HPDPS Print problem

[aaronleung]

HEllo,

I am using Hp-UX 10.20. I have create a lp print queue using jetadmin choose
The following option as the printer type.
(Generic PCL3 Printer;:HP PCL3 Printer not given in this list)

I can print document successfully to the epson 1170 line printer using lp by lp print queue.

But when I print the same document to HPDPS print queue. It just print rubbish.

I want to know is there any printer driver for epson 1170.

Or Can I use the lp spool printer driver for HPDPS.

[CHRIS ANORUO]

If you have Rev. D.06.21 of Jetadmin software, then chose option 53 "Use dumbplot_printer".

Cheers!

[Tim Malnati]

When you print to HPDPS from lp the job is handled very similarly to a remote printer setup; lp does no formatting, it simply passes it off to DPS to do it. Any lp configuration means nothing to DPS.

DPS uses a different driver methodology than lp. They have made it sort of object oriented. For you this means that none of the scripts associated with lp or jetadmin are compatable.

Here is the problem (as I see it). There is a serious communication/political problem between the printer unit people in Boulder, CO and the HP Lab people in California.
JetAdmin was written and is maintained by the printer unit people. They are fully aware of new printers as they come out and they write drivers for jetadmin accordingly. Where they have the responsibility of supporting the HPUX lp interface, they are fully aware of its quirks and do it well. In conversations with some of these troops it became apparent that they have no knowledge of DPS, and have no desire to either, where it is not part of their responsibility area. They really have very little to do with the HPUX side, which is probably the reason that the version of jetadmin on HPUX application disks is so ancient.

HPDPS was developed by the HP Lab. They know this interface well, but they don't really seem to know or care much about a physical printer's needs. They have a mandate to only support HP's line of printers. In my mind they do a poor job of that where they have yet to provide driver support for HP's bread and butter Laserjet 4000 series (last I knew). We were considering using DPS as an enterprise print server solution and we had a big installed mix of HP's and Lexmarks with some line and specialty printers as well. We are a significant CSS client and the Lab even stone walled the HPUX sales group on this. The Lab's point of view is that if you want Lexmark driver support (for DPS), look to Lexmark for it (or any other manufacturer for that matter). The situation was so bad that DPS didn't even support a generic print driver. After a while they were finally shamed into it where they were the only print product known to mankind that didn't. Bottom line for this company, we bought AIX boxes to support print server needs.

As I noted, there is a generic driver available for DPS, but it comes as part of a patch. The latest HPDPS cumulative should have it, but you may need to backtrack previous patches to get it. The generic driver will get your Epson to work, but you will need to write your own formatting drivers if you want to use any additional printer capabilities.