HP/UX and a Canon ImageRunner 5000 with BrightQ

[Mike Schallmo]

Hello All,

We are having great difficulty installing a iR5000 copier/printer under HP/UX 11i. We have installed the software from BrightQ and took all defaults during the installation except when it asked if we wanted to "replace system lp command?" we answered no.

I have since added a print queue, mikecanon, for some testing. I setup the queue using the command "codehost-config -c mikecanon /opt/canon/brightq/ppd/C/iR5000-6000.ppd -U lpd://143.61.99.32". When I try to print to the queue using pjm or lp nothing comes out. If I stat the printer just after sending the request, you can se the request stack in the queue, the go through.

Has anyone gone through the setup of one of these Canon printers under HP/UX? Anyone able to notice anything done wrong or left out? Please let me know. Thanks.

Mike Schallmo
Computer Operations Specialist
AAA Western & Central New York

[Sanjay_6]

Hi Mike,

Is this a network printer. Can it be pinged from the hp-ux server. Did you try to add this printer through hp jetdirect. HP jetdirect has replaced hp jetadmin.

We have successfully added some canon Multi-Function Printers using hp jet-direct.

you can download hp jetdirect from this site,

http://h20180.www2.hp.com/apps/Lookup?h_query=jet+direct+printer+installer&h_tool=software&h_lang=en

Hope this helps.

regds

[Mike Schallmo]

Yes this is a network printer and I am able to ping it from the server. I have tried adding it with jetdirect but jetdirect is not able to ping the address.

I did go ahead with the install with jetdirect even though it couldn't ping it. I was able to get it to print but it does not accept and -o options when printing and the text runs off the page.

BrightQ seems like the way to go, it's just there's something I'm missing.

[Steve Post]

I had to set up a Canon Xerox machine as a printer once. I found no Canon documentation that even aknowledged the UNIX OS exists on Earth.

...that is until I found an old canon printer book. Buried around page 350 of that manual is the words to suggest I make the printer a "remote printer".
The printer hostname is what I make it (canon1 ip address 1.2.5.3).
The printer queue name is what I make it (canon1).
The name of the printer on the remote print server? It's "print".

Remote print server I say? You see the canon xerox machine I have had a BSD-UNIXish system underneath. HP thinks the printer is another UNIX box.

If the remote print command of "print" doesn't work, then try "lp", then try "lp1", then try the hostname you gave the canon printer....then.....uh....I'm out of answers.

Steve

[Bill Hassell]

Forget JetDirect software. The Canon does not have any compatibility with HP's JetDirect protocol. At most, the Canon has the lpr/lpd protocol on port 515 which is known as a "remote printer" in SAM. Don't confuse "Network Printer" with Remote Printer" even though they sound the same. Network printer means: HP JetDirect LANIC hardware.

So make sure that the printer has the right subnet mask and router as well as a LAN address. Ping by IP. Now try to connect onto port 515:

telnet 192.168.0.123 515

You should see a blank line. Type anything and it should echo back each character. Press return/enter and it should close the connection. If that doesn't work (and the printer is on a router) then the router is blocking remote printing.

Now the hard part: ask Canon what the internal printer name is. Every remote print server (in this case, the LAN card) has an internal name for the printer, perhaps prn or text or raw, etc). Then add this printer using SAM as a remote printer and specify a local printqueue name, the remote IP address, and the remote (internal) printer name. And be sure to check the BSD option. Now use lp to print a short file.

As far as BrightQ, their software is supposed to work with HP-UX, so call them and see if they've ever gotten it to work on HP-UX.

[Steve Post]

and I bet that "name" is.....

print

[Bill Hassell]

> I was able to get it to print but it does not accept and -o options when printing and the text runs off the page.

This is a common problem for SysV print spoolers. SysV requires the -o options be interpreted at the print server, while BSD spoolers process printer options locally. And the text is running "stairstep" across the page because plain ASCII is being sent in raw mode (text LF text LF ...).

To fix ASCII text running off the page, you can filter all your text files with ux2dos as in:

ux2dos myFile | lp ...

But to turn on the -o options requires a *LOT* of research. HP supplies PCL printer scripts that take the -o options and translate them into the appropriate PCL escape sequences. Whether this will work for the Canon depends on whether the Canon can interpret PCL codes, and which codes are available.

What you'll have to do is to take a somewhat generic model script from /usr/lib/lp/model, perhaps PCL5. Then modify the script to simplify it to accept just the options and the filename to print. Or you could write a wrapper around the script that could take the options and filename and format them so them fit the PCL5 script's order, then pipe the output to lp. PCL5 also contains the LF to CRLF translation. You'll need the Canon's printer language reference manual to modify the PCL5 script where needed.

Or you can contact BrightQ for help.

[Mike Schallmo]

Hello all,

I have finally got around to talk to a tech at some tech support line that deals with these Canon printers and know a little about BrightQ. Bottom line, we couldn't get it to print out.

I have added the printer through SAM as a remote printer, setting the remote prniter name as lp. The tech told me these Canon printer use lp as their local print queue. I am able to print to the printer when I add it this way, but again I can't use any print options to condense or landscape the job. So again I need to look to BrightQ to do this.

I am able to ping the printer from DOS and Unix and the printer responds when I telnet to it. Also, not sure what this means, but I am able to go to the DOS prompt on a PC and enter 'lpr -S 143.61.99.32 -P lp c:\boot.ini' and it will print the file. Printing from windows is a breeze, just the UNIX side is an issue.

If anyone cares, here's the setup of the print by BrightQ:
* mikelpd
URI: lpd://143.61.99.32/lp
Model: Canon iR5000-6000
PPD: /opt/canon/brightq/ppd/C/iR5000-6000.ppd
Defaults: Booklet=None Duplex=None Finishing=None Gutter=None BindingLocatio
n=None Punch=None ImageRefine=Default LineRefine=Default InputSlot=Auto MediaTyp
e=None SaddleStitch=Default Staple=None TonerReduction=Default Interleave=None T
Switch=Default PageSize=Letter CPCAJobMode=Print Option2=None Option3=False Opti
on1=False

I have since put a request for support into BrightQ's website and awaiting a response.

Mike

[Bill Hassell]

As mentioned, lp options are defined in local printer scripts. For a remote printer, unless the remote server is a SysV (not BSD) system, the -o options are ignored. Even with a SysV (like HP-UX) server, you have to use the options recognized by that server's printer scripts. However, most of the useful options (which work only on plain ASCII files) like landscape and compressed require special codes that match the printer's language. If you can get a Canon printer language manual, you can certainly script the codes and options into a preprocessor and use the script to send the results to lp.

In DOS, the lpr command is relatively new (and borrowed from Unix), but the reason that an ASCII file prints without modification is that Unix stores ASCII files with end end of line indicator = LF while DOS (Windows) uses CR+LF as a record terminator.

[Tony Willis_1 · Accepted solution]

I know that this is years later.

Install BrightQ on HP-UX 11i using EXPERT mode.
( DO not replace lp!!!)
using BrightQ add Image Runner to
BrightQ spool

This adds the Canon printer as a REMOTE printer to the HP-UX host.
Then REMOTE PRINT connect to this HP-UX host from other systems.
Postscript 2 works fine.
codehost.com (to download BrightQ2.3

[Jim Galliher]

I have a similar problem with a Canon Imagerunner at a customer site. The printer is setup as a network printer via jetdirect. It was setup as a net_genericprinter. It has been working fine for a while. Now whenever a user prints compressed landscape, it prints about the first 10 pages compressed and then prints the rest of the report in normal print mode. Does anyone have an idea what would cause this?

[Bill Hassell]

> I have a similar problem with a Canon Imagerunner at a customer site. The printer is setup as a network printer via jetdirect. It was setup as a net_genericprinter. It has been working fine for a while. Now whenever a user prints compressed landscape, it prints about the first 10 pages compressed and then prints the rest of the report in normal print mode. Does anyone have an idea what would cause this?

Very likely, the user has binary characters in the print job at about 10 pages into the job. These codes tell the printer to change fonts. There is nothing in HP-UX that knows anything about fonts or compression, etc. JetDirect simply defines the network port and handshake -- data is transparent to HP-UX and the network connection. net_genericprinter has most of the options for both Postscript and PCL but compatibility with non-HP printers is left as an exercise to the HP-UX sysadmin and online support at the printer manufacturer.

The print job must be redirected to a file for examination to see if there are binary characters (hint: cat -v or xd -xc). You might try another printer script such as net_ljx000 since there is no Canon printer script.