Printing Issue

sidney · Feb 13, 2021

Using lpd/lpr. Prints OK but a dollar sign gets printed for all newlines. Easy fix? Thx.

ralphbsz · Feb 13, 2021

First question: Tell us more about your setup. What kind of printer, what print filters set up in printcap. I assume you're using only lpd, not CUPS? If your /etc/printcap file is short, just post the whole thing.

Are the $ signs instead, or in addition? So if your input file is

Code:

aaa
bbb
ccc

Is the output one line "aaa$bbb$ccc$" or three lines:

Code:

aaa$
bbb$
ccc$

sidney · Feb 13, 2021

HP. OfficeJet6500
LF -> CRLF filter only in printcap
Got CUPS installed and set up last night but NO JOY.

typical printer output:
aaa$
$
bbb$
$
ccc$
I’m on an iPhone so can’t cut-n-paste printcap, but it’s simple and works. if points to filter mentioned above

sidney · Feb 13, 2021

ralphbsz said:
First question: Tell us more about your setup. What kind of printer, what print filters set up in printcap. I assume you're using only lpd, not CUPS? If your /etc/printcap file is short, just post the whole thing.

Are the $ signs instead, or in addition? So if your input file is

Code:

aaa bbb ccc

Is the output one line "aaa$bbb$ccc$" or three lines:

Code:

aaa$ bbb$ ccc$

Code:

lp|HP6500:\
       :lp=9100@HP89A7AB:\
       :sh:\
       :mx#0:\
       :sd=/var/spool/lpd/lp:\
       :if=/usr/local/libexec/lf2crlf:\
       :lf=/var/log/lpd-errors:

sidney · Feb 13, 2021

sidney said:
Using lpd/lpr. Prints OK but a dollar sign gets printed for all newlines. Easy fix? Thx.

Solved! Used another lf->crlf filter. Printed swell from emacs.

sidney · Mar 13, 2021

Had my printer working just fine UNTIL I installed that #%€£\¥@& CUPS! Now, when I try to print, the printer loads paper, feeds, goes through the motions of printing, but the ejected page is blank. The printer works fine from my iPhone! Ideas please!! TIA

shepper · Mar 13, 2021

It is probably dying at the print filter that comes with the ppd you selected. According to the OpenPrinting Data base, it works fine with hplip. You might be able to save some bloat by trying the print/hpijs driver: https://bugs.launchpad.net/hplip/+bug/1096418

sidney · Mar 13, 2021

shepper said:
It is probably dying at the print filter that comes with the ppd you selected. According to the OpenPrinting Data base, it works fine with hplip. You might be able to save some bloat by trying the print/hpijs driver: https://bugs.launchpad.net/hplip/+bug/1096418

Installed hplip earlier today. No diff it seems. Should I uninstall hplip and then install hpijs?

shepper · Mar 13, 2021

sidney said:
Installed hplip earlier today. No diff it seems. Should I uninstall hplip and then install hpijs?

I think there is some overlap between the two packages but I did not go through the file lists in detail. So I would remove hplip + dependencies prior to installing hpijs.

sidney · Mar 13, 2021

shepper said:
I think there is some overlap between the two packages but I did not go through the file lists in detail. So I would remove hplip + dependencies prior to installing hpijs.

I’ll tell you something that’ll blow your socks off! I have bsd-ish Slackware installed on a 2nd HDD which I dual-boot usi GRUB2. CUPS comes pre-installed. I installed the very same printer using CUPS’s web interface. Worked like a champ right from the start. ZERO bullshine! GO SLACKWARE!! ?

dave01 · Mar 13, 2021

sidney said:
I’ll tell you something that’ll blow your socks off! I have bsd-ish Slackware installed on a 2nd HDD which I dual-boot usi GRUB2. CUPS comes pre-installed. I installed the very same printer using CUPS’s web interface. Worked like a champ right from the start. ZERO bullshine! GO SLACKWARE!! ?

Sounds like your problem with FreeBSD is because you set up the printer and got it working before you installed CUPS. Now you have two printing subsystems set up which are conflicting with each other. As Shepper said, most likely it's a problem with the print filters.

shepper · Mar 14, 2021

There is an unofficial FreeBSD Cups Guide. If your using a networked printer, I don't think you will need the /etc/devfs.rules described in the guide.
It looks like you were using the JetDirect port in lpr. I'd ping test your FreeBSD network setup and would lean toward manually setting the AppSocket/JetDirct option in FreeBSD which would rule out any avahi/network discovery issues. The AppSocket/JetDirect security issues are mote if you're using a NIC.

sidney · Mar 14, 2021

dave01 said:
Sounds like your problem with FreeBSD is because you set up the printer and got it working before you installed CUPS. Now you have two printing subsystems set up which are conflicting with each other. As Shepper said, most likely it's a problem with the print filters.

Probably so! It seems odd to me that given that so much useful software opt to have CUPS as a dependency, why Freebsd doesn’t install CUPS automatically. AND tell new users so! That would save so much frustration IMHO. Thx for your inp.

sidney · Mar 14, 2021

shepper said:
There is an unofficial FreeBSD Cups Guide. If your using a networked printer, I don't think you will need the /etc/devfs.rules described in the guide.
It looks like you were using the JetDirect port in lpr. I'd ping test your FreeBSD network setup and would lean toward manually setting the AppSocket/JetDirct option in FreeBSD which would rule out any avahi/network discovery issues. The AppSocket/JetDirect security issues are mote if you're using a NIC.

Thanks for the URL. I’ll study it carefully. ?