USB printing problem: /dev/ulpt0: device busy

[Manuel Tobias Schiller]

Hello everybody,

Eugene Rogoza has alerted me to this issue. I can reproduce the 
behaviour he is talking about on my virtual FreeBSD 5.3 system running 
under Linux as host OS. Any attempt to access the device file (both 
/dev/ulpt0 and /dev/unlpt0) fail with the message "Device busy". The 
FreeBSD kernel does recognize the printer when attached to the USB port, 
and it correctly associates the ulpt driver with it. This behaviour is 
quite obviously not due to faulty hardware emulation in the virtual 
machine as Mr. Rogoza has also experienced it.

I'd really like to help to make my driver for Minolta PagePro 
1[23][05]0W printers work under FreeBSD, too - even when the printer is 
connected to a USB port. Any help, hint or idea as to what might cause 
this behaviour would be greatly appreciated.

Manuel Schiller

Tue, Mar 1 2005, Eugene Rogoza wrote:
 > Hello everybody,
 >
 > I'm experiencing certain problems with USB printing. I have a Minolta
 > PagePro 1300W printer connected to USB port. FreeBSD 5.3 recognizes
 > the printer just fine and creates /dev/ulpt0 and /dev/unlpt0 device
 > nodes.
 >
 > But the simple test like
 >
 > echo "test" > /dev/ulpt0 (or /dev/unlpt0) fails with the message
 >"/dev/ulpt0: device busy". And, respectively, if simple tests fail,
 > then the complicated printing via ghostscript -> filter -> driver also
 > doesn't work.
 >
 > I suppose some program uses the device already, but I don't know what
 > it can be - I'm not running lpd (device is busy either with lpd
 > running or not).
 >
 > There isn't really much regarding this problem on the net. Usually
 > people have their USB printers working.
 >
 > Any suggestions are appreciated.
 >
 >Eugene Rogoza
 >