dnb@rubys.UUCP (Dave Buonomo) (12/22/90)
I've been following some of the discussion in the last few weeks in reference to PC-INTERFACE and generally agree that it is a solid product. I do have one problem that I have been unable to resolve. This problem could be with PC-INTERFACE, UNIX server configuration, or the printer. I thought I would start here since the UNIX box is a i386. The system I am working with has 3 PC/XT's, each running the PC-INTERFACE DOS Bridge module, connected (via Ethernet) to a 386 running ISC UNIX 3.2.2 and the PC-INTERFACE server module. Connected to the server are 2 printers: a HP LaserJet series II (not a IIP), and a C.ITOH C315 dot matrix. My problem is this: when I try to print some documents, created with Word Perfect v4.2, on the HP LaserJet, it will print with some lines pulled to the left of the margin. Attempting to print this same document on the C.ITOH dot matrix or the same HP LaserJet directly connected to the PC/XT, results in the documenting printing perfectly! Here's more detail on the configuration: Word Perfect is set with its default margins (10 and 74) and default tab stops (5). The printers were configured on the UNIX box using sysadm with the lpmgmt option. No other configuration options were changed in relation to the printers. At first I "was sure" this was a tab setting problem; UNIX systems are usually set at 8. I changed the Word Perfect tab stops to 8 with no luck. But, some of the lines that printed incorrectly had no special characters on the line except for a CR (carriage return). In a simple form letter, this line pulled to the left of the margin: Cordially, Why? It seems to me the server software is doing something the the document, but what? Does the lp service need to be specially configured for the HP printer? Keep in mind that the same documents print fine when the printer is directly connected to the PC/XT. Any help with this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance. Also, if anyone wants details on my experiences with PC-INTERFACE, feel free to contact me via e-mail. David Buonomo (301) 916-0807
weave@chopin.udel.edu (Ken Weaverling) (12/23/90)
In article <165@rubys.UUCP> dnb@rubys.UUCP (Dave Buonomo) writes: >I've been following some of the discussion in the last few weeks in reference >to PC-INTERFACE and generally agree that it is a solid product. I do have >one problem that I have been unable to resolve. This problem could be with >PC-INTERFACE, UNIX server configuration, or the printer. A lot of ifs here! Let's narrow it done a bit (in a bit...) >My problem is this: when I try to print some documents, created with Word >Perfect v4.2, on the HP LaserJet, it will print with some lines pulled to >the left of the margin. Attempting to print this same document on the C.ITOH >dot matrix or the same HP LaserJet directly connected to the PC/XT, results >in the documenting printing perfectly! OK, first step is to rule out the server (which I doubt it is). Disable your lp printer interface and then print your Word Perfect doc. Log in as root and locate the waiting request in the /usr/spool/lp/request directory. Copy this file to your own user account. Next, log in using DOS and print this document to your directly connected printer. If it comes out OK, then the problem is NOT with PC-Interface. >Does the lp service need to be specially configured for the HP >printer? It may. I suspect the problem is with software flow control. Word Perfect is sending a lot of binary data to the printer, some of it will be ^S and ^Q characters, which will be interpreted as flow control commands and not sent to the laser. You need to disable software flow control and enable hardware flow control. Here's the catch. I think the HP lasers use DTR for flow control. You'll have to custom rig a cable to get it to work. -- >>>---> Ken Weaverling >>>----> weave@brahms.udel.edu
jta@nic.funet.fi (Juha Takala) (12/28/90)
From: dnb@rubys.UUCP (Dave Buonomo) Newsgroups: comp.unix.sysv386 Keywords: PC-INTERFACE, printing problem Date: 22 Dec 90 04:56:09 GMT Organization: Ruby Systems (rubys) Rockville, MD My problem is this: when I try to print some documents, created with Word Perfect v4.2, on the HP LaserJet, it will print with some lines pulled to the left of the margin. Attempting to print this same document on the C.ITOH dot matrix or the same HP LaserJet directly connected to the PC/XT, results in the documenting printing perfectly! This souds familiar. We had same problems. My laserjet is (normally) configured to map LF --> CR+LF (esc & k 2 G). This makes UNIX text files print correctly, and makes no harm to normal DOS text files. This is done at the beginning of every print job in the interface script. WP does not change the setting. But with WP: when some line is indeted *after a short line*, WP emits one LF, and some BS's, to step to the correct position. Then it starts printing text. Now it happens, that the LF brings the printing position to the beg of line, you know the rest... To fix the problem, we added into WP's print job setup an ESC sequence to MAP LF --> LF, CR --> CR (esc & k 0 G). Try this. To find out what actually goes to lp, you can change the printer -command (normally in the PC's AUTOEXEC.BAT) to something like: printer lpt1 host "cat > /tmp/foo" /t15 Then you can study /tmp/foo on the server. -juha -- Juha Takala (jta@sah.vtt.fi) tel.: +358-0-456 6415 fax: +358-0-435 67014 Technical Research Centre, Laboratory of Electrical and Automation Engineering Otakaari 7 B, 02150 Espoo, FINLAND