Printing in D3/Linux

[Patrick Groebner]

We have a problem with a printer on our D3/Linux Red Hat system. The printer is
a serial connected Okidata 520 that will sometimes stop printing. To fix it
someone turns the printer off then on again and then it's fine until the next
time it decides to stop printing. This is the only printer on the systemt that
this is happening to and this is the only Okidata 520 on the system.

Any ideas?

Thanks.

[Richard Ginsburg]

Patrick Groebner wrote in message <7dg09v$khk$1...@shadow.skypoint.net>...

>We have a problem with a printer on our D3/Linux Red Hat system. The
printer is
>a serial connected Okidata 520 that will sometimes stop printing. To fix it
>someone turns the printer off then on again and then it's fine until the
next
>time it decides to stop printing. This is the only printer on the system

that
>this is happening to and this is the only Okidata 520 on the system.

Patrick,
Check to make sure the Okidata has XON/XOFF enabled. Make sure the
printer's buffer is not set too low. Also, how are you starting the printer
in Linux and in the USER-COLDSTART? You might have a problem there.

--
Richard Ginsburg can be reached at:
e-mail...: mailto:fawn...@bellsouth.net
internet.: http://www.fawnridge.com
telephone: 561.488.4815
fax......: 561.488.3821
Only the finest software is called COMPASS.

[Ted Ritchie]

We are having some sparatic problems starting our printers on a reboot. I
noticed you mentioned that if you are starting them in the USER-COLDSTART
there may be problems. Could you elaborate. What would your recomended
method be for starting the printers?

Thanks,
Ted

Richard Ginsburg wrote in message ...

[Richard Ginsburg]

This came from Joe Rabinsky at Pick Systems Tech Support:

To start a PARALLEL printer use an md item called 'set.printer.0' :
001 n
002 !exec d3 -n pick0 10 -t lp1 -pprinter &
003 startptr 0,0,0,s10

The '10' on line 2 and 3 sets aside a serial port number for the parallel
printer. I don't know why or how this works, but it does. Thanks to Joe.

The following we started doing in 1980 on our first Ultimate system and have
added it to every system we've ever installed. In the md USER-COLDSTART
before you start your printers:
...
005 HTERM ,,,0,0
006 P
...
Make sure the USER-COLDSTART does not set a baud rate other than what you
are using for a serial printer connected to either COM1 or COM2.

If you are using BOTH COM1 and COM2 as serial ports. You can not have BOTH
of them at a baud rate of other than 9600 if you are using D3Proplus. You
will experience loss of characters and port hangs if you do. We have proved
this on 11 different systems all using D3Proplus Standard/Custom install. I
don't know if this was a problem with RedHat 4.2 or D3Proplus. I don't know
if this problem still exists with D3Linux or RedHat 5.2

--
Richard Ginsburg can be reached at:
e-mail...: mailto:fawn...@bellsouth.net
internet.: http://www.fawnridge.com
telephone: 561.488.4815
fax......: 561.488.3821
Only the finest software is called COMPASS.

Ted Ritchie wrote in message ...

[mike ryder]

Richard Ginsburg wrote in message ...

>This came from Joe Rabinsky at Pick Systems Tech Support:
>
>To start a PARALLEL printer use an md item called 'set.printer.0' :
>001 n
>002 !exec d3 -n pick0 10 -t lp1 -pprinter &
>003 startptr 0,0,0,s10
>

Why not add this to your /etc/inittab as

p1:234:respawn:d3 -10 -t lp1 -pprinter

which kicks it off at any time. There is no difference in starting a d3
process on /dev/lp1 as there is to starting a process on /dev/ttyS0 (com1)
or /dev/ttyS1 (com2) - they all provide a unix process that links to a D3
process.

[Richard Ginsburg]

mike ryder <mi...@disys.uk.com> wrote in message
news:7dlv0o$o4d$1...@epos.tesco.net...

>
> Richard Ginsburg wrote in message ...
> >This came from Joe Rabinsky at Pick Systems Tech Support:
> >
> >To start a PARALLEL printer use an md item called 'set.printer.0' :
> >001 n
> >002 !exec d3 -n pick0 10 -t lp1 -pprinter &
> >003 startptr 0,0,0,s10
> >
>
> Why not add this to your /etc/inittab as
>
> p1:234:respawn:d3 -10 -t lp1 -pprinter

Mike - this is being used in D3ProPlus where we don't have know any Linux
commands or do anything in Linux, remember? Ha, ha, ha...

[Alan Blackmore]

some oki serial interfaces require a different cable config depending on the
serial boards used. for instance via a digi xem board, pin 11 needs to be
connected instead of pin 20.
Check your hardware documentation for cabling varations & try and set the
oki to xon/xoff
:-)

Patrick Groebner wrote in message <7dg09v$khk$1...@shadow.skypoint.net>...
>We have a problem with a printer on our D3/Linux Red Hat system. The
printer is
>a serial connected Okidata 520 that will sometimes stop printing. To fix it
>someone turns the printer off then on again and then it's fine until the
next
>time it decides to stop printing. This is the only printer on the systemt
that
>this is happening to and this is the only Okidata 520 on the system.
>

>Any ideas?
>
>Thanks.
>