Re: Debian pppc 7300 & LaserWriter 4/600
On Sat, Oct 19, 2002 at 06:58:51PM +0200, Matteo Bertolini wrote:
> Mmaybe it is a FAQ. Is there anybody using this laser printer with
> Woody? Any url or link to docs?
>
> Thanks,
> Matteo
See Apple's "Developer Note" for your printer, available as a PDF file
at http://developer.apple.com in the directory
/techpubs/hardware/Developer_Notes/Printers.
I just took a quick look at that file. My impression is that your
printer has only a LocalTalk port (no serial, no parallel, no
ethernet), and that the printer only understands AppleTalk. (Some
earlier LaserWriters had LocalTalk ports that could be used as serial
ports. Then Apple stopped doing this, probably because mixed-up
attempts to use serial protocols on AppleTalk networks would bring
down the networks!) If this is true, then you are in trouble, because
there is no current support for AppleTalk over LocalTalk -- the
netatalk suite only works over ethernet. You should closely examine
the Developer Note and your printer to see whether I've got it wrong.
My impression is that getting netatalk to work over a serial/LocalTalk
cable would not be gruesomely hard, but is it worth it? So far no one
has thought so, but you might. A natural approach would be
imitating the way slattach sets up SLIP over a serial line. Also see
the second edition of "Linux Device Drivers", available online at
O'Reilly.
If you would rather spend some money than get your hands dirty with
AppleTalk, look for reports of people adding ethernet to LaserWriters
using some kind of "bridge" from Asante. I seem to remember that some
people added ethernet to the model I have (LaserWriter Select 360),
but I've got it working nicely with serial at 57600 baud. This is a
lot slower than ethernet, but does not seem like a severe bottleneck
because the printer itself only runs at 15 MHz.
--
John (MacPhail)
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