Connecting dot matrix printer to PC-UNIX box

Paul Moore moore at forty2.enet.dec.com
Wed Mar 6 01:24:48 AEST 1991


Hello, all UNIX-wizards out there!

I'm having a problem connection my dot matrix printer to my ISC-based UNIX
system. I'm running SVR3.2.

I've connected the printer to parallel port /dev/lp1 of my PC, and have
configured the printer and spooler setup using /usr/lib/lpadmin. So far so good,
all is honkey-dorey, and I'm getting printer output as expected.

However, I'm failing in my attempts to make the printer skip the perforations 
at the end of pages - the output is a long continuous printed output with no 
regard for printer page boundaries. 

My questions are:

1. How do I get my printer to work with page boundaries recognised?

2. How do I specify the print font to be used?

3. My printer supports the Epson LQ command set. How do I get myself setup to
   access its features?

4. How do I change the banner printed before each printout?

5. Do I need a decent book on UNIX system administration to help me with this
   kind of stuff?

As you can probably tell from the standard of the questions, this is the first 
time that I've attempted to do this kind of stuff. I've gone as far as I can 
go with RTFM.

--------------------

I've made an entry into the TERMINFO data base with the following entry (my
printer is the Panasonic KX-P1124 dot-matrix printer):

1124|kxp1124|KX-P1124 Dot Matrix Printer
	bufsz#6000, cols#80, cps#100, it#8, lines#66, orhi#120, orvi#180,
	cr=\r, ff=\f,

The printer status, in response to the command lpstat -p -l is:

printer dmp1 is idle. enabled since Sun Mar  3 19:09:49 1991 available.
	Form mounted:
	Content types: simple, ansi
	Printer type: 1124
	Description: KX-P1124 80-column, dot matrix printer
	Connection: direct
	Interface: /usr/spool/lp/model/dumb
	On fault: write to root once
	Users allowed:
	   	(all)
	Forms allowed:
		(none)
	Banner required
	Character sets:
		(none)
	Default pitch:
	Default page size: 80 wide 66 long
	Default port settings:

I've also defined a print filter. I submitted the a filter file to the 
lpfilter with the command lpfilter -f npf -F 1124.flt, where 1124.flt is the
following filter file:

Input types: simple, ansi
Output types: 1124
Printer types: 1124
Printers: dmp1
Filter type: fast
Command: /usr/lib/npf
Options: LENGTH * = -l*, WIDTH * = -w*

The command that I use to print is lp -T npf -o -l66 -w80 <filename>


Regards, and thanks in advance,

- Paul.



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