Subject: Re: Have Pity on a Mac User
To: David Burgess , Dave Huang <khym@azeotrope.org>
From: Henry B. Hotz <hotz@ktb.net>
List: port-i386
Date: 10/22/2001 11:14:44
At 9:28 AM -0500 10/19/01, David Burgess wrote:
>Dave Huang wrote:
>>
>>  On Thu, 18 Oct 2001, Henry B. Hotz wrote:
>>  > The parallel port kind of works if I do a cat - >/dev/lpt0, but if I
>>  > set it up in /etc/printcap the PC crashes whenever something is
>>  > printing.  I've checked that the port is set for irq 7 and is opened
>>  > bidirectionally (:rw:).  There are four modes in the BIOS for the
>>  > port and mostly I've been using compatable.  I did take a spin
>>  > through the other three and I didn't seem to matter.
>>
>>  Try using /dev/lpa0 instead (polled, rather than interrupt-driven). I
>>  haven't had much luck using lpt...
>>
>
>I concur.  I've never had much luck with the lpt devices.
>
>On the other hand, sending a print job to the lpt device still
>shouldn't crash the system.  What are you using for the 'lpd' program?


The standard lpd that you get when you turn on spooling in /etc/rc.conf.

Thanks for the feedback.  I've been using lpa0 with some success, but 
I'll ask about the problems on the Mac port lists.  Enscript seems to 
work with it, but the activity light is left blinking when the job is 
done.

Would I be better off with the patched ulpt driver?  I guess that's a 
stupid question unless I can get lpt working.  Polling has to hog the 
system badly.