On Sat, 6 Sep 1997, Simon Knott wrote:

> Right I've installed RiscBSD from the 1.2 CDROM and am using the voy4656
> kernal.  I've just about got most bits working but have a couple of
> niggles.
> 
> 1.  I can't print.  During the boot phase a message reports lpt0 as out
> of paper.  If I queue anything for printing then lpq reports "waiting
> for printer offline?".  If I copy a file direct to /dev/lpt0 then the
> response is device busy.

This is the message I get at boot time if the printer is not switched on
so I guess you may also get it if the printer is not asserting a cotrol
signal that it ought too. Try sending the file to /dev/lpa0 which is the
same port but in polled mode. Does this produce the same result?

I also remeber that sending data to /dev/lpt0 can cause kernel panics
depending on the type of printer that is attached.

> 
> 2.  Is it possible to shutdown the system without logging in as root. 
> My main user id belongs to wheel and operator groups so I can execute
> the shutdown command but can't execute the halt command.  I tried using
> shutdown -kh which I thought would do the trick but the response is
> "You'll have to do it yourself"

I think the -k parameter is the cause of the problem. This causes the
system to disable all logins but not to shutdown the system. I usually use
the shutdown command 'shutdown -hf now' which causes a clean shutdown and
halts the machine.

Mike