Misbehaving Printer

[Amy Johnson]

In article <1991Apr25.154427.3916 at ncsu.edu> I wrote:
>Details - IBM RS6000, AIX 3.1 (update 3003)
>
>I have a DataProducts LZR-1200 (lazer printer) that is defined as an
>"Other parallel printer".   It works fine except that everytime the printer
>runs out of paper, the queue comes down.  After more paper is added the queue
>stays down until someone with the appropriate privileges can do a "enq -U". 
>
>This is really annoying especially to the students who are trying to do a term
>paper at 1:00 am and they can't use the laser printer until the next day, just
>because it ran out of paper once.
>
>If anyone has any ideas, PLEASE pass them on.
>


Well, this bug turns out to be a feature....the response from IBM...

A:     AIX Version 3 does not provide a facility to prevent a printer
    from entering the disabled state when the printer is out of paper.
    The printer enters a disabled state to insure that the integrity
    of the print job is preserved while the printer is down.

      You can increase printer timeout period in the printer configuration
    to allow you enough time to add paper to the printer before it goes
    into the disabled state.  The default printer timeout period is 60
    seconds.  It can be increased up to 1000 seconds (roughly 20 minutes)
    in order to give you enough time to add paper.


Amy <johnson at ecovsh.eco.ncsu.edu>
Engineering Computer Operations
North Carolina State University