Since FreeBSD and NetBSD aren't that different (don't know for
   sure if /usr/include/sys/termios is the same WRT flags) I post my working
   /etc/printcap now here:

   #       @(#)printcap    5.3 (Berkeley) 6/30/90
   lp0|lp|local laser printer:\
	   :lp=/dev/cuaa2:\
	   :fc#0xffffffff:fs#0x8600:br#38400:\
	   :if=/usr/local/bin/lpif:\
	   :of=/usr/local/bin/lpof:\
	   :mx#0:sd=/var/spool/output/lpd:lf=/var/log/lpd-errs:

I thought the flags variables (or any numeric variables for that
matter) were either octal or decimal depending on whether the first
character was 0 or not.  Am I confused here or can you really use hex,
also?  That may be part of your problem (but I don't think it was part
of my original problem).  By the way, what capabilities were you
intending to invoke?  Also, is it guarrenteed that the bits in fc are
cleared BEFORE those in fs are set?  Finally, why did you use only
fc/fs and not xc/xs?

Here is the source code in /usr/src/usr.sbin/lpr/common_source/printcap.c:

     /*
      * Return the (numeric) option id.
      * Numeric options look like
      *	li#80
      * i.e. the option string is separated from the numeric value by
      * a # character.  If the option is not found we return -1.
      * Note that we handle octal numbers beginning with 0.
      */
     int
     tgetnum(id)
	     char *id;
     {
	     register int i, base;
	     register char *bp = tbuf;

	     for (;;) {
		     bp = tskip(bp);
		     if (*bp == 0)
			     return (-1);
		     if (*bp++ != id[0] || *bp == 0 || *bp++ != id[1])
			     continue;
		     if (*bp == '@')
			     return(-1);
		     if (*bp != '#')
			     continue;
		     bp++;
		     base = 10;
		     if (*bp == '0')
			     base = 8;
		     i = 0;
		     while (isdigit(*bp))
			     i *= base, i += *bp++ - '0';
		     return (i);
	     }
     }

Cheers,
Brook