SCO Printing with HP Jet Direct

[Qman61832]

Long story short, we had two printers set up in SCO and were able to print to them just fine. They were both hooked up to an HP JetDirect print server called "officehpjd" - this server has an entry in /etc/hosts that points to the correct IP. We recently moved one of the printers to another building, hooked it to a different HP JetDirect print server called "ly1hpjd" (also with the correct entry in etc/hosts) and now we cannot print to it, despite changing the config files (listed below...).
I am still relatively new to Unix, and have had to rely on emailing with the previous sysadmin for assistance, but so far we are unable to find a solution.
Here are the files that I have checked and believe to be correctly edited:

Checking config of current printers:
/var/spool/lp/admins/lp/interfaces/invoice2
PERIPH=officejd
PORTNO="9100"

/var/spool/lp/admins/lp/printers/invoice2/configuration
Banner: on:Always
Content types: simple
Device: /dev/null
Interface: /usr/spool/lp/model/epson
Printer type: unknown
Number of banners: 0

/var/spool/lp/admins/lp/interfaces/invoice2
PERIPH=officejd
PORTNO="9100"

/var/spool/lp/admins/lp/printers/invoice2/configuration
Banner: on:Always
Content types: simple
Device: /dev/null
Interface: /usr/spool/lp/model/epson
Printer type: unknown
Number of banners: 0

I have heard that "dev/null" is a bad thing in Unix, but the rest of our printers have the same thing in their files and they print just fine.
If anyone can please let me know if I am overlooking something simple, or if I am not looking in the right place, I would greatly appreciate it. If you need more info, I will be glad to provide it - just tell me where you would need me to look!
Thanks!

 

[stanhubble]

look in /etc/printcap

There should be an entry for invoice2.
make sure the rm entry has been changed from officehpjd to ly1hpjd

 

[Qman61832]

Hmm, in etc/printcap, there is only one line of text at the top, and it is commented out. It says:

#Remote Line Printer (BSD Format)

Where do I find the rm entry? (Darn Unix Newbies....)
>ping 127.0.0.1
>Destination network unreachable.

*sigh*

 

[PHV]

If you're sure that the PERIPH= is OK, I don't see.
Try with the HP printers manager :

  /usr/lib/hpnp/hpnpcfg

Options 4 and 5 should help you.
then, if OK, options 8 and 6.
HTH
PH.

 

[stanhubble]

Sorry Qman...
I don't use hp printer manager ...
I should have clued in when you reference the interfaces file..

Personally I stay as far away from the hp printer manager as possible.

 

[Qman61832]

Thanks for the tip PHV - I tried your suggestions, and there is something else puzzling that happens...I can use the HP Printer Manger to send a test file to the printer, and it will print one time, then it wont let me send anymore. I checked my printer queues and they are empty. I tried turning the power off and then back on for the printer, that doesnt help. So I tried unplugging the JetDirect device, that didnt help. As a last resort, I unplugged the printer, JetDirect device, removed the printer in Unix, reinstalled it, turned on the JetDirect, and turned on the printer. After that, it let me print one test page using the HP Printer Manager...
I also tried using HPPM options 8, then 6, and it recognized the printer just fine, but it would still only print one test page at a time unless I go jump all the hoops mentioned above.
As a side note, if I create a text file in Unix, then try to print it, I get an error that says:
"Could not print file(s): tmp/editpra0023o"
I dont know if this makes much of a difference, but being new to Unix I thought that I would be better off giving too much information as opposed to not enough...I noticed that in the print dialog window (Launched from the Edit program by clicking on File>Print Setup) it has the print command of "-d invoice2 -n 1". In the dropdown at the top, I do have the correct printer (invoice2) selected, but I still get the error about not being able to print. >ping 127.0.0.1
>Destination network unreachable.

*sigh*

 

[Qman61832]

Update: I think I figured the problem out, but I had to refer to technical docs that are about three years old. I looked in SCO's current documentation, and from what I can tell they are missing some of the syntax for this particular situation. Specifically, it refers to editing the /usr/spool/lp/admins/lp/interfaces/<printername> file. All of the current documentation I read suggested adding the following line:

PORTNO=&quot;9100&quot; (9100 for port 1, 9101 for port 2, 9102 for port 3...)

This goes just after the line that reads:
REALMODEL='ECHO $0 | sed -e &quot;s%SMODEL%model.orig/$MODEL%&quot;'

I tried adding that, as well as adding the &quot;PERIPH=officejd&quot; (Where &quot;officejd&quot; is the network name of the HP Jetdirect device...)

This was still not resolving the issue, and the older documentation that I found showed some extra editing that seems to have fixed the issue...on or about line 38 there is an entry that reads:

echo &quot;$1\t$REALMODEL | $HPNPF -x $PERIPH&quot; >> $LPLOG

I changed this to read:

echo &quot;$1\t$REALMODEL | $HPNPF -x $PERIPH -p $PORTNO&quot; >> $LPLOG

Also, there is a line on or about line 38 that reads:

if $REALMODEL &quot;$@&quot; | $HPNPF -x $PERIPH> $LOG > /dev/null

I changed this one to read:

if $REALMODEL &quot;$@&quot; | $HPNPF -x $PERIPH -p $PORTNO 1> $LOG > /dev/null

Of course, you would want to make sure that the last one represented the actual port (1, 2 or 3) that your printer is hooked to...

After making these changes, I went to the printer control panel, paused the printer (basically highlighted the printer, clicked &quot;Settings -> Control&quot; and unchecked the &quot;Enable Printing&quot; and &quot;Accept New Local Jobs&quot; boxes, then rechecking them...) I was able to send a test file to the printer every time.
After that, I was able to print to these printers using our software (a basic WMS interface...) and all is well now.

I find it somewhat frustrating that the CURRENT SCO documentation fails to mention these extra changes - it may be that I did not look at the correct articles, but I went through as many as I could find regarding HP Jetdirect printing and none of them mentioned editing the other lines farther down.

Hopefully this will help someone else in the future. >ping 127.0.0.1
>Destination network unreachable.

*sigh*