps John Craick (j.craick@trl.oz.au)
alukal@hcx.rockefeller.edu (Paul Alukal) (03/22/91)
I am also interested in this. It seems the drivers are not available from PC-NFS (ver 3.01) for windows 3.0 to setup PC-NFS as network. Any one knows how to print from some application. e.g. paintbrush to a network printer (postscript) on a Sun? Thanks. Paul Alukal paul@popcbr.rockefeller.edu Population Council alukal@rockvax.rockefeller.edu New York, NY
craick@titan.trl.oz (John Craick) (03/27/91)
alukal@hcx.rockefeller.edu (Paul Alukal) writes: >I am also interested in this. It seems the drivers are >not available from PC-NFS (ver 3.01) for windows 3.0 >to setup PC-NFS as network. Any one knows how to print >from some application. e.g. paintbrush to a network printer >(postscript) on a Sun? This question needs to be in the frq list for both comp.windows.ms and comp.protocols.nfs. A lot of people need to know the answer. If you net mount a printer thru either PC-NFS or B&W NFS, it can then be accessed & used from inside Windows via an LPTx.OS2 port. The following is a post I put recently to windows.ms on the topic ------------------ The essence of how to do it is _very_ simple. You place the appropriate line in the [ports] section of the win.ini file - and get it EXACTLY right, which I didn't the first couple of times I tried. The line is : LPTx.OS2= where x is the number of the DOS LPT port where you have netmounted a printer using NFS. With this line in place, LPTx.OS2 will appear as one of the available printer ports when you run cpanel - printers in Windows. Select that port for the printer type you have net mounted. NOTES, WARNINGS & RESERVATIONS (0) All this stuff is actually in the Windows manual or the Windows text notes files. A little cryptic, but it's there (1) Don't use a : character in the [ports] entry. Furthermore, if you do put in :'s anywhere, as far as I can tell, printing will _not_ work. If you're used to DOS you may, thru habit, put in a :. Well, DON'T. (2) You do _not_ need to be running OS2 for this to work. Maybe that's obvious, but it worried me for a while (3) You probably can't use print manager with LPTx.OS2 printing I think the documentation says this somewhere. (4) Netmount your printer (and disks, if any) _before_ starting Windows I have actually changed the netmounted printer from a DOS session inside Windows but I don't think this should have worked. Until everything's working, play it safe & mount everything outside Windows. (5) Why it works As I understand it, normal Windows printing uses direct hardware port manipulation & with a netmounted printer (port), there ain't no hardware there so nothing happens. LPTx.OS2 printing avoids the normal mechanisms and hands printing over for the operating system to look after. DOS ain't OS2 but this little job seems within its capabilities. (6) Warning - I have _only_ used LPT2.OS2 with this mechanism It's supposed to work with anything from LPT1 - LPT4 & others on the net have said it does. I have had trouble using LPT3.OS2 but I think that's a local problem. (7) Warning - I'm using Beames & Whiteside (B&W) NFS, not Sun PC-NFS Again, others on the net suggest this works with PC-NFS & I've no doubt that it usually does. I have some unknown, but possibly machine specific, problems with netmounted printers using PC-NFS, even under DOS. I tried B&W NFS & the problems vanished. B&W is also said to be better under Windows than PC-NFS. Another advantage of B&W as opposed to PC-NFS is that you don't have to set lastdrive = z: & you don't have Windows complaining about all the drives that aren't actually there. You can avoid this problem in other ways but that's another topic which I won't start on here. Hope some of this helps John Craick (j.craick@trl.oz.au)