MAKEDEV question

[Malcolm Kay]

On Tue, 9 Mar 2004 14:59, Stephen Liu wrote:
> - snip -
>
> > > I skipped following steps
> > >
> > > 1)
> > > # ./MAKEDEV port
> > >
> > > and
> > > 2)
> > > # lptcontrol -i -d /dev/lpt0
> > > (to set interrupt-driven mode for lpt0)
> > >
> > > and
> > > 3)
> > > # lptcontrol -p -d /dev/lpt0
> > > (to set polled-mode for lptN)
> > >
> > >
> > > Jumped to;
> > > # lptest > /dev/lpt0
> > > only strange symbols printed and printing continued without stop until
> > > I removed the paper tray.  Communication between printer and port
> > > seemed working
> >
> > It could be that your printer does not understand plain ascii text. What
> > is the make and model.
> >
> > The other possibility is that there is something wrong in the
> > communications path -- a dud or incorrectly wired cable.
>
> Hi Malcolm,
>
> FreeBSD 5.2
> Printer HP Desktop 690c
> ===================
>
> Thanks for your response.
>
> I missed steps 2) and 3) mentioned above.  I performed further test as
> follows;
>
> step-2
> # lptcontrol -i -d /dev/lpt0
>
> step-3
> # lptcontrol -p -d /dev/lpt0
>
> both without printout
>
> rebooted PC because having got printer turned on. The later could not be
> detected with 'dmesg'
>
> ** how can I detect the printer to avoid 'reboot' ??????
>
> After reboot
> # dmesg
> Probing for PnP devices on ppbus0:
> ppbus0: <HEWLETT-PACKARD DESKJET 690C> MLC,PCL,PML
> plip0: <PLIP network interface> on ppbus0
> lpt0: <Printer> on ppbus0
> lpt0: Interrupt-driven port
> ppi0: <Parallel I/O> on ppbus0
>
> # ls -l /dev/lpt0
> crw------- 1 root wheel 16, 0 Mar 9 01:17 /dev/lpt0
>
> Repeated step-2 and step-3 above
> (also no printout)
>
> # lptest > /dev/lpt0
>
> One line printed on 1st paper as follow;
> !"#$%&'()*
> +,-./0123456789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJK.....XYZ......abcdefghijk.......xyz....
>
> It seemed OK but feed-in paper continued with 'no_paper' light on (I put
> only 1 paper in the tray)

If you just run the utility lptest without redirecting the output you will see on the
screen what you should expect to print.

Do you get one printed line or a full page?
One line implies that 2nd and subsequent lines have disappeared of to the right
as BSD does not supply a CR, only LF, at end of line. You may find a you can set
up your printer to interpret LF as CR-LF.

As for running out of paper -- lptest produces 200 lines -- and even if these have
disappeared off the right then they need about 3 pages of A4.

I gather you have not yet got as far as setting up /etc/printcap or starting the print
daemon lpd.
Once you do this you can insert setup codes via an input filter ahead of the data 
to be printed and most printers including many HP models have a code which 
switches the interpretation of the LF character.

Malcolm