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From: jlucas@uvi.edu (John Lucas)
Subject: Re: I know it's not sexy but it's about this printer.............
Message-ID: <DJ4H4G.4xK@tigger.jvnc.net>
Sender: news@tigger.jvnc.net (Zee News Genie)
Organization: University of the Virgin Islands
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References: <817141958.10508@org29.demon.co.uk>
Date: Tue, 5 Dec 1995 16:41:20 GMT
Lines: 190
In article <817141958.10508@org29.demon.co.uk>,
stuartp@org29.demon.co.uk (Stuart M Pringle) wrote:
>This is the third time I have tried to get info from this conference about
>setting up a printer under FreeBSD 2.0.5 with no detailed responses so far.
>
>I know it's a boring, simple subject for some of you and that all information
>- for which I am eternally grateful - is supplied voluntarily but PLEASE! this
>is a mountain for me to climb so here goes again.
>
>I am setting up a new installation of 2.0.5 and am experiencing problems when
>trying to print on a LaserJet 4L attached to lpt0. The printer throws a blank
>page followed by a page with several characters spread randomly across it then
>stops.
>
>The printer is PCL rather than PostScript but I cannot find information about
>how to set up a printcap entry for this printer or how to filter lpr in order
>to enable it to print correctly. Is the default driver (lp) PostScript and if
>not then what is it?
>
>TIA for any assistance with setting this up properly as well as recommendations
>
>for a good reference book for new administrators.
>
Here is the "WHAT_AM_I" file for the "APS" package that I have used in the past
to drive an old HP LJIII from FreeBSD v1.1.5.1 :
------------------------------------------------------------
A P S F I L T E R V 4.8 - "The name of the game"
------------------------------------------------------------
copyright Andreas Klemm 1993, 1994
andreas@knobel.gun.de
Sun Sep 25 15:56:08 MET 1994
---------------------------------------
co-author Thomas Bueschgens
sledge@hammer.oche.de
---------------------------
WHAT IS APSFILTER
=================
APSFILTER is a lineprinter input filter for systems with a BSD alike
printing mechanism (lpd, /etc/printcap), that saves users a lot of work
when printing different file types no matter if compressed or not !!!
Additionally it enables non Postscript printers, that are supported
by the public domain postscript emulator "ghostscript" (gs), to
print postscript files !
With the new apsfilter Version 3.0 it's now possible to print
*compacted* documents directly without unpacking !!!
The wanted packers/unpackers have to be already installed on your system.
o Supported packers:
GZIP, PACK, COMPRESS, FREEZE/MELT
o Supported file types:
Postscript
TeX DVI
Ascii
Data (PCL,...)
GIFF
TIFF
Sun Rasterfiles
FIG
PNM (pbmplus)
GENERAL FEATURES
================
- support for monochrome and color PS and non_PS printers
- customizeable by a system wide and a personal apsfilterrc file
( /etc/apsfilterrc and $HOME/.apsfilterrc ). This file is now
well documented and so selfexplanatory ;-)
- .apsfilterrc file lets you determine another dvi-file print program.
- you can print compressed files without unpacking them first !
- apsfilter comes with the installation script SETUP, that
does nearly _everything_ for you !
- SETUP creates spool directories as needed and with sane permissions
- SETUP compiles and installs the add on utilities a2ps and rewindstdin
- SETUP creates printcap entries, no matter if you have a
serial or a parallel printer.
- SETUP creates all symbolic links for you that are needed
to switch on or off certain filter features (color, monochrome,
skip filetype autorecognition, force filter to treat german
text as ascii text)
- SETUP guides you more or less (;-) through the step, which
of gs's printer driver to use ...
Note: it's up to you to have a gs binary, which has all
drivers you need compiled in !!!!
- SETUP allows you to install apsfilter for use with
real postscript Printers ! So apsfilters interesting features
remain no matter if you use gs or not !
- apsfilter knows about the following print METHODS:
- 'auto': determine file type automatically
- 'ascii': treat file as an ascii file even if it
seems to be a data file (german texts
with ``Umlauten'')
- 'raw': print ascii files directly to the printer
without postprocessing (using a2ps and gs)
for fast listings !
- apsfilter knows about the following a2ps FEATURES.
These are options user-customizeable by a $HOME/.apsfilterrc
file ! A template file can be copied from
$APS_BASEDIR/template/apsfilterrc to $HOME/.apsfilterrc.
- 1: print 1 page on one sheet with header
- 1n: print 1 page on one sheet without header
- 2: print 2 pages on one sheet with header
- 2n: print 2 pages on one sheet without header
- modified a2ps ! The page header now contains Filename and
the username !!!
- supports dvips' feature to include postscript files into
TeX/DVI Documents (i.e. X11 screenshots using xgrab or
xfig images !!! The TEXINPUTS variable has to contain
the paths, where such PS pictures reside. We use
xgrab 2.3 to produce such nices pictures from within the
X11 desktop.
- No searchdatabase - updated via cron - anymore. Each user
may modify his TEXINPUTS path in his own $HOME/.apsfilterrc
file !
- apsfilter doesn't use tmp file. That saves space.
Only one exception ... compressed dvi files printed via
dvips.
Add on software that comes with apsfilter 3.0
=============================================
Be sure to compile the two utilities in the src tree (a2ps and
rewindstdin).
Without these utilities you cannot use apsfilter.
enhanced A2PS
=============
All filters after aps-20 use a2ps to print ascii files. I patched a2ps
so you can select paperformat, print margins, filename and username on the
commandline instead of compiling it in.
I mailed the diffs to the author of the package, but still received no answer.
Therefore alls apsfilter releases above aps-22 come with the patched source
ready for compiling it. The diffs are also included.
CHARACTER SETS, GERMAN "Umlaute"
================================
Using a2ps' -8 option enables the printing of the ISO Latin Characterset.
So it's no problem to print special characters ;-)
(2) Here we'll put only final releases
ftp server : ftp.Germany.EU.net
directory : pub/os/Linux/Local.EUnet/People/akl
directory : pub/os/Linux/Incoming.EUnet
| John Lucas jlucas@uvi.edu |
| Academic Computing NIC Handle: JL423 |
| University of the Virgin Islands (809) 693-1216 |
| St. Thomas, VI 00802 http://www.uvi.edu/jlucas.html |