Re: Problem with ghostscript in Woody 3.0 r0

[Chris Lale <ctlale@netscape.net>]

> On Thu, 08 Aug 2002 22:32:03 +0100 Chris Lale <ctlale@netscape.net> 
wrote:
>> I have just installed Woody 3.0 r0. Ghostscript sends raw PostScript
>>  to my Canon BJC-4200 inkjet printer, instead of an image of the
>> source. ... I have a test file containing one word of text,
>> produced on Abiword and printed to file as gstest.ps. I sent it
>> to the printer via ghostscript using the following command from a
>>  terminal window:
>>> gs -sDEVICE=bjc600 -sOutputFile=|lpr /home/chris/gstest.ps
>
> 1) You should escape the pipe symbol, thus: -sOutputFile=\|lpr
> otherwise the shell will get in the way.


Thanks! The line
	gs -sDEVICE=bjc600 -sOutputFile=\|lpr /home/chris/gstest.ps
prints the one word in the file correctly.


> 2) Since gs is piping the output through lpr, maybe you should also post
>  here the contents of your /etc/printcap file, maybe there's a problem
>  there (actually, this is a bit strange, lpr should call gs, not
> the other way around).


a. You are right! lpr does not seem to be calling gs. Unfortunately,
invoking lpr directly (in Woody 3.0) churns out PostScript code on the 
printer. However, lpr DOES work correctly on my Potato 2.2 system:

	lpr /home/chris/gstest.ps

prints PostScript code in Woody, but the correct one word in Potato. I
even tried a fresh install of Woody (base system only), then installed
gs using apt-get. (apt-get also installed these dependencies: defoma,
dialog, gs-common, gs-fonts, libfreetype6, libgimpprint1, libpoperg,
xfree86-common, xlibs.) Even after invoking lpd restart and re-booting,
the printer still churned out PS code.


b. I tried invoking gs directly from Woody (Woody comes with gs v6.53):

	gs -sDEVICE=bjc600 /home/chris/gstest.ps

produced an error message beginning with

	Error:/invalidfileaccess in --.outputpage--

Does this mean that gs cannot access lpr at this point? - because 
specifying an output by piping to lpr (as already mentioned):

	gs -sDEVICE=bjc600 -sOutputFile=\|lpr /home/chris/gstest.ps

printed correctly on exiting ghostscript:

	>>showpage, press <return> to continue<<
	GS>
	GS>quit
	(page now prints on printer)


c. Here is a copy of my /etc/printcap file:

# /etc/printcap: printer capability database. See printcap(5).
# You can use the filter entries df, tf, cf, gf etc. for
# your own filters. See /etc/filter.ps, /etc/filter.pcl and
# the printcap(5) manual page for further details.

lp|Generic dot-matrix printer entry:\
        :lp=/dev/lp0:\
        :sd=/var/spool/lpd/lp:\
        :af=/var/log/lp-acct:\
        :lf=/var/log/lp-errs:\
        :pl#66:\
        :pw#80:\
        :pc#150:\
        :mx#0:\
        :sh:

# rlp|Remote printer entry:\
#         :lp=:\
#         :rm=remotehost:\
#         :rp=remoteprinter:\
#         :sd=/var/spool/lpd/remote:\
#         :mx#0:\
#         :sh:

Is the switch -sDEVICE=bjc600 failing to override the lp|Generic 
dot-matrix printer entry?


d. I downloaded the source code from sourceforge and built gs version
7.05, but this had the same problems so I don't think that the problem
lies with gs itself. I suppose I could try downgrading gs using my
Potato CDs, but I don't see that this stands much chance of success.


e. Do you think that there might be a problem with file locations and
paths in the Woody install? How could I check?


Any suggestions welcome.
---
Chris.