Epson printers on the Sun

[Paul Leyland]

trwspp!spp2!sol!rroux at cs.ucla.edu says:
> I have a Sun 3/50 running SunOS 4.0 and I've attached an Epson FX-80
> printer to it via a serial-to-parallel converter....
> It basically works, except that data at the end of the file that's being
> printed is usually lost....

Yep, we had a  similar problem with our  Epson EX1000 (a  very similar
machine, just a bit newer with a wider carriage).  We fixed it when we
noticed that the ready light wasn't flashing as expected.  The trouble
was  that  the XON/XOFF  handshaking  didn't.  The  following printcap
entry  fixed  it and has  given  us completely reliable communications
since.
____________________

# Epson EX1000 over a tty line.
lp|epson:\
	:lp=/dev/ttyb:\
	:br#9600:fc#0177777:fs#0000002:xc0177777:xs0040440:\
	:tr=\f:of=/usr/lib/lpf:lf=/usr/adm/lpd-errs:
____________________

The downside is that we cannot now use 8-bit (RAW mode) communications
which makes  graphics a bit  trickier.   One day,  I'll  get round  to
writing  a  filter which sets the  interface  in RAW mode  and handles
XON/XOFF coming from the printer, but never meddles with any character
going out.  Why can't the UNIX tty driver provide such an environment?
Surely it must be useful in other circumstances.

Hope this solves your problem.

Paul