Creating a Printer

[Dirk Moolman]

Hi, I need to create a printer on a client's HP-UX server (version 10.20)

I had a look in /etc/lp/interface (and also used lpstat), and found:

device for lp1: /dev/dtc01b03p20
device for lp2: /dev/dtc01b02p22
device for lp4: /dev/dtc01b02p12
device for lp5: /dev/dtc01b02p8

I am trying to understand the /dev/dt* devices. I am used to printing to network printers, where the printer can be found in /etc/hosts.

I would appreciate it if someone could tell me a little more about the printers above, and how they work.
I tried using SAM, where I saw they were created as "local" printers, but I did not know enough to continue from here.

Any help appreciated.
Regards
Dirk

[Bill Hassell]

The device files look suspiciously like DTC device files. What shows up when you use this command?

lssf /dev/dtc*

If these are indeed DTC files, the printers are wired to a special serial-to-LAN concentrator (which is very rare today). So the first task is to understand how printers are connected to HP-UX:

1. serial or parallel cables, known as local printers

2. remote printers which are printers served by some other box (WinNT, Linux, etc)

3. Network printers which are *ONLY* HP printers with HP network cards called JetDirect cards

4. DTC printers which are serial printers with the cables plugged into a box with a LAN port. Because special DTC software is installed on this HP-UX box, the device files look like local printers but must be configured with special software.

So the first question is: what type of printer, and what type of cable (ie, connection) does it have?

[Dirk Moolman]

Thank you very much, this is some great feedback. I ran the lssf command on the dtc devices, and got the following result:

pseudo driver ptys minor 0x000001 /dev/dtc01b02p12
pseudo driver ptys minor 0x000003 /dev/dtc01b02p22
pseudo driver ptys minor 0x000004 /dev/dtc01b02p8
pseudo driver ptys minor 0x000002 /dev/dtc01b03p20

Unfortunately the company's IT staff have all left the company, and I do not know anything about the physical setup there (have remote dialup to them). I will try and find out in the meantime.

Regards
Dirk