visionfs unix print to pc printer

[zoonkai]

I'm trying to use visionfs for the purpose of printing unix print jobs to a windows printer.

The main problem that I see so far is... when I send a print job to my printer. (HP Laserjet 1100), I have to reach over and hit the button on the printer...kind of like when you print an envelope to a printer...you have to prompt it.

the command I'm using is

/usr/vision/bin/visionfs print //server/printer filename --user donald --password ********

Does anybody know how to get around this issue?

I am also open to other methods...I just need to print to a windows printer from UNIX. The SCO Server parrallel port is already in use...so I ruled out the parrallel addapter that lets you use data cable for extended runs. Plus I would like to do this on several printers eventually.

The printer I'm looking to purchase has USB and parallel ....It will need to be attached to a windows machine..probably via USB

Thanks


Donald (Zoonkai) Dixon
donnan@don-nan.com

http://www.don-nan.com

 

[JorGeVaL]

VisionFs needs a Patch , i am not sure if that can help you but install the patch if you have not done so.

Other way is if you have Windows terminal emulators like TinyTerm, IceTen or TermVision, you can use the LPD feature.

I Hope this can help

 

[pcunix]

BTW, it's often a better idea to attach the printer to a network print server- that way thw Windows machine doesn't have to be on and it doesn't use resources handling print jobs. Print servers like the Netgear PS110 or PS113 are relatively inexpensive and handle 2-3 printers. If you do that, I'd use netcat on the sco side and point the Windows machines to the SCO shared printer rather than directly to the printserver: see

http://pcunix.com/SCOFAQ/scotec7.html#getnetcat

If you don't want to do that, make sure you are running the latest version of Visionfs (well make sure of that regardless), and make sure you are using the correct driver for the printer on the Windows side.

If that doesn't solve it, you can always "front-end" this through a virtual printer that adds the form feed at the end- see

http://pcunix.com/SCOFAQ/scotec7.html#virtualprint

Tony Lawrence
SCO Unix/Linux Resources

http://pcunix.com

tony@pcunix.com

 

[zoonkai]

I think that a print server is the route we're going to look at. I found out that since Since Caldera bought SCO, Visionfs stayed with tarantella....and so an upgrade probably woudldn't be possible...and basically it would cost a small fortune to upgrade all our visionfs users.

Thanks so much,

Donald (Zoonkai) Dixon
donnan@don-nan.com

http://www.don-nan.com

 

[pcunix]

Well, if you do go that way, you definitely want to use netcat and point the Win boxes at the Unix server. Tony Lawrence
SCO Unix/Linux Resources

http://pcunix.com

tony@pcunix.com

 

[dconman]

ICE-lp is what we use for Unix to PC print. It is a pain to setup but it works very well. Hp's as a general rule don't like to print out half pages. At least this has been my experiance. ICE is a James River Product, I am not sure of the cost. You install ICE on the windows PC's and on unix and it makes the printers you put on the server available on the pc's. Check that out.

 

[pcunix]

What on earth do you mean by "Hp's as a general rule don't like to print out half pages.". No laser printer prints a page until it is told to. It's not like a dot matrix where the paper can just roll along as the data arives- it HAS to know when the page is done.

Tony Lawrence
SCO Unix/Linux Resources

http://pcunix.com

tony@pcunix.com

 

[zoonkai]

pcunix,

I finally bought those PS110 print servers you told me about. (boss had pulled me off that project for a while) I created another thread asking for help from everyone, but I wanted to see if you still got notified by email of an update to this thread....I'll just paste it below.

also...I'm not to the point yet of trying to add the printer to windows..but..I couldn't find anything on netcat. tried 'man netcat' and 'apropos netcat' to search for it and apropos found nothing on it..

*************** snip *******************

I purchased some Netgear PS110 Printservers. These device have two parallel ports each.

I added the device to the /etc/hosts file on the UNIX server.

I setup the windows configuration utility. Gave the device an IP address, disabled IPX/SPX and NETBEUI, renamed the logical name to ps_zoonkai. Port 1 is by default logically named P1.

I went to the Unix Server. Using Scoadmin>printers>printer manager, I added a remote printer. Selected the printer out of the /etc/hosts file. then typed P1 for the printer name. Everything went well. When I do "lp -dP1 printfile.txt", it begins printing immediately, however, the last page of the print job hangs in the printer untill the "manual feed button" is pressed. The printer is an hplaserjet 1100. If i were to send another print job instead of pushing the button, when the pages is ejected from the printer, the new job has begun at the line following the old print job.

There is an option to send a hexadecimal code to the port after a print job. I can't find out what a form feed code would be.

Netgears Tech support was worthless when I called...kept trying to get me to go to the properties for when the printer used to be hooked up to my local windows machine.

The product supports UNIX...but the tech support dept admitted...they personally knew nothing about UNIX.
*************** snip *******************

Thanks

Donald (Zoonkai) Dixon
donnan@don-nan.com

http://www.don-nan.com

 

[pcunix]

I gave you the link for netcat right here in this thread.

http://pcunix.com/SCOFAQ/scotec7.html#getnetcat

I answered your other question in the other thread you posted it in: CTRL-L, decimal 12, octal 014

Tony Lawrence
SCO Unix/Linux Resources

http://pcunix.com

tony@pcunix.com