On Mon, Sep 11, 2000 at 09:44:47PM -0700, John Gilger wrote: > I feel like a total mental case. I have potato up and running fine, but > even though I've read a pile of f'ing manuals I can't get my epson sc800 > printer to listen when debian talks! > > I have installed apsfilter, lprng, and aladdin-ghostscript as > recommended in the PRINTING-HOWTO, but for some unknown reason my brain > has failed me in its ability to figure out what I have to to to get > everything working in sync. > > The embarassing part is this is not the first go round with linux or > debian and I am sure that I'm overlooking something blatantly obvious > and simple. :( > > Anybody willing to lend some intelligence to an antique geek with bad > memory banks? > > TIA > > John >
"Lets start at the very beginning .. A very good place to start When you read you begin with ...." [from Sound of Music!] 1. DOS: Do you have DOS Installed as well ? [Y / N] (An old DOS boot diskette will also do ...) IF Yes THEN Do a TYPE TxtFile > PRN IF Output Ok THEN NO Hardware problem Exit DOS and go to Linux ELSE Hardware problem (?) Check cables/ connectors etc. Reboot & pray 2. LINUX: a) Do a dmesg. Check which device your printer is polled IF polled THEN No kernel problems Move to b) ELSE lp support in kernel (!) Exit ... recompile kernel ... b) Do a cat Txtfile > /dev/lpN (where N is the device polled) IF Output Ok THEN NO Hardware/ kernel problems Exit and go to (c) PrinterSetUp ELSE Check cables etc Reboot and retry c) PrinterSetUp : If system installed properly, a printer software should have been installed (lpr or lprng): IS lpd daemon running ? IF no THEN Kick yourself! Start lpd daemon ... ELSE Try manually to get lpd to work and produce anything ! i) Make a spool directory mkdir /var/spool/lpd ii) Make a simple /etc/printcap lp|foo|my-printer:\ :sd=/var/spool/lpd/foo:\ :mx#0:\ :lp=/dev/lpN:\ [substitute N for number] :sh: Dont bother about the "if=" (input filter) at this stage. Just get anything going ... even staircasing is acceptable. iii) Do a cat FileName | lpr IS something coming ? [Y/N] IF yes THEN Happiness ... Read Printing-HOWTO Install magicfilter / aspfilter etc Finger around (and you will get it right sometime!) (geeks are known to have memory-rebound phenomenon after a spell of mental-block!) ELSE Grim scene ! Check for PLIP conflict Check IRQ conflict Check file permissions of lpr, lpd etc Set port addr/ int at boot time with LILO or Loadlin [e.g.lp=0x278,5,0x378,7 ** see Printing-HOWTO] and force your presence into the printing port: IF still no joy THEN PRAY ! ELSE suicide ... You would agree, if nothing is coming out from the printer, this checklist should cover almost everything that readily comes to the mind. Please add if something has been missed .. The rest is actually getting an appropriate driver for your specific printer (for ps printing mainly). Normally epson printers pose no problems, and there should be a driver in either magic/ apsfilter. If no joy you would have to settle for a generic driver .... but printing should not stop. Best wishes, USM Bish