Printer problems - please help

[Dirk Moolman]

Hi, we had a problem a short while ago with DTC printers at a client. Thanks to the forum, I found & read the manual, started to troubleshoot the printer, eventually had HP support out there, but even with there help we couldn't get the printer working again.

So we decided to connect the printer via the parallel port to a D-Link (dp-301p+) print server, and from there to the network. But now my knowledge fails me again.

How do I configure a network printer on HP ? I tried the network printer option in SAM, but get the error message that HPJetDirect is not installed on my system.
This is also an old version of HP-UX, version 10:20

I think I can do this using lpadmin, and then providing a filter in /etc/lp/interface, to redirect the print job to the host. If so, can anyone supply me with such a script ?

Hope you can help!

[Pete Randall]

You can download and install the HP printer installer (formerly Jet Direct) by clicking on the HP logo at the top left of the page > selecting "Software & Driver Downloads" > "Printing & Multifunction" > "Printing and Imaging Software" > "HP Printer Installation Software" > "HP JD Printer Installer for HP-UX 10.x".

Once you get that installed, you should be able to use SAM to set these up as network printers.


Pete

[Tim Nelson]

Typically network base print spoolers accept requests on some port. Jetdirect is 9100.
There needs to be a utility to direct the print job to that port.

The jetdirect print utility can be used but will have to be set up manually.

lpadmin -xprinter1 -mlaserjet -v/dev/null
accept printer1
enable printer1
( above is normal stuff )

In /etc/lp/interface create a subdirectory called model.orig
copy /etc/lp/interface/printer1 to model.orig
copy /opt/hpnp/sh/hpnp.model to /etc/lp/interface/printer1
set ownership and permissions correctly.
modify /etc/lp/interface/printer1 PERIPH= and PORT= lines to set the IP/Hostname of the spooler and the port that it uses.
If you read through the hpnp.model script you will understand what it does.
The above is what SAM actually does (loosely).

[Dirk Moolman]

Thank you very much. Tim, I assume from your answer, that I first have to install a utility (JetDirect perhaps?), before I can add the printer. Is this correct ?

Is this something similar to the lpsock utility on Solaris (which I use to pipe my requests to: | lpsock hostname portname)

[Bill Hassell · Accepted solution]

Actually, all the advice for JetAdmin and JetDirect only applies to HP network cards, the JetDirect product line. Non-HP LAN adapters use a very old protocol which is what you would use when printing to a PC or Linux server. So you will need to contact D-Link to find out the internal name of the printer. To add a remote printer, you need 4 items:

1. local print queue name
2. remote server IP address
3. name of the printer on the remote server
4. Check the BSD box

Note that "print server" in this case means the D-Link LAN card. Once you have the printer setup, print something simple like /etc/fstab:

lp -dmyprnque /etc/fstab

Note that the output may stair-step down the page. If so, you'll need to print text files with the ux2dos command:

ux2dos /etc/fstab | lp -dmyprnque

Also note that non-HP network printers are extremely limited. None of the -o options will work and you'll need to use ux2dos.

On the other hand, if you replace the D-Link with an HP JetDirect External adapter, then full functionality will be available with the JetDirect software. You download the latest JetDirect software from:

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/DriverDownload.jsp?locale=en_US&pnameOID=18923&taskId=135&prodTypeId=18972&prodSeriesId=27350〈=en&cc=us

Install using swinstall and then run SAM (the hard way) or use addqueue (the easy way):

addqueue -h 12.34.56.78 -q myprnque

As with the D-Link, you need to load a fixed IP address into the card. The adapter docs will cover this task.

[Dirk Moolman]

Thank you very much, I *really* appreciate all the feedback

Best regards
Dirk

[Dirk Moolman]

I tried following these 4 steps:

1. local print queue name
2. remote server IP address
3. name of the printer on the remote server
4. Check the BSD box


but nothing comes out on the printer side. I confirmed the remote server name with my network administrator who installed the D-Link print server.

When I use lpstat, it only says "printer lp5 now sending lp5-5 to ......."

Is there a way I can troubleshoot this to see what the problem is ?

[Jonathan Fife]

Can you ping the remote server IP?

What did you use as the remote queue name? Most print servers have predefined names like "RAW", "ASCII", "LP0", etc.

[Dirk Moolman]

Yes, I can ping the remote ip, thanks.

When you say remote queue name, I do not follow. Under remote system name, I specified the IP which I can ping, and under remote printer name, I specified the printer name that was given to the D-Link print server by the network administrator.

[Jonathan Fife]

After reading some information regarding the DP-301, I think you need to confirm with your network admin that you are putting the "queue name" he defined when he was setting up the print server, and not the host name used for networking.

If you don't understand the difference -- pretend the print server is a host running an OS that has print queues defined on it. The remote queue name is the name of one of those defined queues -- most print servers have predefined queues for different formatting options. I see that the DP-301 lets you define those queue names through an administration page, so that is where the confusion is coming in.

What, exactly, do you have as your remote queue name?

[Dirk Moolman]

I first used the name he gave the server, which is DotMatrix (which he can change), but then I removed the printer, and recreated it using the 2nd name, which aparently is not changeable, PS-67F326-P1

Unfortunately the people have now left the office, and I cannot test it any further today. I will have a look again tomorrow morning.

[Bill Hassell]

Yes, to clarify the "internal printer name", this has nothing to do with the IP address and hostname (so your network administrator can't define this printer name). This is a hardcoded name that the manufacturer stored inside the LAN card. To understand why this is necessary, consider a classic PC print server like WinNT. There are 5 printers configured on a WinNT box. When you configure HP-UX (or any other lpr/lpd style remote printing protocol), you have to specify the local name for the printer, the remote IP address (or hostname) and then which printer inside the WinNT server you want to talk to. The protocol has no default, even if there is only one printer on the server.

Same for the D-Link (and any other print server in the form of a LAN card). So the possible names for the internal D-Link printer might be:

raw text prt prn lp lpt printer ascii

and so on. If D-Link cannot tell you the internal printer name, you'll just have to keep guessing. If the LAN card has a web page interface, try starting a browser with the IP address of the printer LAN card. That may give you this internal name.

[Scott G. Gallup]

Do not know if this helps you:

Subject: D-Link Print Server case study

KBRC00017228
Configure Epson remote printer connected to D-Link Print Server
Updated: 8/22/05 11:37:00 AM

PROBLEM
An Epson printer is connected to a D-Link print server DP-301P+. Nothing
prints and the following error is returned by lpstat:

# lpstat -oDLINK
printer queue for DLINK

no space on remote; waiting for queue to drain

The remote printer is configured like this:

# lpstat -vDLINK
device for DLINK: /dev/null
remote to: DLINK on DLINK

DLINK is the hostname of the D-Link print server.

At the DLINK webpage look for the Print server admin guide for tips on printing in a UNIX environment







CONFIGURATION
HP-UX HPUX 11.11
Remote Printer EpsonLQ1150 connected to Dlink Print Server DP-
301P+
Print Spooler daemon



RESOLUTION

The remote queue name for remote printers depends on how the vendor implemented
it. Connecting to the print server via telnet shows the following information:

************************************
* Welcome to D-Link Print Server *
* Telnet Console *
************************************

Server Name : PrintServer
Server Model : DP-301P+
F/W Version : 3.30
MAC Address : 00 xx xx xx xx xx
Uptime : 0 days, 00:00:55

Please Enter Password:

[Main Menu]
1 - Server Configuration
2 - Port Configuration
3 - TCP/IP Configuration
4 - AppleTalk Configuration
5 - Display Information
6 - Tools
7 - Save Configuration
0 - Quit

1 - Port Name EpsonLQ1150
2 - Description
3 - Speed High
4 - PJL Printer No

The port name needs to be used as the remote printer name. The printer DLINK
was removed and readded:

Printer Name: DLINK
Remote System Name: DLINK
Remote Printer Name: EpsonLQ1150

# lpstat -vDLINK
device for DLINK: /dev/null
remote to: EpsonLQ1150 on DLINK

The printer worked after readding it.

Note: The information is provided as is. For any D-Link or Epson questions
please contact the vendor.

ALT KEYWORDS
dlink print server lpstat dp301p lpmgr