Installing a serial Genicom Printer

[Tumeshwarie Udai]

Can anyone help me?
I am trying to install an old genicom printer.
I tried it on Windows and on UNIX.

On Windows 2000 I installed it using the wizard.

Add Printer  Local PrinterCOM1 serial port Manufacturer Generic.

I was told that it is a dos printer so I can only print from a dos command prompt.
I created a text file using notepad and tried to print it.
C:\copy test.txt COM1

Nothing printed. No print job even showed up in the print queue.
I tried sending a big print.
Still nothing printed. No print job showed up in the print queue either.

Then I open a document in WordPad and print it using the fileprint option. The file was printed but the output is garbled.


ON UNIX
I attached the printer to the computer and make sure it is online.
I reboot the computer.
Then I logged on to desktop as the user ‘root’
This is how I installed the printer. I am not versed in Unix.
Open SCO Admin Printer Setup Add local Printer  Make/Model (OTHER)  connection Type (SERIAL)  Serial Settings (DEFAULT)

I am getting this error message:
A problem occurred while adding printer. General failure occurred in processing the request.
UX: ENABLE: ERROR Printer is not ready for printing.
UX: ENABLE: TO FIX: The printer may be offline. Check that the printer is plugged in and turned on as well as for other printer problems.

After that I opened the printer properties and I noticed the connection port is no longer ‘COM1’ but is ‘OTHER’. I replaced the default value with tty1a. Because someone advised me to do so.


I tried to print using the ‘lp’ command, but nothing printed. The print jobs remain I the print queue.

[Christian Tremblay]

Seems to me that if you couldn't get the printer to print from a simple windoze PC,let alone a UNIX server then maybe the printer doesn't work at all and you should throw it away and get a new one.

[Ken Grabowski]

Genicom printers can have a complex setup all of there own. Have you checked the printer manual and made sure you have entered all of the correct Genicom setup information?

Serial interfaces can also be different. Do you have the correct cabling?

For the testing, I would suggest using just the windows system for now. Set up the printer using the wizard. Use wordpad or notepad to create a test job and send it.

Make sure that the computer print spooler and the printer both have the same baud rate, word bits, stop bits, and hand shake. I would suggest something like 19200 8 1 none.

Serial line printers can be a true joy to configure. Good luck!

[Bill Hassell]

Serial printers are very simple devices but your PC and Unix boxes expect the correct cable as well as signals from the printer. Start by determining whether the Genicom printer uses hardware handshake (either DTR or RTS/CTS) or software (XON/XOFF) or both. If you have a choice, XON/XOFF can work with only 3 wires. Then determine how your host computer can configure the serial port. You need baud rate, byte size, parity and stop bits. Typically, printers use 9600 baud, 8 bits per byte, no parity and one stop bit, aka 9600-8N1.

The cable must always be a printer cable -- a modem cable will never work because transmitted data is going into the transmit side of the printer. Now if your host computer has no method to enable or disable control signals such as RTS, DCD, DTR, etc, then you'll need to strap them or configure the Genicom to ignore the state of these signals. Setting options on your host computer will require a good tech reference manual for serial printers.