linux/printer driver
Edward Jay Weiss
Stylus, C80 printer. When I try to print, all I get is text print
directions, not my document. Any suggestions ? E.J. Weiss
Tony Lawrence
Without knowing what you are seeing, I'm going to make a wild guess and
assume you are seeing Postscript commands perhaps?
If you used the print-conf gui tool, go back into it and check your
printer driver. It may be sending an option that Ghostscript doesn't
recognize. I had a similar problem with my Lasejet 6L
(from http://pcunix.com/Linux/switch.html)
Printing
My next task was to add a printer, using the Linux "printtool". This
worked fine for text, but failed miserably for postscript (note when
testing printers from printtool- if you make changes, you have to save
them and restart lpd). That's what I have learned to expect with Linux;
although the filters can handle this very well, there's something broken
somewhere (at least with regard to my Laserjet 6L printer) because I
have yet to have it work without manual editing. Actually, having the
printer handle postscript isn't all that important to me because the
only reason I need that is for printing from Netscape, and for that I
can use the same "webprint" script I used on SCO:
#!/bin/bash
# webprint
gs -q -sDEVICE=ljet4 -r600 -sPAPERSIZE=letter -dNOPAUSE -dSAFER
-sOutputFile="-" - > /dev/lp0
On the other hand, I'm stubborn. It's supposed to work, so why doesn't
it? So I followed the trail and found that "magicfilter" is what's used
here. Great- something I know nothing about. I did find its
configuration for Postscript printing (it's a file with a ".foo"
extension in /var/spool/lpd/lp if your printer is named "lp"), and I
tried adjusting it, but still couldn't get it to work right. I guess
I'll leave that for another day. Debugging this is a pain, because the
only way to test is to try to print a Postscript file. That generates
reams of paper when it fails, so you have to:
* Pull the paper from the printer (the 6L has no "off-line" switch)
* run lpc and then "stop all" and "lprm all" (assuming no other
jobs, of course)
* Unplug the printer to clear the buffer
* Run "start all" and go back to debugging.
The final resoluton of this was simple: change the printer driver (in
Printtool) to Laserjet4. The printer is a 6L, but that screws up
Ghostscript, whereas Laserjet 4 works fine.
--
Tony Lawrence
SCO/Linux Support Tips, How-To's, Tests and more: http://pcunix.com
Free Unix/Linux Consultants list: http://pcunix.com/consultants.html
Christopher Browne
> I have Redhat Linux, Ver. 7, installed on my computer. I have an Epson
> Stylus, C80 printer. When I try to print, all I get is text print
> directions, not my document. Any suggestions ? E.J. Weiss
Linux doesn't have printer drivers. All Linux knows how to do is to
throw bytes at:
a) Serial ports,
b) Ethernet ports, and
c) Parallel ports.
An Epson Stylus more than likely involves c).
You need some program that transforms whatever those "text print
directions" are into a form that the Epson Stylus can cope with. The
usual program used for that transformation is called Ghostscript.
You may wish to install Ghostscript.
--
(reverse (concatenate 'string "gro.mca@" "enworbbc"))
http://www.cbbrowne.com/info/printing.html
"The day Microsoft makes something that doesn't suck is probably the
day they start making vacuum cleaners" - Ernst Jan Plugge
Tony Lawrence
> Oops! ejw...@compuserve.com (Edward Jay Weiss) was seen spray-painting on a wall:
>
>>I have Redhat Linux, Ver. 7, installed on my computer. I have an Epson
>>Stylus, C80 printer. When I try to print, all I get is text print
>>directions, not my document. Any suggestions ? E.J. Weiss
>
>
> Linux doesn't have printer drivers.
Not in the same sense as Windows does, no.
But the gui printer tool that comes with his release does refer to
drivers when configuring printers so it is a proper term to use.
Skylar Thompson
> An Epson Stylus more than likely involves c).
>
> You need some program that transforms whatever those "text print
> directions" are into a form that the Epson Stylus can cope with. The
> usual program used for that transformation is called Ghostscript.
>
> You may wish to install Ghostscript.
The gimp-print package has protocols specifically designed for the Epson
Stylus-series of inkjets, and results in higher quality than staight
GhostScript.
--
-- Skylar Thompson (sky...@attglobal.net)