problem with printer queues since cutover to Itanium.

[The Brit]

We recently cutover our Production Alpha Systems (running OVMS 7.3-2, TCPWare 5.8(?)), to Itanium Blades running OpenVMS 8.3-1H1, and TCPIP Services 5.6, ECO3. Since that time, several of our print queues have started spitting out blank pages, and inserting characters at the beginning and end. This has the result that the form being printed doesnt fit on one page, and overflows to two.

There is nothing that I can see that is unusual about the queue setup, the main difference is that the queues changed from using the "TCPWARE_TSSYM" to "TCPIP$TELNETSYM"

$ Init/Que/Start -
/On="xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:9100" -
/Processor=TCPIP$TELNETSYM -
/Default=(NoFeed) -
/Schedule=(NoSize) -
/Library=HP_Devctl -
/Sep=(Reset=(Reset)) -
/Owner=[System] -
/Protection=(S:M,O:D,G:R,W:S) -
/Descrip="TAB building TDS/Dev, Rm 265 - HP4515x" TAB_11

I have tried setting the "TCPIP$TELNETSYM_SUPPRESS_FORMFEEDS" logical to both "17" and "35", to no avail.

I wondered if it was a problem with the "reset" module, but when I tried to extract it I got

$ library /extract=reset/out=reset.txt sys$common:[syslib]hp_devctl.tlb
%LIBRAR-W-DIFTYP, expected TEXT library SYS$COMMON:[SYSLIB]hp_devctl.tlb;1 to be ELF OBJECT

I don't do this very often, so I dont quite know how to handle this.

If anyone can point to a possible problem with the print queue setup, and/or how to access the library module, I would appreciate it.

Thanks

Dave

[Volker Halle]

Dave,

you've changed a couple of things at the same time. Except the architecture and OpenVMS version, you've also changed the TCPIP software - namely the symbiont image. Troubleshooting this kind of behaviour in a forum is quite a challenge.

Regarding the %LIBRAR-W-DIFTYP, please see the recent thread:

http://forums13.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=1313927

Volker.

[Hoff]

I'd expect that LIBRARY /TEXT /EXTRACT would override this, but post up the text library header output from LIBRARY/LIST HP_DEVCTL.TLB if not. (That'll also usually show if the library is grossly corrupt, in addition to confirming that the library is a text library.)

Check for a "library" symbol at the DCL prompt, too.

If this is mixed-architecture as I might expect here, there are two sets of SYS$LIBRARY directories here, too.

And (assuming this is mixed-architecture) ensure there is just one set of queue files around; one queue database.

There are various sequences for working around blank pages, that was a common problem with HP printers and OpenVMS printing for a while, and there are knobs to control that now.

http://h71000.www7.hp.com/wizard/wiz_0106.html

The above describes the command and the usual reset module.

[The Brit]

Thanks Volker/Hoff,

My bad, (forgot the /Text qualifier).

I did extract the reset module and it was empty. (i.e. contained no visible characters).

Hoff,
thanks for the link, I will try putting this escape sequence in the reset module on one of our development machines and see if this fixes the problem.

thanks

Dave.

[The Brit]

In the words of John Cleese, "I'm sorry, I have a cold!"

I took the reset module into an editor and this is what it contains;

]VMS;2\PE\

I know the first sequence is supposed to be the "blank page suppression sequence, but can anyone tell me what the PE sequence is supposed to do.

Dave.

[Volker Halle]

Dave,

looks like the PE\ sequence is meant for PCL printers. See

http://64.223.189.234/node/129

Volker.

[Hoff]

Set the reset module aside, and replace it with what's documented. See if that works.

There are various different approaches for fixing blank pages, and the control sequence

Esc ]VMS;2 Esc \ Esc P Esc E Esc \

(no spaces in that) is one of them. That last bit is PCL. The first bit is specific to the OpenVMS print symbiont.

Here are some previous discussions via Kevin Barkes web site and via ITRC:

http://www.kgbreport.com/dcl/199311.txt

http://forums11.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=741399

I'd point to the TIMA support database article, but AFAIK those are gone.

These settings can tend to require a little experimentation, in my experience.

[Hakan Zanderau ( Anders]

Dave,

I will not jump into this ongoing discussion,
but let me know if you don't solve the problem.
My mailaddress is in my profile.

Hakan
( AKA "the Green-Capped printer guru" )

[The Brit]

Hi Hakan,
Thanks for your offer. I guess they dont make e-mail addresses available to other users, at least I couldn't find it. Anyway, If you get a chance I would like to open up a channel. My address is ;
baxterd(at)tessco(dot)com.

Hope to speak soon

Dave.

[The Brit]

Resolved off line by Hakan and I. The solution was to set the logical

TCPIP$TELNETSYM_SUPPRESS_FORMFEEDS to 35.