Linux Users especially,  please try this.

OK, you say that you have bidirectional parallel ports.
And a PostScript printer that reports pagecounts and status.

Do you?

Will the latest Beta of the IFHP filter access the printer
status information from the parallel port?

Will it sit in a horrible tight loop sucking out
the cycles from the CPU instead?

Or will it simply sit there, unable to read the status because
the parallel port bidirectionality is broken.

Well, lets find out.  I don't have a parallel port printer that
gives status back,  but I think (no promises) that the
latest ifhp filter beta should be able to read status.

So if you feel brave and adventurous,  or just plain curious,
please to the following:

a) download the latest ifhp beta:

   ftp://ftp.astart.com/pub/LPRng/private/ifhp-*.tgz

b) compile, etc. the code:

   tar zxvf ifhp-*.tgz
   cd ifhp-*
   configure; make

   DO NOT INSTALL THIS VERSION..!!!

c) put the following script into /tmp/send:


#!/bin/sh
DEV=/dev/lp0           <- replace with your parallel port device
FILE=/tmp/one.ps
./ifhp -Tdev=$DEV,trace,debug=2 <$FILE 2>&1 | tee /tmp/log

d) copy ifhp/UTILS/one.ps to /tmp

e) Make sure that you can read status back from the parallel port.
   If you have linux,  then you should be able to use the
   /proc/sys/parport/0/autoprobe file for information.
   You can also try 

     insmod parport_probe

   and see what happens.  You should get status.

f) Now do:
   sh /tmp/send

And watch the output... horrible... but it will (hopefully) show you
that it is reading status from the parallel port.

I am really curious to see what the results will be.

Patrick Powell

Patrick Powell                 Astart Technologies,
[EMAIL PROTECTED]            9475 Chesapeake Drive, Suite D,
Network and System             San Diego, CA 92123
  Consulting                   858-874-6543 FAX 858-279-8424 
LPRng - Print Spooler (http://www.astart.com)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you need help, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] (or lprng-requests
or lprng-digest-requests) with the word 'help' in the body.  For the impatient,
to subscribe to a list with name LIST,  send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
with:                           | example:
subscribe LIST <mailaddr>       |  subscribe lprng-digest [EMAIL PROTECTED]
unsubscribe LIST <mailaddr>     |  unsubscribe lprng [EMAIL PROTECTED]

If you have major problems,  send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word
LPRNGLIST in the SUBJECT line.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Reply via email to