More than 3 LPTs?

More than 3 LPTs?

[Michael Hipp]

Hello, I'm new to DOSEMU, question ...

Is there any way to use more than 3 LPTx ports?

I have a DOS application that needs lots of printers. This worked back 
when we actually run it under DOS and it works under Win98 now. (Tho I 
realize having that many printer ports is not really a common thing.) 
I'm trying to get this client upgraded to Linux.

Any help appreciated,
Michael

Re: More than 3 LPTs?

[Bart Oldeman]

On Mon, 29 Mar 2004, Michael Hipp wrote:

> Is there any way to use more than 3 LPTx ports?

No. The BIOS (any BIOS, except the 8088 which has 4) doesn't support more
than 3.

> I have a DOS application that needs lots of printers. This worked back
> when we actually run it under DOS and it works under Win98 now. (Tho I
> realize having that many printer ports is not really a common thing.)

I'm not sure what LPTx you're talking about here. Isn't it a network
printer? LPT5 does simply not exist -- and I wouldn't know which parallel
port it would use from DOS' point of view...

If the printer works like a file then you could just try to link to it on
an lredir'ed drive in Linux (printer would be d:\printer.foo or something
like that).

Bart

Re: More than 3 LPTs?

[Michael Hipp]

Bart Oldeman wrote:
> On Mon, 29 Mar 2004, Michael Hipp wrote:
> 
> 
>>Is there any way to use more than 3 LPTx ports?
> 
> 
> No. The BIOS (any BIOS, except the 8088 which has 4) doesn't support more
> than 3.
> 
> 
>>I have a DOS application that needs lots of printers. This worked back
>>when we actually run it under DOS and it works under Win98 now. (Tho I
>>realize having that many printer ports is not really a common thing.)
> 
> 
> I'm not sure what LPTx you're talking about here. Isn't it a network
> printer? LPT5 does simply not exist -- and I wouldn't know which parallel
> port it would use from DOS' point of view...

I probably asked my question poorly. I don't really want more "ports" 
(as in hardware ports), what I need are more printers (but DOS only 
knows about them as LPTx). And most of them would be network printers. 
So I guess what I'm looking for is a way to have the DOS app see more 
LPT ports and have them redirected to a real printer on a server somewhere.

> If the printer works like a file then you could just try to link to it on
> an lredir'ed drive in Linux (printer would be d:\printer.foo or something
> like that).

I didn't understand this part, could you elaborate a bit.

Thanks,
Michael