JetDirect Drivers

[wyattz]

I'm looking to setup one of our HP-UX boxes to print to a network printer using JetDirect, but I need to track down a driver for the system. I did a search and found a driver from HP, but I'm not sure how to go about installing it, or if it's even what I'm actually looking for.  It's a .SD file, which I'm not sure what to do with. 

[Dennis Handly]

There are no driver files for printers on HP-UX, just model scripts.

What's in this .SD file?

[Bill Hassell]

Jetdirect doesn't really use drivers, just slightly customized model scripts for certain HP printers.

Note that if you can't find the printer model at the HP site, it likely does not exist and you can't use the printer on HP-UX at all.

The vast majority of HP printers no longer support ASCII printing, but instead need specialized font and page information (or a raster conversion driver) that will be unique to every printer (aka, Windows driver). A printer that supports PCL 4 or earlier (PCL3, PCL2...) will work OK for printing text on HP-UX. If your documents are in Postscript format, most of the newer printers support Postscipt and won't need a printer-specific model script.

Here is the link on how to install a Jetdirect model script:

http://h20564.www2.hp.com/hpsc/doc/public/display?docId=emr_na-c04222920

Here is the installer:

http://h20180.www2.hp.com/apps/Lookup?h_lang=en&h_cc=us&cc=us&h_page=hpcom&lang=en&h_client=S-A-R163-1&h_query=jetdirect+printer+installer

NOTE: The .SD suffix is something that Boise division came up with some 20 years ago. It means Software Depot so it's a tar file in disguise. The installer is a convoluted extractor to put the model script into the /opt/hpnpl/sh directory.