Subject: Re: No response when do lptest > /dev/ulpt0...anything else to try?
To: Gary Thorpe <gathorpe79@yahoo.com>
From: Pavel Cahyna <pavel.cahyna@st.cuni.cz>
List: netbsd-help
Date: 03/08/2005 11:04:33
On Mon, 07 Mar 2005 13:06:20 -0500, Gary Thorpe wrote:

> 
> --- Mark Tamola <marktam264@hotmail.com> wrote:
>> How do I set up the printer properly? If I can't even do a "cat
>> file.txt > 
>> /dev/ulpt0", I don't know what else to try.
>> 
>> Thanks,
>> 
>> -Mark
> 
> I think this would only work with much older printers from the MS-DOS
> era (most now would use PCL, postscript or some other high level
> lanaguge to communicate with the PC). You will most likely have to use
> ghostscript (or something else) to convert the output of lptest into a
> format the printer will understand and then send that to /dev/ulpt0
> (this is assuming nothing is actually wrong with the printer or the
> driver) to get some results.

I don't know what lptest do, but "cat file.txt > /dev/ulpt0" should work,
as long as the file ends with a Form Feed (^L) character. In my
experience, PCL laser printers can print ordinary text files, but don't
output the page until it's completely full or a Form Feed is received.

Bye	Pavel