Re: [SLE] SuSe 9.0 - major problem with HP PSC 950 printer

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• In reply to: Karel De Vriendt: "[SLE] SuSe 9.0 - major problem with HP PSC 950 printer"
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Date: Thu, 20 Nov 2003 15:39:19 +0100 (CET)
To: suse-linux-e@suse.com

Hello,

On Nov 18 22:42 Karel De Vriendt wrote (shortened):
> I cannot get my HP PSC 950 to work.
> I did ptal-init and then defined the printer via YAST. Worked but after
> a reboot, printing was no longer possible.

Unfortunately the newest enhancements in the German article
http://portal.suse.com/sdb/de/1998/07/ke_hp-officejet.html
are not yet translated into English:
http://portal.suse.com/sdb/en/2002/05/ke_hp-officejet.html

For background information regarding please be patient
until the English translation is ready.

Here a short summary how to do a manual setup:

If you do not understand the following commands please read
the HP documentation in the "hp-officeJet" package - see
http://portal.suse.com/sdb/en/2002/05/ke_hp-officejet.html
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
root@host> rccups stop
Shutting down cupsd done

root@host> /usr/sbin/ptal-init setup
Follow the instructions on the screen.
In particular read this:

  Warning: Probing incorrect I/O port addresses could result in system
  instability and/or data loss! Consult your hardware documentation, BIOS
  setup and/or kernel messages to verify correct base addresses in the
  following prompts. Also, take care not to probe parallel ports that
  have non-printer devices (such as removable drives) connected.
I.e. probe only those devices where a HP all-in-one device is connected to.
It should be o.k. if you accept the other defaults.
Note the final message like this:
  Starting the HP OfficeJet Linux driver.
    mlc:usb:DESKJET_990C
    mlc:usb:HP_LaserJet_1220

root@host> rcptal status
Checking for ptal-mlcd: done
Checking for ptal-printd: done
Checking for ptal: running

root@host> rccups start
Starting cupsd done

root@host> lpstat -r
scheduler is running

root@host> /usr/lib/cups/backend/ptal
direct ptal:/mlc:usb:DESKJET_990C ...
direct ptal:/mlc:usb:HP_LaserJet_1220 ...

root@host> lpadmin -p dj990c -v ptal:/mlc:usb:DESKJET_990C -E \
           -P /usr/share/cups/model/HP/DeskJet_990C-hpijs.ppd.gz

root@host> lpadmin -p lj1220 -v ptal:/mlc:usb:HP_LaserJet_1220 -E \
           -P /usr/share/cups/model/HP/LaserJet_1220-hpijs.ppd.gz

user@host> echo "testing dj990c" | lp -d dj990c

user@host> echo "testing lj1220" | lp -d lj1220
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

If test printing doesn't work because CUPS cannot access the printer
via PTAL (see /var/log/cups/error_log when "LogLevel debug" is
set in /etc/cups/cupsd.conf), then CUPS will "disable" the queue
(see "lpstat -p dj990c" and/or "lpstat -p lj1220").

The following reasons are known up to now:

* Some kind of deadlock with the services USB, PTAL and CUPS:
  In this case
  either stop and restart this services and the USB kernel modules
  or reboot the system

* A resrictive "umask" of the user "root":
  "/usr/sbin/ptal-init setup" creates the directories /dev/ptal-printd
  and /var/run/ptal-* using the umask of root but this may be wrong
  for the PTAL service. The command
      chmod a+x /dev/ptal-printd /var/run/ptal-*
  sets minimal permissions which are o.k. for the PTAL service.

To enable the queues as "root" use
  /usr/bin/enable dj990c
and/or
  /usr/bin/enable lj1220

Of course replace "dj990c" or "lj1220" with your queue names.

> I did again ptal-init, defined the printer via CUPS, the computer halted
> while printing the test page. Start the computer, printing starts again
> and blocks the computer again. Restart the computer, hangs on
> configuration of usb devices.

If the whole computer stops it is for 99.9% sure that it is
a hardware and/or kernel related USB problem.

Unfortunately the whole USB hotplug stuff never worked really reliable.
In particular there are no module or kernel parameters to force
the USB hotplug stuff to be set up in a fixed defined way.
For example I cannot force the kernel to use /dev/usb/lp0
for the LaserJet 1220 and /dev/usb/lp1 for the DeskJet 990C.

This is why I recommend to use the parallel port whenever possible.
As there are module or kernel parameters to force the parallel port
to be set up in a particular way (which must match to the BIOS
settings) - see the Administration manual - it is always possible
to set up the parallel port so that it works reliable (except the
hardware is broken).

But in particular HP all-in-one devices may not work well
via parallel port (send scanner data via parallel port may
be very slow) or are USB-only devices.

Regards,
Johannes Meixner
-----------------------------------------------------------
SUSE LINUX AG, Deutschherrnstr. 15-19 Mail: jsmeix@suse.de
90429 Nuernberg, Germany WWW: http://www.suse.de/
-----------------------------------------------------------

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• Previous message: Alex Khroustalev: "[SLE] SuSE 9.0 SuSEplugger && floppy icon"
• In reply to: Karel De Vriendt: "[SLE] SuSe 9.0 - major problem with HP PSC 950 printer"
• Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ]