I feel like and idiot here -- I can't seem to add a printer to my box ... It's sid running 2.4.13 with parport support the printer is recognized in dmesg, the /dev/lp nodes exist, but any attempt to use the printer is met with /dev/lp0(or 1 or 2 or just plain lp) does not exist
The linux-printing HOWTO wasn't really any help and while I googled and found *many* people with this same problem, no real authorative answer presented itself. Pointers, links and direction appreciated.

