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Date:      Sat, 7 Jul 2001 21:26:06 -0400
From:      Garance A Drosihn <drosih@rpi.edu>
To:        Kevin Lui <kevinlui_hk@yahoo.com>, freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG
Cc:        lflui@yahoo.com
Subject:   Re: Fwd: Re: Printing problem- can't start lpd
Message-ID:  <p05101006b76d646a29de@[128.113.24.47]>
In-Reply-To: <01070514552202.07682@Freebie.polyu.edu.hk>
References:  <01070514552202.07682@Freebie.polyu.edu.hk>

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At 2:49 PM +0800 7/5/01, Kevin Lui wrote:
>  I got a printing problem about the lpd, I just cannot start the lpd
>  with the following lines in the printcap file.
>
>  lp|local line printer:\
>  	:sh:\
>  	:lp=/dev/lpt0:sd=/var/spool/output/lpd:mx#0:lf=/var/log/lpd-errs:
>
>  ef404 | HP LJ:\
>  	:sh:\
> 
>	:lp=:rm=158.132.148.254:sd=/var/spool/output/ef404:mx#0:lf=/var/log/lpd-errs:
>
>  when I start lpd, I got the following error message.
>  chkprintcap: ef404 and lp share the same spool, /var/spool/output/lpd
>  lpd: 1 errors in printcap file, exiting

Due to several details in the way lpd works, separate print queues
MUST use separate directories for 'sd='  Must.  Absolutely Must.

>  However when I comment out one of them say the "lp| local line printer"
>  part.  I start lpd, no error message this time. But when I use lpq -q
>  to check the printing status, it says,
>
>  ef404:
>  warning: no daemon present.
>
>However,   I have check the directory /var/spool/output/ef404 do exist.

I do not understand why you refer to the output from 'lpq -q'.  The
lpq command does not accept '-q' as a parameter.  Is the above the
output from 'lpq', or is it the output from 'lpc status'?

In any case, 'no daemon present' is usually not as serious an issue
as that message makes it sound.  It just means that there is no
unix process which is actively sending information from the print
queue to the physical printer.  If there are no jobs waiting to print,
then there is no reason for there to be a process active on that queue.
So, as long as there are no 'stuck jobs', then that message is mainly
"just for your information", and is not really a warning.

What version of lpd are you running?  (or, what version of freebsd are
you running?)  I think newer versions change that message to just say
"the printer is idle" when there are no jobs waiting to print.

>  Actucally, I tried to use different spool directory before, say,
>  I create a directory /var/spool/ef404 and set sd=/var/spool/ef404:
>  and change the owner of the directory to daemon.daemon and 770(chmod).
>
>  and test it. But still cannot fix it!

As far as "sd=" is concerned, I expect this was actually working
even though there was the warning message there.  Did you try to
send jobs to each printer?  It may be that you'll have some OTHER
error which prevents the print queues from working, but I expect
the settings for 'sd=' were correct, as long as each queue has a
different spool directory, and the spool directories do exist.

-- 
Garance Alistair Drosehn            =   gad@eclipse.acs.rpi.edu
Senior Systems Programmer           or  gad@freebsd.org
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute    or  drosih@rpi.edu

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