Re: Problems with my parport (and printer)

[Jan-Benedict Glaw <jbglaw@lug-owl.de>]

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On Thu, 2004-03-25 12:51:31 +0100, DervishD <raul@pleyades.net>
wrote in message <20040325115131.GA12195@DervishD>:
>     Hi all :)
> 
>     I have a printer connected thru my parallel port, supported in
> the kernel by parport+parport_pc+lp:
> 
> kernel: parport0: PC-style at 0x378 (0x778), irq 7 [PCSPP,TRISTATE]
> kernel: parport0: Printer, Lexmark International Lexmark Optra E312
> kernel: lp0: using parport0 (interrupt-driven).
> kernel: lp0: console ready
> 
>     It works ok, BTW... The problem is that, when the printer is
> switched of and I try to print something, the print command just
> blocks, no error, no messages, nothing. I use a shell function to

First of all, if you want to do normal printing, you shouldn't switch on
LP console. From there on, all kernel debug output (as seen in
/var/log/kern.log and outputted with "dmesg") would be sent to the
printer, what isn't exactly what you want to have.

>     Why this operation doesn't fail? IMHO, it should fail with
> ENODEV, because parport can work (the parallel port is there...), but
> lp shouldn't (the printer is switched off...).

Another gotcha may be that your printer doesn't easily accept commands.
Many printers don't do that nowadays. Some are dumb GDI-Printerts
(Windows-only, that is...), some nees specific wake-up sequences.

MfG, JBG

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