usb printer testing
I understand that a command such as 'lptest 20 10 > /dev/lp1' (or lp0) will
print a test page to a parallel port printer assuming the device file
properly links to the printer. I have a usb printer instead (as well as a
kernel that supports it, and the device file '/dev/usb/lp0' with the, i
think, correct major and minor numbers 180, and 0). I know I need to install
drivers for the printer, but are the drivers nessicary for a simple test like
'lptest 20 10 > /dev/usb/lp0'? I don't get any error messages from this
command, but the printer doesn't do anything.
I think i'm a little confused about the usb filesystem as well. I mean,
typically to access a device you mount a device file such as /dev/fd0. But to
mount the usb filesystem you mount 'usbdevfs'. Why is that?
Anyway, back to the point: I know there are programs such as printtool that
will automatically configure the printservices, but I would prefer to do
without them. So a simple "yes, you need this driver to execute that command"
(which i think is unlikely because according to linux-usb.org the driver is
in the kernel) or "no, here's the problem:" would be good for now (in
addition to some explanation of why a seperate usbdevfs was created).
thanks
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