Date: Thu, 02 Dec 1999 10:42:26 +1100 From: Harry Woodward-Clarke <Harry.Woodward-Clarke@S1.com> To: Will Porter <porterww@gslis.utexas.edu> Cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Trouble printing w/ hp deskjet Message-ID: <3845B262.9456E5C6@S1.com> References: <Pine.GSO.4.10.9912010136450.9033-100000@lexus.gslis.utexas.edu>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
Will Porter wrote:
>
> Hello folks--
> newbie here, with printing trouble.
> Following a couple of tutorials (on in the daemonnews answerman archives,
> the other in _The Complete FreeBSD_), I have been attempting to get my
> printer to work, with very little success. The printer does work under
> windoze, so I'm fairly certain it's not a hardware thing.
> The specs:
> printer: HP Deskjet 697c /dev/lpt0
> OS: FreeBSD 3.2
> Problem1 ( more of a question, really):
> lptest > /dev/lpt0 results in one page with this across the first line:
> !"#$%&'()*+,-./0123456789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_`abcdefghijklmno
>
> and, in the last column of the second line: "
> then 3 and a half blank pages feed. This only happens once each time the
> printer is turned off and turned back on. Subsequent lptests using the
> same syntaxt result in 4.5 blank pages feeding. After the feeding stops,
> the little error light on the printer blinks until I push the
> (unmarked--god I miss the days when printers had lots of buttons with
> labels) button, after which the last page feeds all the way through.
>
> As none of the tutorials I've looked at indicates what the lptest is
> supposed to do, I'm uncertain whether or not this output is what I'm
> supposed to expect.
>
> Problem2 (a real problem, near as I can tell):
> When (as root) I attempt to launch lpd or do anything with it (e.g. lptest
> 20 5 | lpr as suggested in _The Complete FreeBSD_), I get the following
> message (date and time vary, message stays the same):
>
> stirfry# Dec 1 01:47:11 stirfry lpd[649]:/dev/lp: no such file or directory
> Dec 1 01:47:11 stirfry lpd[649]:/dev/lp: no such file or directory
>
> following are the only uncommented lines of my /etc/printcap:
>
> lp|hp3|lineprinter|hp697c|Hewlett Packard Deskjet 697c:\ #name
> :sh:\ #suppress header page
> :lp=/dev/lpt0:\ #specify wtf /dev/lp is (troublesome)
> :sd=/var/spool/lpd/hp3:\ #path to local spool directory (sd)
> :lf=/var/log/hp697c.log:\ #path to printer log files (lf)
> :mx#0:\ #maximum file length (mx) unlimited
>
> is there something wrong with my syntax here?
> If not, is there somethign else I have overlooked?
> Thank you in advance,
> Will
>
> To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
> with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
As mentioned, by Richard, your printer is missing the <CR> at the end of
each line. There are numerous references around to remove this
"stair-case" effect. An example of this is (in a fixed font)
123454567890
1234567890
1234567890
As for 'lptest', from the man page, it says that it 'writes the
traditional "ripple test" pattern on standard output. In 96 lines, this
pattern will print all 96 printable ASCII characters in each position.
While originally created to test printers, it is quite useful for
testing terminals, driving terminal ports for debugging purposes, or any
other task where a quick supply of random data is needed.'
The first 4 lines of this are:
!"#$%&'()*+,-./0123456789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_`abcdefghijklmno
"#$%&'()*+,-./0123456789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_`abcdefghijklmnop
#$%&'()*+,-./0123456789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_`abcdefghijklmnopq
$%&'()*+,-./0123456789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_`abcdefghijklmnopqr
So, as you can see, it basically prints a line, and then deletes the
first character, and prints the next line and keeps cycling through
until it's finished.
Check the FreeBSD Handbook (file:/usr/share/doc/handbook/handbook98.html
if you have fBSD installed) - Section 7.4.2 Software Setup.
As for the printcap entry, why is there a trailing "\"
after the "mx" entry? I may be wrong, but that doesn't look 'right' to
me.
The suggestion to use 'a2ps' is a good one, but you need Ghostscript
installed to use it (it's what I use to spool to a HPLJ{something}).
And there are other tools around to help you. Hopefully the above will
start you on the right path :')
hth,
|-|
To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?3845B262.9456E5C6>