Slow dosemu printing

Slow dosemu printing

[Linos]

Hello, i am using dosemu 1.3.4.0 and freedos to use an internal clipper
application in my point of sale systems, all works ok but barcode
printing, well it is not barcode problems, it works very well sending
raw format to the printer, the problem it is that when i send many
prints it is very slow, it takes a long time between prints (about 10
seconds) so if you have to print thousands of barcodes it is too slow, i
was using cups linux servers with samba and sending the jobs with
windows client machines so i know it is not a cups or pos app. problem,
i have no problem printing sells tickets because they are only one print
job for every sell, i have tried different ways of improve printing
speed without luck, the hogthreshold or the printer_timeout either
helps, i have tried to using this like print command $_lpt1 = "cat - >
/dev/lp0" to try to know if it is a cups problem, i would like to try to
do direct hardware access to see if dosemu prints faster than using
externals commands but i have problems with direct hardware access, i
have used this in my dosemu.conf:

$_ports = " device /dev/lp0 fast range 0x378 0x37a"
$_irqpassing = "7"

parport0 have this configuration in my test machine, and launched dosemu
with "dosemu -s" like root, but i dont know how to disable the use of
printers commands, it keeps trying printing redirection, if i comment
the $_lpt# lines it simply assumes defaults one so i can not disable,
any idea to speed up multiple printing jobs in dosemu? Thanks in advance.


Best Regards,
Miguel Angel.

Re: Slow dosemu printing

[Rafał Cygnarowski]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 1115 bytes --]

Dnia czwartek, 26 kwietnia 2007, Linos napisał:
> Hello, i am using dosemu 1.3.4.0 and freedos to use an internal clipper
> application in my point of sale systems, all works ok but barcode
> printing, well it is not barcode problems, it works very well sending
> raw format to the printer, the problem it is that when i send many
> prints it is very slow, it takes a long time between prints (about 10
> seconds) so if you have to print thousands of barcodes it is too slow, i
> was using cups linux servers with samba and sending the jobs with
> windows client machines so i know it is not a cups or pos app. problem,
> i have no problem printing sells tickets because they are only one print
> job for every sell, i have tried different ways of improve printing
> speed without luck, the hogthreshold or the printer_timeout either
> helps, i have tried to using this like print command $_lpt1 = "cat - >
> /dev/lp0" to try to know if it is a cups problem, i would like to try to

Try your $_lpt1 command with $_printer_timeout = (5) (or less).

Regards,
-- 
Rafał Cygnarowski
rafi@pers.pl

[-- Attachment #2: This is a digitally signed message part. --]
[-- Type: application/pgp-signature, Size: 189 bytes --]

Re: Slow dosemu printing

[Bart Oldeman]

On 4/26/07, Linos <info@linos.es> wrote:
> Hello, i am using dosemu 1.3.4.0 and freedos to use an internal clipper
> application in my point of sale systems, all works ok but barcode
> printing, well it is not barcode problems, it works very well sending
> raw format to the printer, the problem it is that when i send many
> prints it is very slow, it takes a long time between prints (about 10
> seconds) so if you have to print thousands of barcodes it is too slow
[...]
> helps, i have tried to using this like print command $_lpt1 = "cat - >
> /dev/lp0" to try to know if it is a cups problem,

In principle, what the DOSEMU printer driver does is to use line
buffering (flushes every CR/LF) and if it has been inactive for a
while (timeout seconds) it will close the pipe. I'm wondering what the
output is, perhaps there are no CR/LF's?

> $_ports = " device /dev/lp0 fast range 0x378 0x37a"
> $_irqpassing = "7"
>
> parport0 have this configuration in my test machine, and launched dosemu
> with "dosemu -s" like root, but i dont know how to disable the use of
> printers commands, it keeps trying printing redirection, if i comment
> the $_lpt# lines it simply assumes defaults one so i can not disable,

In principle the $_ports line overrides the $_lpt configuration.
Normally anything that goes to port 0x378 - 0x37a is intercepted and
processed by $_lpt1, but if you use $_ports it's not intercepted and
goes straight to the hardware.

But please send a log of
dosemu -s -D+ip -o log
perhaps something goes wrong.

Bart

Re: Slow dosemu printing

[Bart Oldeman]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 169 bytes --]

Hello,

the attached patch causes
$_lpt2=""
to completely disable LPT2, independent of any $_port setting.

It also flushes every second. Let me know if it helps.

Bart

[-- Attachment #2: lptfix.diff --]
[-- Type: text/x-patch, Size: 837 bytes --]

Index: src/base/dev/misc/lpt.c
===================================================================
--- src/base/dev/misc/lpt.c	(revision 1716)
+++ src/base/dev/misc/lpt.c	(working copy)
@@ -221,11 +221,11 @@
     lpt[i].remaining = -1;	/* mark not accessed yet */
     if (lpt[i].dev)
       lpt[i].fops = dev_pfops;
-    else
+    else if (lpt[i].prtcmd)
       lpt[i].fops = pipe_pfops;
     if (i >= config.num_lpt) lpt[i].base_port = 0;
 
-    if (lpt[i].base_port) {
+    if (lpt[i].base_port != 0 && lpt[i].fops.open) {
       io_device.start_addr = lpt[i].base_port;
       io_device.end_addr   = lpt[i].base_port + 2;
       port_register_handler(io_device, 0);
@@ -258,6 +258,8 @@
 	lpt[i].remaining--;
 	if (!lpt[i].remaining)
 	  printer_close(i);
+	else if (lpt[i].file != NULL)
+	  fflush(lpt[i].file);
       }
     }
   }

Re: Slow dosemu printing

[Linos]

Bart Oldeman escribió:
> Hello,
> 
> the attached patch causes
> $_lpt2=""
> to completely disable LPT2, independent of any $_port setting.
> 
> It also flushes every second. Let me know if it helps.
> 
> Bart

Well it seems that it was only my testing zebra printer that was failing
in a strange way, i have tested with others printers an it works very
well with $_printer_timeout = (1) thanks all by the help and sorry for
the silly problem.

Regards,
Miguel Angel.
-
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-msdos" in
the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html