trying to add a network printer with jetadmin

[Mark Harshman_1]

hello,

i am trying to add an HP laserjet printer (P2015) using jetadmin. When i try, i get the message, "xxx is not an acceptable name! Either it is not a network printer or host is denied access to it!. We add hundreds of printers, i believe this is the first time i've seen this. We are running HPUX 11.11 V1. I have tried on different servers with the same response. I can ping the printer, but when i try to telnet to it, it says connection refused. any ideas would be appreciated.
thanks

[Court Campbell · Accepted solution]

I had a feeling from the subject line that this was a p2015. I still have not had success, but in talking with others, you have some choices.

I am not sure how you setup your printers, but everyone seems to have their own way. I personally define my printers in the /etc/hosts file. If you do this you can use the ip of another printer. then add the printer by name and then change the ip in the /etc/hosts file afterwards. You could also use the addqueue command which does not attempt to ping the printer, etc. Or you can use the ip of another printer when you add it and then change the PERIPH= line for the printer under /etc/lp/interface.


You may aslo want to download the p2015 modelscript from here:

http://www.hp.com/pond/modelscripts/index2.html

[OldSchool]

its a windows printer w/ a network card in it, not a jetdirect printer. (See supported OS notes here: http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/sm/WF06b/18972-18972-3328059-14638-3328066-1845551-1845552-1845554.html?jumpid=oc_R1002_USENC-001_HP+LaserJet+P2015+Printer%E2%8C%A9=en&cc=us)

you'll either have to connect it to a windows printer server and install it as a remote printer or see if you can drive it off of a jetdirect box.

search itrc w/ P2015, you'll find lots of hits.

[Wilfred Chau_1]

can you pull the printer configuration from a web browser?

did you add the printer name to /etc/hosts?

[Bill Hassell]

The p2015 is just fine for HP-UX since it understands PCL5. But jetadmin is not. JetAdmin was obsolete in 1999 and should NEVER be used except on obsolete systems such as HP-UX 10.10 or earlier. JetAdmin is not Y2K compliant and has never been updated since 1999 so it cannot function with new printers.

Since you are running 11.11, you already have hppi (HP Printer Installer) so you can use that. The program hppi is quite similar to jetadmin but it supports new printers, and SAM calls this program when you add a printer.

NOTE: a hostname is NOT necessary and NOT desirable. Many HP-UX boxes find themselves in a Windows DNS environment and trying to get printer hostnames added to DNS is a major pain. Don't bother -- when hppi asks for a hostname, type in the IP address. Be sure to dowload the latest printer script as mentioned above.

However, with hppi (and the obsolete jetadmin too), the preferred method is to use the ultra-simple addqueue to add a JetDirect printer. Nothing more than:

addqueue -h 12.34.56.78 -q my_prn_queue

That's all there is to it. To get all the stats from the printer, use the command:

hpnpadmin -v 12.34.56.78

Now, if either of these commands report that it is not a network printer, then the printer must not have an built-in JetDirect card and has been attached to the network with a non-HP adapter. That changes everything. Non-HP network adapters use the very primitive lpr/lpd protocol and you lose 100% of the -o options such as duplex and landscape and tray selection, etc. You can still use the printer in a reduced capacity by adding it using SAM as a "remote printer", not a "network printer". You may have to modify the printer script (a standard rlp script) to send the PCL escape sequence to map LF to CR/LF to turn off stairstep text printing.

And all the above assumes that you have the correct IP address for the printer and that the printer has the correct subnet and gateway information.

[Court Campbell]

Well we bought a p2015dn to see what all the hubbub was about. As stated if you use hppi it does output

"xx is not an acceptable name! Either it is not a network printer or host is denied access to it!"

Anyway, I put the network printer name and ip in the /etc/hosts file. I changed the ip for that entry to the ip of another printer that does not show that error in hppi. I then setup the printer and selected the net_lj2015 modelscript. Once done I changed /etc/hosts to use the correct ip. I sent a test page and it worked fine. But for simplicity I will just use addqueue in the future.

[CJENSEN_1]

Hello everyone,
I would like to comment on this thread. We are trying to modify printer network configuration in HPPI. We would like to put in the printer's name. HPPI does not allow this. It seems to want the IP address only. Most of the threads here all refer to the IP address, and not the name. Our Unix server resides in a Windows DHCP/DNS environment. The printer name is defined there. In this thread, Bill indicates that DNS should be used, however, the unix commands all have an IP address in them. One would think you could use the name, rather than the IP address.

The question is: when defining a printer in HPPI, should we be using the IP address, or the printer name?

[Bill Hassell]

What I said above is that a hostname in a DNS server environment is a major pain. Whether you use a hostname or an IP address, all the network code wants is an IP address. It does not care at all about hostnames and when you use a hostname for the printer, you always have to make sure the hostname translates into the correct IP address of the printer - and extra step that can be a pain to troubleshoot.

hppi tries to be too clever in testing for compatibility. I would always use addqueue with an IP address and if necessary, the printer ID option to select a specific printer model script.