Add a Xerox printer as a remote printer.

[SlackwareUser]

I added a Xerox ColorQube 9303 to one of my HPUX (B.11.31) servers as a remote printer.

ISSUE1: When I send print jobs to it, it prints but the prints are skewed (I think because of a CR vs LFCR issue).

ISSUE2: When I send print jobs with layout information (like landscape), it ignores the formatting.

I tried installing Xerox5Pkg-HPUXia64-5.15.497.2463.depot  to get the correct drivers but, I can't get the darned thing to work.

How do I fix this?

[Dennis Handly]

Remote printer or network printer?

>I tried installing Xerox5Pkg-HPUXia64-5.15.497.2463.depot  to get the correct drivers

(I assume you meant model script?  There are no printer drivers in HP-UX.)

Does the model script actually handle the orientation and the LF vs CRLF configuration changes?

[Bill Hassell]

>> ...as a remote printer

The 9303 is a bigboy printer so it has lots of features including port 9100 (aka, HP's JetDirect) and PCL support. So delete the printer with lpadmin -x then add the printer back as a 'network' printer. Sorry, the terminology used by SAM/SMH is completely ambiguous. A 'remote' printer uses the archaic dumb printer protocol on port 515 whereas a 'network' printer (port 9100) is handled by a semi-smart program called hpnpf. There are also a set of tools like modifyqueue, removequeue and hpnpadmin, all found in the /opt/hpnpl/bin directory.

Add the printer like this (nt SAM or SMH):

/opt/hpnpl/bin/addqueue -h 12.34.56.78 -q prnqueue -b off -e off -r off -i 261

where -h 12.34.56.78 is the IP address of the printer. 

Now you'll have some control over the printer.

>> prints are skewed

This is also called stair stepping and yes, an ASCII in HP-UX is just a series of lines with LF. Almost every modern printer is designed for Windows where text files have lines with CR+LF.  The printer script used for printer type 261 (-i 261 above)  has some smart features, one of which is to check on the file type. If it looks like plain ASCII, it will add the CR to each LF.

NOTE: HP_UX doesn't have printer 'drivers'. A driver in the Windows world is a very complex program that handles the metadata sent by programs and translates that into codes compatible with the printer. HP-UX has no drivers, just simple scripts that can prepend and postpend some special characters, typically PCL codes that set some limited features.

>> ... tried installing Xerox5Pkg-HPUXia64-5.15.497.2463.depot...

You'll have to talk to Xerox about that program.

But my experience is that very few printer manufacturers have useful HP-UX printing programs (and yes, HP is in that category too). The HP JetDirect (aka, HP Network Printer or hpnp) code is much better than the SysV spooler which HP-UX uses as its native printing service.

Once you have installed the printer, try the -olandscape option. It should work OK now.

To see exactly what you can do with the print jobs, read the man page for net_ljx000. 

[SlackwareUser]

First off, THANKS for the replies. It's nice to get helpful responses on a forum.

That stupid 9303 may have the jetdirect stuff but, they aren't using it (this place is a disaster)...  When I scan it with "hpnpadmin -A" I get "Receive NO snmp response" response so I had to install it as a remote printer.

The printer is 'owned' by a different group otherwise, I'd enable the jetadmin and live an easier life.

Would you have an addition line like:

           /opt/hpnpl/bin/addqueue -h 12.34.56.78 -q prnqueue -b off -e off -r off -i 261

...but for remote printers?

[Patrick Wallek]

>>"Receive NO snmp response" 

Just because you receive that, it does not mean that the Jetdirect interface is disabled.  SNMP may be disabled.  A previous employer required, due to "security" scans, that SNMP be disabled on all printers as it was a security risk.

Try telnet'ing to the printers IP address and specify port 9100 and see if you get a response.  For example:

# telnet dalsharp 9100
Trying...
Connected to dalsharp.
Escape character is '^]'.

This means that the 'dalsharp' device on my network is responding on port 9100.  If I try to telnet on a port that does not respond, then I get:

# telnet dalsharp 9101
Trying...
telnet: Unable to connect to remote host: Connection refused

So, if your printer answers on port 9100, try setting it up as Bill mentioned.

[Bill Hassell]

>>  I'd enable the jetadmin...

There's nothing to enable. The printer supports a number of different connection methods out of the box, so unless some misguided tinkerer played with the front panel of the printer and turned off protocols, it should work fine. It really doesn't matter who owns the printer (except when someone start counting sheets of paper). Just run addqueue and send a short file like /etc/resolv.conf to the printer. It should print fine. (Just don't tell anybody)

[SlackwareUser]

I'm sorry it has taken so long to respond to this but, I lost my HP login info...

The ColorQube 9303 DOES have JetDirect capability, telnet to 9100 works... The problem is that hppi (and other JetAdmin tools) fails because SNMP does not respond.  SNMP V1 and 2c is enabled on the printer but not V3.

I cannot find which version hppi and hpnpadmin is using but I assume it's V3 since I'm not getting a response.  I have two 9303s acting like this.

As far as:

    /opt/hpnpl/bin/addqueue -h PRINTER_IP -q prnqueue -b off -e off -r off -i 261

I get: 

    usages: addqueue [-c class] [-d] [-i printerID]
    -q queuename -h hostname [-p port] [-s]
    [-r on/off] [-t on/off] [-b on/off] [-L PS/PCL/HPGL/HPGL2/AUTO]
    [-P 1/2/3] [-T 1/2/3] [-m banner papersize] [-D on/off]
    addqueue -l

It fails too.  I tried taking out some of the options with no luck.

I'm thinking the fix is to get SNMP working but I can find no answers to how to force hppi and hpnpadmin to use SNMP V2c or V1

[Bill Hassell]

Oops, the true EOJ option is -t, not -e. When you get a usage error, it is not a printer problem, it is the option and command set.

This should work:

/opt/hpnpl/bin/addqueue -h PRINTER_IP -q prnqueue -b off -t off -r off -i 261

[Mark Cerda]

Once the xerox depot is installed, type xpadmin on the cli to install the printer.  It will allow you to select the printer configs.

Mark

[SlackwareUser]

This should work:

/opt/hpnpl/bin/addqueue -h 123.123.123.123 -q ColorQube -b off -t off -r off -i 261

The queue was added but now, print jobs return:

               lp: Connection refused

Once the xerox depot is installed, type xpadmin on the cli to install the printer. It will allow you to select the printer configs.

This is hard for me because, I'm new to HPUX...  That being said-

1) I can't find any *xerox*.depot.gz files [on hp.com, xerox.com or the internet].  I did find  "Xerox5Pkg-HPUXia64-5.15.497.2463.depot.gz" and I successfully installed it. The problem is that it's just PS drivers and I can't figure out how to get HPUX to use them.

2) I cannot find ANY reference anywhere as to where to get xpadmin.  When I search Xerox's site, I get nothing.  I do get plenty of webpages that say "you need xpadmin".  When I run/which xpadmin, I get a file not found error.

[Bill Hassell]

>> The queue was added but now, print jobs return:

>>              lp: Connection refused

This is a printer problem. Someone may have setup the printer to only accept connections a specific host. There isn't anything you can do on the HP-UX side. The printer has been setup as best as can be expected given that there is no support for non-HP printers in HP-UX. HP is the largest printer manufacturer in the world and there is no incentive to provide support for non-HP printers.

The best resource is to contact Xerox tech support and ask specifically for HP-UX information. You'll have to persist as is the case for all printer manufacturers, Windows and Macs is where the market is located, so HP-UX support will be a challenge to locate.