mkdev rlp run twice ?

[mattmc97]

Hello all.

I have a SCO unix 5.05 box that runs a unix program for my company and we have started having strange printing problems the last month. The dot matrix printers will stop in the middle of pages, the body on one page will print under the header of another page, and we have had one users output print half a page, then the other user's output is printed, then the first users output is finished, all on 1 or 2 consecutive pages. Really wacky stuff.

I read on A.P. Lawrence page this:

On the SCO side, you need to "mkdev rlp" if it's a 3.2v4.2 or previous release. You have to be careful not to do this twice, because the mkdev script on 4.2 is unintelligent, and will ruin your printing entirely if it is run again. You can check to see if the directory /usr/spool/lpd exists. If it does, remote printing probably was configured. Don't run it twice. If you have done that (or suspect that you have because things are very broken in the printing department), see

http://stage.caldera.com/cgi-bin/ssl_reference?640225

but the 640225 link is dead. I did setup another offices remote printing so I might have tweaked something accidently !doh!

Does anyone know what the problem could be and if it may be that mkdev rlp was run twice?

Does anyone know what to do if mkdev rlp was run twice? I have googled for an hour and have found out that you shouldn't do it twice but not how to correct it!

Thanks.

mattmc

 

[PHV]

I have a SCO unix 5.05 box
There is no need to run mkdev rlp with this version, scoadmin --> printers is a good way to manage printers.
Anyway the problem with running mkdev rlp twice is only for old versions like 4.2

Hope This Help, PH.
Want to get great answers to your Tek-Tips questions? Have a look at FAQ219-2884

 

[mattmc97]

So any idea why this may be happening???

It doesn't sound like I screwed it up, which is a good thing :<) , but it is screwed up none the less.

Our vendor is supposed to be helping us but it is about like waiting on Microsoft to fix Windows ME.

thanks.

mattmc

 

[apeasecpc]

How are these printers connected to the SCO server? TCPIP remote printing? Samba? Network Print Server? Some other network connection? Terminal Passthrough printing? Direct connect to SCO port?

Are these print jobs being initiated from a command line lp command, or are they sent by some code within your software?

It sounds to me like you have multiple printers configured for the same port/connection so the jobs aren't being spooled correctly. Please post the printcap and printer configuration files for the printers you are having problems with.