Help with printing from 2.11BSD

[Andrew Barron]

Hi I managed to get RSX-1M+ to print by booting using sudo and using a 

PIP TC:"192.168.0.182";9100=HELLO.TXT

command. My printer is at 192.168.0.182.

I was hoping that I could do the same with 211BSD using

cat [file_to_send] | nc [IP_address] [port] 

cat file | nc 192.168.0.182 9100

but I could not get that to work.

I installed CUPS on the RPi as per Chase Covello's notes at https://github.com/chasecovello/211bsd-pidp11 

The printer works from Linux. But I got lost on the 211BSD end. 

I set the printer name in printcap to Brother_HL_L2375DW_series I took out the <>.

  :lp=:sh:rp=<YOUR CUPS PRINTER NAME>:sd=/usr/spool/lpd:\

  :lp=:sh:rp= Brother_HL_L2375DW_series:sd=/usr/spool/lpd:\

vi /etc/printcap

# cups-lpd on Raspbian host system

lp|rpi:\

        :lp=:sh:rp=<YOUR CUPS PRINTER NAME>:sd=/usr/spool/lpd:\

        :rm=rpi:\

man printcap | lpr

I dont know how to add the print server to /etc/hosts and it is unclear if that should point to the RPi as print server, or directly to the printer. 

Chase writes "Finally, return to 2.11BSD and make sure you've set up networking above. lpd expects to connect to a print server host called 'rpi', and /etc/hosts should point to its IP. You will also need to edit the name of the CUPS printer in /etc/printcap."

# vi /etc/hosts

"/etc/hosts" 5 lines, 159 characters

127.0.0.1       localhost

192.168.0.1     router.home.lan router

192.168.0.185   rpi.home.lan rpi

192.168.0.44    pdp11.home.lan pdp11

[Andrew Barron]

RE: cat file | nc 192.168.0.182 9100 this does not work on boot 102 because there is no 'nc' command. It does kinda' work on boot 211 (The 211BSD BQ) version. It printed 5 blank pages. I might try another port number. 

[Warner Losh]

On Sat, Jan 24, 2026 at 4:04 PM Andrew Barron <zl...@outlook.co.nz> wrote:

Hi I managed to get RSX-1M+ to print by booting using sudo and using a 

PIP TC:"192.168.0.182";9100=HELLO.TXT

command. My printer is at 192.168.0.182.

I was hoping that I could do the same with 211BSD using

cat [file_to_send] | nc [IP_address] [port] 

cat file | nc 192.168.0.182 9100

but I could not get that to work.

I installed CUPS on the RPi as per Chase Covello's notes at https://github.com/chasecovello/211bsd-pidp11 

The printer works from Linux. But I got lost on the 211BSD end. 

I set the printer name in printcap to Brother_HL_L2375DW_series I took out the <>.

  :lp=:sh:rp=<YOUR CUPS PRINTER NAME>:sd=/usr/spool/lpd:\

  :lp=:sh:rp= Brother_HL_L2375DW_series:sd=/usr/spool/lpd:\

vi /etc/printcap

# cups-lpd on Raspbian host system

lp|rpi:\

        :lp=:sh:rp=<YOUR CUPS PRINTER NAME>:sd=/usr/spool/lpd:\

        :rm=rpi:\

rm/rp expects lpd running on the remote printer. But the nc is a direct connection.

Warner

 

man printcap | lpr

I dont know how to add the print server to /etc/hosts and it is unclear if that should point to the RPi as print server, or directly to the printer. 

Chase writes "Finally, return to 2.11BSD and make sure you've set up networking above. lpd expects to connect to a print server host called 'rpi', and /etc/hosts should point to its IP. You will also need to edit the name of the CUPS printer in /etc/printcap."

# vi /etc/hosts

"/etc/hosts" 5 lines, 159 characters

127.0.0.1       localhost

192.168.0.1     router.home.lan router

192.168.0.185   rpi.home.lan rpi

192.168.0.44    pdp11.home.lan pdp11

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[Andrew Barron]

Thanks Warner, 

I did get the direct nc version to print but there is no CR only LF and the text runs off the page.

I followed the instructions and set up a printer on 211BSD. It printed from an lpr statement, but it had the same problem with there not being any CR sent. It also only prints the fist line and then subsequent lines are off the right side of the page. The LFs push the print down, but there are no CRs to make it go back to the start of the line. Apparently this was normal on early Unix.  I winder if there is a printer setting that would add a CR to every LF? I might look into that.

I was not able to get CUPS going. It works fine from the Linux terminal, but not from 211BSD. A config problem somewhere. Maybe I have the printer name wrong, or the print spooling setting, or CUPS on the RPi. 

cheers

AndrewB

[Johnny Billquist]

I'll try and make some comments. Hopefully they'll help.

First of all, skip CUPS and everything around that. You are not going to
use that, unless we get to some rather complex setups.

Also, the whole LF but no CR is a fact of life. That's how text is
stored in Unix systems. Pretty much since day one, and still the case.
So you need something that can deal with that.

Ok, so far so good. Next - cat | nc will accomplish the same thing you
do under RSX, with the difference that in RSX, you do get a CR+LF at the
end of each line. So you already figured out that, and it's obviously
not what you really want (well, we could perhaps find a solution to
this, but I'll ignore that for now).

So, lets get down to lpr. In order to understand this, you need to
understand that lpr isn't the same, or even similar to the cat | nc
solution. lpr is a protocol for printing files via a server. So your
2.11BSD system is an lpr client, and usually your printer contains an
lpr server. (but it might be something you need to enable, depending on
printer). The lpr server is not talking on port 9100. That is usually a
port the printer provides for just plain text output (which is what you
get with the cat | nc thing).

So you need to configure your 2.11BSD lpr system to connect to the
*printer*. Don't try to play with ports. lpr already have defined which
ports are used. You might want to read up on how a printcap file content
is used, and how you should configure it.

Here is what I have on my 2.11BSD system:

lp:sd=/usr/spool/lpr/lp:rm=printer:rp=lp

And you can read that as the printer name on 2.11BSD is "lp", it uses an
lpr server at the host "printer", and the remote printing queue is
called "lp". For this I have a HP laserjet, and it quite frankly don't
seem to care what I put in as the remote printing queue, but something
is always needed.

With this setup, I can print text files just fine. lpr do understand and
deal with unix format text files, and gets in the CRs where needed.

lpd should always have been started at boot, so after this, things
should just work. Assuming you do have an lpr server in your printer,
and your 2.11BSD system can talk to that host, that is.


As a footnote - RSX can also talk the lpr protocol, which can be nice,
since you then get a bit more proper coordination between different
print jobs to the printer.

Johnny

> https://github.com/chasecovello/211bsd-pidp11 <https://
> github.com/chasecovello/211bsd-pidp11>

> 192.168.0.44pdp11.home.lan pdp11

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