Greetings all, I hope this is appropriate for this list, if not I'll take it somewhere else. ;-) Printer lock-ups: I have some printer shares available on my Samba server (RedHat Linux kernel 2.0.32, Samba 1.9.18p3) and they are working just fine in most cases, but from time to time the Win '95 client will either lock up while printing or send a print job samba & lpd don't like and it will completely hose the printer, to the point where I have to clear the queue and sometimes physically reset the print server attached to the printer. I can't even telnet to the print server when this happens. Most of the printers are HP LaserJet 4's & 6's connected via external or internal JetDirect print servers. What is unclear to me is why this is happening. I suspect Win '95 is the culprit and if this is just SOP while running networked printers I'll live with it, but I want to make sure I haven't missed anything. Filters: While I'm on the subject, does either samba or lpd apply any filters to incoming print jobs from Win '95 clients? My impression is that it does not, but merely passes the information on to the printer as is, expecting the client to be using the appropriate driver. One of my HP 4mp printers is setup as a postscript printer under Linux, but I have used both the standard & postscript Win '95 drivers and the output is identical. I have a color inkjet that I don't have a Linux driver for, but I'm wondering if it matters as long as all the print jobs are coming from Win '95 clients and I don't try to print directly from Linux. Thanks in advance for any advice. Eric Sisler esisler@ares.csd.net
> Printer lock-ups: > [snip]... What is unclear to me is why this is happening. > I suspect Win '95 is the culprit and if this is just SOP while running > networked printers I'll live with it, but I want to make sure I haven't > missed anything.I run lpd on Solaris 2.5.1 with Samba an no problems. Sometimes the print filters defined in /etc/printcap choke on certain files. We tend to use the Apple Laser Writer NTX II printer driver with postscript printers rather than the HP postscript ones ( even if they are HP printers ). Just had good experience with their postscript output. Also will want to look out for the ^D at the beginning or end of the file. PC apps are bad about generating these ( to try to reset to the Postscrtip stack on the printer i think ). Look at http://www.eng.auburn.edu/users/doug for some handy-dandy print filters to handle this.> Filters: > While I'm on the subject, does either samba or lpd apply any filters to > incoming print jobs from Win '95 clients? My impression is that itOnly the ones specified in the /etc/printcap entries> does not, but merely passes the information on to the printer as is, > expecting the client to be using the appropriate driver. One of my HP > 4mp printers is setup as a postscript printer under Linux, but I have > used both the standard & postscript Win '95 drivers and the output is > identical. I have a color inkjet that I don't have a Linux driver for, > but I'm wondering if it matters as long as all the print jobs are > coming from Win '95 clients and I don't try to print directly from > Linux.If you are passing the file to the printer as is from the windows 95 box then there should not be any problem. j- ________________________________________________________________________ Gerald ( Jerry ) Carter Engineering Network Services Auburn University jerry@eng.auburn.edu http://www.eng.auburn.edu/users/cartegw "...a hundred billion castaways looking for a home." - Sting "Message in a Bottle" ( 1979 )
HI, The problem is that HP Jetdirect boxes/cards can not give back information on the print queue, while receiving a job. The lpq command on the UNIX server then 'hangs' while trying to retrieve this info. The W95 workstation then 'hangs' while waiting for this info. This has always been a problem with HP Jetdirect cards, they seem to be not 'multithreaded' and can only do one TCP/IP job at a time. Suggestion 1: Maybe samba could be altered to not wait for lpq to complete, and pass back blank queue info to the Workstation while it waits for lpq to complete. Suggestion 2: As this problem with HP Jetdirect cards do not exist with the DLC protocol, maybe someone could write a DLC spooler for UNIX/Linux :-) Johan Meiring>Printer lock-ups: >I have some printer shares available on my Samba server (RedHat Linux >kernel 2.0.32, Samba 1.9.18p3) and they are working just fine in most >cases, but from time to time the Win '95 client will either lock up while >printing or send a print job samba & lpd don't like and it will completely >hose the printer, to the point where I have to clear the queue and >sometimes physically reset the print server attached to the printer. I >can't even telnet to the print server when this happens. Most of the >printers are HP LaserJet 4's & 6's connected via external or internal >JetDirect print servers. What is unclear to me is why this is happening. >I suspect Win '95 is the culprit and if this is just SOP while running >networked printers I'll live with it, but I want to make sure I haven't >missed anything. >[cut]> >Thanks in advance for any advice. > >Eric Sisler >esisler@ares.csd.net