FAQ for UNIX

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General

The instruction in user manual for Unix users.

Print Server provides 8 logical printers for CR/LF, Form Feed functions.

Introduction
The PrintSir is available for TCP/IP printing by Unix lpd (Line Printer Daemon) protocol.  The lpd protocol originated with Unix release is based on the BSD version of Unix and  supported under most versions of Unix.

This chapter explains how to configure the PrintSir for TCP/IP operation, and how to modify configuration files on your Unix system to allow printing to the PrintSir. The configuration examples in this manual follow the syntax for BSD based Unix systems. Please refer to the related system documentation for the correct syntax of your systems.

To configure the PrintSir for lpd printing, perform the procedures below:

  • Enable PrintSir’s TCP/IP Support.
  • Set up PrintSir’s IP address.
  • Verify PrintSir’s IP Address.
  • Configure remote lpd printing on the host.
  • Print a test page.

In the next sections, we will describe these five procedures step by step.

  • Enable PrintSir’s TCP/IP Support
    The default configuration of the PrintSir is with TCP/IP support enabled. Anyway, you can configure the PrintSir to enable TCP/IP support using the configuration program or PSETUP program in the CD-ROM included with the PrintSir.
  • Setup PrintSir’s IP Address
    The PrintSir must have a unique IP address in order to be recognized by the network.

You can set up the IP address on the various Unix systems using any one of the following methods:

  • ARP & Ping Assignment (Recommend for Unix)
  • DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol)
  • BOOTP (Bootstrap Protocol)
  • RARP (Reverse Address Resolution Protocol)

The PrintSir will use the last three methods to obtain its IP address automatically if its IP address is configured as Auto (0.0.0.0).

  • 6.3.1     ARP & Ping Assignment
    You can use ARP and Ping commands with a web browser to complete PrintSir’s IP address setting.
    • Parameters for the commands are as follows:
    • arp –s <IP Address> <Ethernet ID>
    • ping <IP Address>
    • For example, a PrintSir with the following configuration:
    • Node ID: 0000B4010101
    • (the Node ID is printed on the rear side of the PrintSir)
    • Assign IP address: 203.66.191.12
    • arp –s 203.66.191.12 00-00-B4-01-01-01
    • ping 203.66.191.12

At the mean time, PrintSir’s IP will “temporarily” be set to 203.66.191.12 (will restore after reboot). Therefore, you need to run your web browser to set a permanent IP address (refer to section 8.3.7 for detailed IP configuration).

  • 6.3.2     DHCP
    There are many Unix systems that support DHCP protocol, and the procedures to configure the DHCP server database are different. This manual does not describe the DHCP server configuration on the Unix systems. It is highly recommended that the DHCP server should be located on the same network as the PrintSir.
  • 6.3.3     BOOTP
    If you have the BOOTP daemon, bootpd, running on your UNIX system that is accessible by the PrintSir, you can use the BOOTP protocol to set up the IP address of the PrintSir. We recommend that the BOOTP server should be located on the same subnet as the PrintSir. If you use Network Information Services (NIS) in your system, you may need to rebuild the NIS map with the BOOTP services before doing the following BOOTP configuration. To rebuild the NIS map, please refer to your system documentation.

To configure the IP address data for the BOOTP server, you will need to log in the host of BOOTP server as the super user (root). Perform the following steps to add address entries,

  • Optionally, assign a name corresponding to the PrintSir’s IP address.  You can add this address to the /etc/hosts file, by adding a line such as:
  • 203.66.191.12 pserver
  • Add an entry to the host’s /etc/bootptab file, similar to the following:
  • hostname:\
    •  :ht=1:\
    •  :ha=print_server_ethernet_address:\
    •  :ip=print_server_ip_address:
  • Lines should be indented with tabs.

Where hostname is the device name of a PrintSir, the ht=1 tag specifies the hardware type is Ethernet, the ha= tag specifies the Ethernet address of a PrintSir, which is the Node ID located on the PrintSir. The ha tag must be preceded by the ht tag. The ip= tag should correspond to the IP address you want to assign to the PrintSir.

  • For example, a PrintSir with the following configuration:
  • Node ID: 0000B4010101 (this implies Ethernet
  • address is 0000B4010101),
  • IP address: 203.66.191.12
  • The entry for this PrintSir in the /etc/bootptab file should be:
  • PS010101:\
    •    :ht=1:\
    •    :ha=0000B4010101:\
    •    :ip=203.66.191.12:
  • 6.3.4     RARP
    The procedure below enables the RARP daemon running on your system to respond to a RARP request from the PrintSir and to assign the IP address to the PrintSir.
    • Log in the host of RARP server as the superuser (root).
    • Assign a name corresponding to the PrintSir’s IP address.  You can add this address to the /etc/hosts file, by adding a line such as:
    • 203.66.191.12  pserver
    • Add the Ethernet address and the host name for the PrintSir to the /etc/ethers file, by adding a line such as:
    • 00:00:B4:01:01:01  pserver
    • Where the Ethernet address of the PrintSir is the Node ID located on the PrintSir.
    • If your system uses Network Information Services (NIS), you will need to make changes to the NIS host and ethers databases.
    • Check if the RARP daemon is running using the ps and grep commands. If the RARP daemon is not running on your host, type “rarpd -a” to run the RARP server.
  • 6.4  Verify PrintSir’s IP Address
    To verify that your PrintSir is responding to the newly assigned IP address using a PING command:
    • ping ip-address
       
  • 6.5  Configure Remote lpd Printing on the Host
    The procedure you use to configure your Unix host(s) to allow printing to your network remote print server varies between different varieties of Unix.  The procedure below can be used for Unix variants that are related to BSD Unix, such as SunOS or Linux.  For other versions of Unix, consult your system documentation, keeping in mind that:
    • The PrintSir should be treated as a BSD networked print server host.
    • The host name should be the name (or IP address) that you have assigned to the PrintSir.
    • The printer name (or queue name) on the remote host should be lpt1, lpt2 or lpt3, the name of the parallel port on the PrintSir.

You will need to perform the tasks below, logged in as the superuser (root).  To configure your Unix host for printing,

  • Optionally, assign a name corresponding to the PrintSir’s IP address.  You can add this address to the /etc/hosts file, by adding a line such as: 203.66.191.186  pserver
  • Create a spool directory for the printer in the same directory where spool directories are normally kept on the machine, such as /var/spool or /var/spool/lpd:
    • mkdir /var/spool/lpd/pserverd
    • chown daemon /var/spool/lpd/pserverd
    • chgrp daemon /var/spool/lpd/pserverd
    • chmod 775 /var/spool/lpd/pserverd
  • Add an entry to the host’s /etc/printcap file, similar to the following:
    • printer-name:\
    •   :lp=:\
    •   :rm=203.66.191.186:\
    •   :rp=lpt1:\
    •   :lf=/var/spool/lpd/pserverd.log:\
    •   :sd=/var/spool/lpd/pserverd:\
    •   :mx#0:
  • Lines should be indented with tabs. More than one printer name can be used, with variants separated by vertical bars (name1|name2).
  • The rm= entry should correspond to the IP address you have assigned to the PrintSir. You can also use a host name if you have assigned one in the /etc/hosts file.
  • The sd= entry should correspond to the spool directory you created in the previous step.
  • The rp= entry should correspond to the port name of the remote printer. The values should be one of lpt1, lpt2 or lpt3 depends on the printer port.

The PrintSir should now be available for printing from your Unix host.

  • 6.6     Print a Test Page
    To print to the PrintSir, you can use the lpr command:
    • lpr -Pprinter-name file ...
    • or, you can use the lp command on SCO Open Server:
    • lp –d printer-name file ...

Where printer-name is one of the names for the printer in the /etc/printcap file, which you created in the previous step.

Consult your system documentation for more information about printer configuration and administration and about lpr and other printing commands.m

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Print Server provides 8 logical printers for CR/LF, Form Feed functions.

Logical printer for LPR printing

You can assign up to eight logical printers to any single physical printer port of an print server. The logical printers are defined as below:

  • Logical Printer       CR-LF  Form Feed   Banner
    Normal                     -            -              -
    Logical printer 1        X            -              -
    Logical printer 2        -            X              -
    Logical printer 3        X           X              -
    Logical printer 4        -            -              X
    Logical printer 5        X           -              X
    Logical printer 6        -           X              X
    Logical printer 7        X          X              X
  • Where    CR-LF: Converts "Line Feed" to "Carriage Return/Line Feed" pair.
                 Form Feed: Append a Form Feed character to the print job.
                 Banner: Print a banner page prior to the print job.

For single port print server like PS-901/PS-1203, the default queue name is lpt1.  For three port print servers like PS-3103P, the queue name is lpt1, lpt2, or lpt3 depends on which port is used for the printer.

For examples:
   A. print to lpt1 without any additional setting: the port name should be "lpt1" as before.
   B. print to lpt3 with Banner: the port name should be "lpt3-l4".
   C. print to lpt2 with Form feed and CR-LF: the port name should be "lpt2-l3".
   D. print to lpt1 with Form feed, CR-LF and banner: the port name should be "lpt1-l7".

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