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Subject: -77- How can I print to a printer with a JetDirect card?
Date: 18 May 1996 00:00:01 EST
Configure the JetDirect card to act as an lpr print server (see the
JetDirect documentation) and set up your SGI to use it as you would
any remote lpr printer (see above). You may also want to set up a
bridge to the 'lp' system; again, see above.
Unless you have a very recent JetDirect card, you will not be able
to use printers(1M) to set up the JetDirect as a remote lpr printer.
You can either use the lpr software on the SGI (see above), or you
can circumvent printers(1M) in one of the following ways:
- Use printers(1M) to add a normal 'lpr' print server with the local
printer name you'll want to use for the JetDirect printer.
- Do '/usr/lib/lputil add /dev/null netface <local-printer-name>'.
- Do '/usr/lib/lpadmin -p<local-printer-name> -mnetface -v /dev/null',
and create by hand all of the directories and little files in
/var/spool/lp.
Each of the above will create an interface script in
/var/spool/lp/interface/<local-printer-name>. Since you subverted the
usual installation process, some of the settings in the script won't
be right yet. Change HOSTNAME to the JetDirect's hostname, NETTYPE to
"bsd" and (thanks to Ken Harris <kenh@netcom.com> for this one) SYNC
to 0. If it's a Postscript printer, change TYPE to "PostScript" and
CONVTYPE to "PostScriptFile".
Bill Poitras <bill@ba.msi.com> adds: To print from a PC using SAMBA
via your SGI, you can either modify the interface script so that
specifying "-oraw" to lp (as suggested in the SAMBA documentation)
will set CONVTYPE to nothing, or set up a second interface to the same
printer and set its CONVTYPE to nothing permanently.
If your JetDirect card is very old, it may not understand the lpr
protocol at all. If it is very, very old, you may have to resort to
sending the file over TCP port 9100 directly. If it is only very old,
you may be able to upgrade the card to a version which does understand
lpr. Upgrading the JetDirect is beyond the scope of this FAQ.
Up: SGI admin Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Next: -78- Why won't lpr(1) print very large files?
Previous: -76- How can I use 'lpr' instead of or as well as 'lp'?