[comp.sys.ncr] Need help with Tower to LaserJet+ configuration

erosser@eagle.wesleyan.edu (Evan Rosser) (01/17/91)

I'm looking for help in connecting an HP LaserJet+ to a Tower 32/600.  When
adding the printer in va, it chooses the rawR gettydef for the printer, but the
HP is expecting 8 bits, no parity, 1 stop bit, with XON flow control.  I've
tried working up my own gettydefs, but none have seemed to work: the best one
only printed the form feeds that were sent and ignored characters.  We know
that the cable is okay and a terminal plugged in instead of the printer works
fine with the same communications parameters.  The printer also works fine if
you type at it from a terminal.  If anyone has one of these printers working
from a Tower, I'd appreciate hearing how you have it configured.

___________________________________________________________
Evan Rosser                           Box 5166            
erosser@eagle.wesleyan.edu            Wesleyan Station    
erosser@wesleyan.bitnet               Middletown, CT 06457

jalsop@seachg.uucp (John Alsop) (01/17/91)

In article <1991Jan16.140524.37767@eagle.wesleyan.edu> erosser@eagle.wesleyan.edu (Evan Rosser) writes:
>
>I'm looking for help in connecting an HP LaserJet+ to a Tower 32/600.  When
>adding the printer in va, it chooses the rawR gettydef for the printer, but the
>HP is expecting 8 bits, no parity, 1 stop bit, with XON flow control.  I've
>tried working up my own gettydefs, but none have seemed to work: ...

I can't speak directly about the HP printer, but we have a NEC laser
printer hanging off a serial port on our Tower.

Our approach was not to use gettydefs to set the port parameters, but
instead to set the necessary stty stuff in the lp spooler interface script.

Here's the first few lines from our interface program:

> #----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> # lp interface for NEC LC890 PostScript printer
> #
> # If the print file is already a PostScript file, it is copied directly to
> # the printer.  Otherwise it is run through a text-to-ps filter installed in
> # /usr/lib/text_to_ps.
> #
> # Does not support banner pages or other fancy stuff
> #----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> stty 9600 ixon ixoff 0<&1
> 
> # get list of files
> 
> shift; shift; shift; shift; shift
> files="$*"
> 
> etc.

Hope this helps.  Send mail or give a call if you need more info.

-- 
John Alsop

Sea Change Corporation
6695 Millcreek Drive, Unit 8
Mississauga, Ontario, Canada L5N 5R8
Tel: 416-542-9484 Fax: 416-542-9479
UUCP: ...!uunet!attcan!seachg!jalsop

dougw@fdls.odag.or.gov (Doug Walker) (01/18/91)

In <1991Jan16.140524.37767@eagle.wesleyan.edu> erosser@eagle.wesleyan.edu (Evan Rosser) writes:


>I'm looking for help in connecting an HP LaserJet+ to a Tower 32/600.  When
>adding the printer in va, it chooses the rawR gettydef for the printer, but the
>HP is expecting 8 bits, no parity, 1 stop bit, with XON flow control.  I've
>tried working up my own gettydefs, but none have seemed to work: the best one
>only printed the form feeds that were sent and ignored characters.  We know
>that the cable is okay and a terminal plugged in instead of the printer works
>fine with the same communications parameters.  The printer also works fine if
>you type at it from a terminal.  If anyone has one of these printers working
>from a Tower, I'd appreciate hearing how you have it configured.

>___________________________________________________________
>Evan Rosser                           Box 5166            
>erosser@eagle.wesleyan.edu            Wesleyan Station    
>erosser@wesleyan.bitnet               Middletown, CT 06457

Here's the /etc/gettydefs entry that we have used successfully for 2 to 3
years on Tower 32/600 and Tower 32/650:

  hplj2# B4800 BRKINT IGNPAR ISTRIP ICRNL TAB3 IXANY IXON OPOST ONLCR CREAD
         ISIG ICANON CS8 CLOCAL ##^L#hplj2

Using vi, the ^L is CTRL V CTRL L.

Here is the /etc/inittab entry we use:

  lp07:1:respawn:/etc/getty lp07 hplj2

We initially ran at 9600 baud but had to drop it down to 4800 baud due to
intermittent dropped characters.  It's a fairly long cable run; 150 to 200
feet.

I don't have the hardware "switch settings" at my fingertips.  If the above
doesn't do it, drop me email, and I'll dig them out for you.  Also, we wrote
our own lp spooler printer interface (/usr/spool/lp/interface/lp07) to support
different pitch, etc.  Nothing really special.

This was all done under NCR's release 02.01.01 (Unix V.2), but I would thing
it would also be applicable on their 03.xx.xx release (Unix V.3).  Since you
refer to va (rather than sa), I'm assuming you're 03.xx.xx.

Hope this helps.

-- 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Doug Walker               uunet!fdls!dougw  -or-  dougw@fdls.odag.or.gov
Oregon Department of Agriculture, Salem, Oregon           (503) 378-3790

bill@ssbn.WLK.COM (Bill Kennedy) (01/20/91)

jalsop@seachg.UUCP (John Alsop) writes:
:
:erosser@eagle.wesleyan.edu (Evan Rosser) writes:
:>
:>[ needs to hook up a Laser Jet Plus to a 32/600 ]
:
:I can't speak directly about the HP printer, but we have a NEC laser
:printer hanging off a serial port on our Tower.

I can't speak directly about the LJ+ but I have a series II hanging off
a serial port on wrangler (32/400 3.00.01).  There is actually a serial
to parallel converter hooked to it for hardware flow control and some
buffering (very useful for troff output).

:Our approach was not to use gettydefs to set the port parameters, but
:instead to set the necessary stty stuff in the lp spooler interface script.

Same here, in fact I avoided the printer setup in va altogether, just ran
lpadmin by hand to get everything set up.

: [ first few lines of seachg interface script ...  ]

Here are the first few lines of the one that I use.  Note that the filter
program worries about tab stops, checking for nroff italics, bold, etc.
I'll be glad to send anyone the shell archive for it.  It's not very pretty
but it works.

#
#   laser.script
#
#   This is an lp interface script for a Hewlett Packard
#   LaserJet Series II printer equipped with the JetWare
#   4 in 1 and Microsoft Z font cartridges.  It invokes
#   a filter program, /usr/lbin/laserjet that has been
#   set up to recognize nroff italic and bold sequences
#   (sent as underscore and overstrike, respectively).
#
filter=/usr/lbin/laserjet
if [ ! -x $filter ]
then
	disable -r "Can't execute $filter " $printer
	exit 1
fi
stty 19200 cs8 cread clocal -parenb ixon ixany 0<&1
print_mode=filtered
#   Make cr=cr, lf=crlf, ff=crff
echo "\033&k2G\c"
#   IBM PC character set
symbol_set=10U
#   Disable auto perf skip
#echo "\033&l0L\c"
#
#   Default nroff filter disabled
#
nroff=0
legal=0
margin=6
-- 
Bill Kennedy  usenet      {att,cs.utexas.edu,pyramid!daver}!ssbn.wlk.com!bill
              internet    bill@ssbn.WLK.COM   or attmail!ssbn!bill