Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!ames!mailrus!cornell!uw-beaver!rice!sun-spots-request
From: bauman@shell.UUCP (Evan Bauman x8937)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun
Subject: another problem on 386i w/ laserwriter II
Message-ID: <8901191530.AA28425@polaris.wrc.shell.com>
Date: 25 Jan 89 05:12:44 GMT
Sender: usenet@rice.edu
Organization: Eastman Kodak Company, Rochester NY
Lines: 82
Approved: Sun-Spots@rice.edu
Original-Date: Thu, 19 Jan 89 09:30:06 CST
X-Sun-Spots-Digest: Volume 7, Issue 119, message 5 of 13

Here's one for the net that's baffling a bunch of us.

I've got a 386i/250  with 4.0 and an Apple Laserwriter II NT.  I do NOT
have Transcript since most of what I use outputs postscript anyway.  When
I bought the system, I thought I'd just be able to dump everything to lpr
without any filters.  After all, it used to work on my old 3/50 with SunOS
3.5!!  (snickering permitted)

The Laserwriter is connected to ttya with an off-the-shelf null-modem
cable.

Here's the entry in /etc/printcap.  We don't use ypprintcap.

lp|postscript|apple:\
	:lp=/dev/ttya:br#9600:\
	:lf=/usr/spool/lpd/lpd-errs:sd=/usr/spool/lpd:\
	:rw:fc#0000374:fs#0000003:xc#0:xs#0040040:mx#0:sf:sb:

You'll notice that this is pretty much what Sun includes with SunOS 4.0 -
I've just stripped out the filter entries.

I had some Framemaker output (actually the manual for Tooltool), so after
I set everything up, I lpr'er the docs.  The printer light blinked for a
while, but nothing ever came out of the printer.  So I RTFM'ed in the
section on installing printers in the sysadmin guide.

(stty 9600; cat <frame doc>) > /dev/ttya

Lo and behold, out came the Tooltool documentation!

A problem with /etc/printcap??  Not necessarily...

I also use Lotus Manuscript in the DOS window on the 386i.  This has a
postscript driver built in.  About 75% of the time, when I print from
Manuscript, it works.  The rest of the time, the printer just blinks.  So
I compared the postscript output from Manuscript with the Frame output.

Framemaker starts with:

%!
%%Pages: (atend)
%%DocumentFonts: (atend)
%%EndComments
%
% Frame Maker PostScript Prolog 1.11, for use with Maker 1.11
% Copyright (c) 1986,87 by Frame Technology, Inc.  All rights reserved.
%

Manuscript starts with:

^D%!PS-Adobe-2.0
%%DocumentFonts: (atend)
%%Title: M:\\MSDATA\\AICHE.DOC
%%Creator: Lotus Manuscript

and ends with:

%%Pages: 1
%%DocumentFonts: 
%%+ Times-Roman
%%+ Times-Italic
%%EOF
^D

I've heard before that the CTRL-D's in postscript files produced by PC
software will cause problems.  Only here, they seem to help!!  I've
contacted Adobe who claimed that the CTRL-D's are just EOF markers and
really shouldn't be there.  They also claimed that the tty driver in 4.0
was buggy and might be choking on the CTRL-D's.  As always - fixed in
4.0.1.  So my question is this - can I/should I modify printcap somehow to
account for this CTRL-D discrepency?  Are these characters confusing my
laserwriter and/or lpr??  Or should I just ante up the $3K to Adobe for a
site license for Transcript (something we'll probably need anyway!)

Thanks in advance.

	Evan Bauman
	Shell Development Co.
	Westhollow Research Center
	bauman@shell.uucp
	bauman%shell.uucp@sun.com
	713-493-8937 (call collect if you have a solution!)