VMS Flag Pages In LPD Symbiont

[Robert Atkinson]

Has anyone here managed to get a VMS flag page using the LPD symbiont?

I've defined the VMS_FLAGPAGES logical :-

$ DEFINE /SYSTEM TCPIP$LPD_VMS_FLAGPAGES TRUE/EXEC

...but I still can't get a flag page out.

Do I need to do something with the PASSALL parameter in LPR_SETUP?

Where am I going wrong?

Rob.

[Ian Miller.]

"Where am I going wrong?" - I could suggest using LPD is where you are going wrong but parhaps its just too much sun :-)

For current version
http://h71000.www7.hp.com/doc/732final/6526/6526pro_050.html#pri_lpd_flag_sec

suggests the VMS-Flagpages configuration option

[Robert Atkinson]

Cheers Ian.

I don't have a copy of the TCPIP$LPD_CONF.TEMPLATE file - can you email one over?

Rob.

[Robert Atkinson]

Managed to get one from another node, and added this :-

ALPHA_ROB$$$ sea TCPIP$LPD.CONF vms-flag
VMS-Flagpages: TRUE
ALPHA_ROB$$$

Restarted the LPD service, but still no joy.

BTW, running VMS 7.3-2 and TCPIP version :-

ALPHA_ROB$$$ tcpip show ver

HP TCP/IP Services for OpenVMS Alpha Version V5.4 - ECO 4
on a AlphaServer ES40 running OpenVMS V7.3-2

ALPHA_ROB$$$

[Ian Miller.]

what version of TCPIP Services for OpenVMS are you running ?

[Wim Van den Wyngaert]

Rob,

Did you also mark the queue with /default=flag ?

Wim

[Robert Atkinson]

ALPHA_ROB$$$ SQ RAA*/FUL
Server queue RAA_FTG_OCE1, idle, on ALPHA::, mounted form FORMATE_A4
/BASE_PRIORITY=4 /DEFAULT=(FLAG,FORM=DEFAULT) Lowercase /OWNER=[SYSGRP,SYSTEM] /PROCESSOR=TCPIP$LPD_SMB
/PROTECTION=(S:M,O:D,G:R,W:S) /RETAIN=ERROR

[Robert Atkinson]

RAA_FTG_OCE1|raa_ftg_oce1:\
:lf=/TCPIP$LPD_ROOT/000000/RAA_FTG_OCE1.LOG:\
:lp=RAA_FTG_OCE1:\
:rm=co12048:\
:rp=fmt_ftg_oce1:\
:sd=/TCPIP$LPD_ROOT/RAA_FTG_OCE1:
#

[Wim Van den Wyngaert]

Restarted the LPD service, but still no joy.

How did you do that ? Did the symbiont get restarted ? I normally do a stop/que and a stop/id to be sure.

Wim

[Robert Atkinson]

I used TCPIP$CONFIG to stop and restart the service.

Rob.

[Phil.Howell]

Some printers have a setting to enable/disable the "LPD Banner page".
This is usually just user/host/job name, and is frequently disabled at the printer to prevent an "extra" banner.
I don't know if a vms/lpd flag page would be supressed if this was disabled.
Telnet to the printer and to enable, set
banner:1
Phil

[Robert Atkinson]

The queue is attached to the "Generic Text" driver, so there's no settings available for the LPD Banner.

Is there any way I can see if VMS is attempting to send a flag page?

Rob.

[Phil.Howell]

tcptrace/tcpiptrace on port 515 ?
Phil

[Peter Zeiszler]

Would "set que/sep=flag" work?

[Robert Atkinson]

Nope!

[Phil.Howell]

The process associated with the printer remains after an lpd shutdown, so as Wim mentioned you should kill the process RAA_FTG_OCE1, and then restart lpd.
Phil

[Robert Atkinson]

OK, will set it up on a test node, and let you know.

Rob.

[Galen Tackett]

Rob,

Did you ever get flag pages working with LPD?

I've had the same problem and would love to get it resolved.

Thanks,

Galen

[Robert Atkinson]

It's still with our support company and HP. I've chased this morning, so I'll let you know if I get anything back.

Rob.

[JerryK]

One of the last questions when you add a new LPD print queue using mcr tcpip$lpdsetup (I think that is spelled correctly) is Do you want a flag page. I know this works because I always answer No to prevent it, the default is Yes. Maybe you can delete and add the queue with a Yes.......

[Galen Tackett]

Jerry,
> Maybe you can delete and add the queue with a Yes.......
I did try that but it had no effect.

I also made certain that the symbiont process was gone before I re-created the queue, so it wasn't a matter of the old symbiont still running with the previous settings.

I'm hoping to look at this a little closer again this week after not having the time last week.

I have the option of submitting it to HP against a new system that is under contract for software support. I'll do that if I don't find something pretty quickly.

[Galen Tackett]

Finally I've got a flag page printed, but it was a bit more complicated than I'd expected.

Here's how I got there.

I defined TCPIP$LPD_VMS_FLAGPAGES true as discussed above. Then I set up an outgoing LPD queue on VMS that's directed to the internal LPD queue on an HP LaserJet 4250 printer. The VMS queue is named LJ4250_LPD and is set /DEFAULT=FLAG=ONE.

I'm logged in to (say) arda.ournet.com as user TACKETT and issue the command:

$ PRINT/QUE=LJ4250_LPD -
/note="This is a sample note" -
/job="Galen's Job" -
myfile.txt


It gave me a kind of job trailer page that says this, in 10 or 12 point Courier, at the top of the page:

User: TACKETT
Host: arda.ournet.com
Class: This is a sample note
Job: Galen's Job


...and that's all. Not very much of a flag page, is it?


After browsing around a while in the "TCP/IP Services for OpenVMS Management" manual, I came across the description of TELNETSYM relay queues in section 25.4.

So I set up a relay queue as follows:

$ INIT/QUE/START -
/ON="TCPIP$QUEUE:LJ4250_LPD"/FLAG=ONE -
/PROCESSOR=TCPIP$TELNETSYM -
lj4250_relayq


Printing to lj4250_relayq produces a fully formatted print job with the standard VMS flag page(s).

At this point I deassigned TCPIP$LPD_VMS_FLAGPAGES since the LPD flag page wasn't especially useful.

[Robert Atkinson]

Sorry Galen, I thought you were already aware of TELNET relay queues, which is why I didn't point you in that direction earlier.

Like you, I'm having to resort to using a relay queue to get a flag page.

There are 2 problems you may need to know about :-

1) The first form-feed in the file will be removed automatically. I think this can be controlled, but will be a global change, so I can't implement it.

2) I discovered that an extra blank line is being added to my output data, compared with using just LPD. This is not the line difference that occurs after the form-feed, but is mid way down the page.

I need to do a trace to see what's being output exactly, but it doesn't bode well!

Rob.

[Galen Tackett]

Rob,

I may well have been already aware of TELNET relay queues as it all seemed a bit familiar. But if so it was so long ago that I wasn't aware that I was aware.

:-)

Galen

[Robert Atkinson]

I got a response back from HP in the end, which basically said that LPD VMS-style flag pages don't exist.

So, it's back to using the TELNET queues!

Rob.