At 07:49 PM 6/28/99 -0400, John Aldrich wrote:
>BTW, just got home a few minutes ago and confirmed that it IS a Panasonic
>KX-P1624 printer. I can't seem to find any mention on the 'Net about what
>printers Linux supports directly..... maybe I'm looking in the wrong
>place...
[rest deleted]
Did you check the Linux Documentation Project? If not, you should add it to
your list of regular places to check. The URL is http://metalab.unc.edu/LDP/ .
One of the HowTos listed there is the "The Linux Printing HOWTO", and it
lists 5 Panasonic printers as "Perfectly" compatible with Linux, one as
"Partially" compatible, and 2 others as "Paperweights". Unfortunately, none
is the model you list above. The HowTo also provides a link to the printer
database (URL http://www.picante.com/~gtaylor/pht/printer_list.cgi), but the
initial page there makes it clear that only inkjet and laser printers are
covered.
So ... what to do about a dot-matrix printer? Me, I'd plug it in and see if
it worked. Make sure the "lp" entry in /etc/printcap is generic, something like:
lp:lp=/dev/lp1:sd=/var/spool/lpd/lpgeneric:sh
(your distribution may use lp0, and make sure the spool directory specified
actually exists). Then try
A. cat some_file /dev/lp1
B. lpr some_file
and see if it works. (The second approach assumes lpd is running.)
Now this advice is for regular text files. For graphics and Postscript
files, you'll need to see if there's a driver -- the place to look for that
is Ghostscript. The URL is http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/, but I'll leave
checking here to you.
Hope this helps. Good luck.
------------------------------------"Never tell me the odds!"---
Ray Olszewski -- Han Solo
Palo Alto, CA 94303-3603 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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