Printing : Kernel 2.2.17 problems ?
There seems to ba a major problem with lpr output for
those who have recently upgraded to Kernel 2.2.17 and
using lprng 3.6.12-6. I am still on "Slink" and with-
holding upgrade till these issues are resolved.
Ever since the release of Debian-2.2 as stable last
month, there have been numerous postings on this list
on this issue. Most of the people have been able to
obtain raw output to /dev/lpN but the lpd daemon for
some reason failed to deliver the desired output. One
posting about 10 days ago also stated stoppage of lpr
services on a running system ! There were no takers
for that specific post.
I have had problems with lpr on various distros over
the last 4+ years, and have evolved a checklist to
get this job going. The checklist has never failed so
far on any distro. I was in personal correspondence
with few of the people who posted such queries to our
list, with the idea of helping fellow debianians out,
based on my experience. But this one has really got
me bowled!
An exerpt of correspondence wit Stephan Kulka
<e9626471@student.tuwien.ac.at>
>> It appears that there is one BIG problem with
>> "lprng". It is impossible for "checkpc" to give
>> you .."cannot open /dev/lp1", when your device
>> is polled to /dev/lp0 UNLESS there is some con-
>> flict within "lprng" itself. As you know, lprng
>> uses tcp/ip!
>>
>> Please re-confirm :
>>
>> a) checkpc reports /dev/lp1 while you are being
>> polled to /dev/lp0 by tunelp.
>
> I can reconfirm all of that, even dmesg shows me
> that lp0 is polled.
>
>> b) the version of "lprng" you are using.
>
> dselect tells me that it is the version 3.6.12-6.
>From above it is evident, that there is some major
problem between the polled device and the device
the lpd daemon is addressing.
I would have definitely mailed the maintainer of
"lprng" by now, if it was not for the subsequent
bit Stephan added:
> Perhaps an interesting point:I did not know that
> there is another printing tool except lpr. So, I
> installed lpr first, and I had the problem with
> the daemon (you remember), but after you explain-
> ed to me to use checkpc I installed lprng and
> deinstalled lpr.
So obviously, the problem remains same whether lpr
or lprng is used. The problem therefore appears to
be kernel related (i.e. specific for 2.2.17).
Before I knock the doors of our kernel maintainers
and/or kernel.org, I just need a confirmation from
people on this list using kernel 2.2.17 and lprng
or lpr if they have faced similar problems. Please
confirm version of lpr/ lprng as well .. (Personal
mails welcome).
Are there chances of tcp/ip conflicts or conflicts
with other software (excluding plip) ?
USM Bish
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