I tried to build and use ifhp-3.5.14 (we've got ifhp 3.5.10 in production
now). Built it with foomatic-rip support, although I'm not sure I've
figured out how to use it just yet.
Some issues I've found with ifhp-3.5.14 so far:
- Has the syntax for this program changed significantly? I'm used to
the following with ifhp-3.5.10:
/s/lprng/sbin/filters/ifhp-3.5.10 -Tmodel=hp8100,dev=2a%9100,trace < file
and the job starts up. However, ifhp-3.5.14 produces significantly
different output:
/s/lprng/sbin/filters/ifhp-3.5.10 -Tmodel=hp8100,dev=2a%9100,trace < file
usage: /s/lprng/sbin/filters/ifhp-3.5.14 [-T=opts[,opts]]* [files ...]
r - rotated or landscape mode
d - double columns
c=n - set cpi (characters per inch)
l=n - set lines per page
m=n - set left margin (points)
t=n - space from top of page to first line (points)
v=n - vertical spacing (points)
files - files to print
These are not familiar options, and I don't see much listed in the
ifhp man page...
- SNMP oid's used are out of RFC 1759 or other "standard" MIB's. I have
not had good luck getting accurate device status with these OID's.
I tried using these OID's on our Xerox Phaser 5400 printers, as well
as a new Lanier LD060 (Ricoh Aficio 1060 if you prefer) MFD. These
oid's report the printer is done before the paper is done moving.
Using the "private" MIB's for the printer to detect printer job status
seems to be much more reliable, in several cases:
* With the Phaser 5400, the "private" job log oid will stay in status
"printing" until the user either selects "cancel" on the front panel
or >ALL< paper is out of the printer and the page counter updates.
Doesn't appear to be any of these "windows" where the status goes
to "idle" before the job is finished.
* Same behavior with the MFD I've been working with.
* On MFD's (multi-function devices...copier/printer/scanner combos),
standard device status may give you information on the device as a
whole, but I don't care about that. All I care about is if there
are PRINT jobs going on. The MFD will put that on hold if someone
decides to do a copy job. And I don't care about what the document
feeder is doing if someone decides to scan a pile of papers and
e-mail the resulting PDF off to themselves. Private printer job
status oid's give me an idea of what the printer portion of the
device is doing as if the other components were not there.
- Regarding MFD's, getting accurate page counts must go to private MIB
entries. The "standard" page count oid will probably give a aggregate
total of print and copy jobs.
Also, see note above regarding various status oid's available in
MFD private MIB's.
This is >NOT< something I would consider "reasonable" for Patrick to
keep a list of. However, some reference to the fact that the end
user may need to do some hunting for SNMP information on the device
(make those sales critters work for that sale!).
- I just discovered Printer-MIB::prtAlertCode (.1.3.6.1.2.1.43.18.1.1.7),
which returns entries if the device is out of paper/jammed/out of that
SIZE of paper/offline/etc. Could be useful for checking printer status
in future releases of ifhp and returning errors to the user. Still
doesn't help with detecting end-of-job conditions, but it may be
a more portable way to find alert conditions on the printer.
--
============================================================================
John Perkins | University of Wisconsin-Madison
Associate Researcher | Department of Computer Science
[EMAIL PROTECTED] | 1210 W. Dayton St.
608-262-0438/608-262-6626 FAX | Madison, WI 53706-1685
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