network printer failure

[itfellow]

OK guys, I'm stumped.

I have two network printers, each connected to its own print server. The printer GEN works just fine, but the printer TEST refuses to process the print jobs. They just sit there in the queue.

I used rlpconf to set up both printers. The printcap entries are identical, as well as the /usr/spool/lp/admins/lp/printers/configuration. I can ping both print servers just fine.

One of the things that is really confusing me is that, although they have identical configurations, they return two different rlpstat outputs.

For GEN (the working printer), rlpstat shows this:

status: idle
interface: online
control: mode(pc)

for TEST (not working), rlpstat:

(LPD Server):
(P1)STATE: Printing
TYPE: Parallel
PRINTER STATUS: On-Line
BYTES SERVICED: 6241
OCCUPIED BY: LPD

Why the difference?

 

[kangaroojack]

Hi,
Printers devices are the same ?

Look at your /etc/printcap file.
ex:
(the ip address for printer is set in the /etc/hosts)
kjprinter:\
:lp=:rm=printer:rp=raw:sd=/usr/spool/lpd/kjprinter:mx#0:
The rp= must be set with the right parameter.In this exemple that's an HP printer. (raw)
For an Axis printserver,you have to set rp=pr1 ( or pr2 etc...)
For an Minolta that's rp=print

Hope that can help you ;-)

 

[itfellow]

I appreciate the suggestion. I did actually get this working a couple of weeks ago. The printcap file was fine, but if I remember correctly, one of my big problems was that the alert.sh and alert.vars files were missing from the /usr/spool/lp/admins/lp/printers/test/ . Without those files, you see your printer through lpstat, but if you try to reference the printer through lp -d<printer>, it gives you the error "bad file number".

One conclusion I came to was that the print server I was using simply doesn't work well with Openserver LPD. I was using a Linksys EPSX3 3-port over a VPN, and the print processes seemed to hang up now and then for no apparent reason, but especially when multiple jobs were stacked up. Even when I used that printserver on the local LAN, I had print processes hang. I'd have to clear them out by killing whichever process had the printer lock, then sending another print job to kickstart the spooler (I usually use echo | lp -d<printer> ).

I have a line printer on an M305 print server that never has problems, so I'm pretty convinced that the Linksys print servers are just incompatible with OpenServer LPD. I've ordered a new printserver (HP JetDirect) for the remote printer (to replace Linksys), but in the meantime my user is under instructions to wait until one print job is finished before launching the next one. That seems to prevent the hang.