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[Sindi Keesan <keesan AT iamjlamb.com>]

insmod parport
insmod parport_pc
insmod lp    (otherwise I get /dev/lp0:  No such device)

cat mesg.txt > /dev/lp0

Or use wp to try to print text.

Linux accepts the command but does nothing.  What does this indicate?
Probably that I am doing something dumb, but I made sure to have the 
printer turned on and plugged in, and lp loaded, as suggested in other 
lists.

The printer (Panasonic, same model worked on another linux computer and 
works now in DOS, on lp0 = lpt1).

I also tried using ghostscript, command-line with a script to use a 
printer filter (full path of filter given in the script).  Same result.
No error message, just nothing but cursor moving to the beginning of the 
next line and blinking.  Ctrl-C to exit.  

This computer has two parallel ports - lp0 is in the MDA card and it is 
recognized when I look at dmesg:  parport0: PC-style at 0x378 [SPP]
The second port is not recognized (I think I disabled it in CMOS but I 
should check anyway).  Do I need to specify IRQ 7 somewhere as for plip?
I can't find my BL2 notes on this.

I had to specify 0x378 when loading parport_pc or the MDA screen would get 
scrambled when parport_pc probed for addresses.  
-------------------------
I suppose I should try this again in the computer with only one parallel
port.  This computer, in linux, also has no scroll buffer.  Shift-PgUp
(which I assigned to Scroll_Backwards with loadkeys) or Shift-PageUp do
nothing - they are supposed to show you the previous page.  Similarly for
Scroll_Forwards.  I tried four different keyboards all of which work on
two other linux computers set up with a clone of the same software.  The
DOS Kermit scroll buffer works.  This linux scroll buffer is also normally 
usable in X but I did not bother testing there, or with BL3 (yet).

No other known problems with this computer except for the MDA card 
requiring that extra string when doing insmod parport_pc.  I could try a 
different MDA card.  

Can other BL2 or BL3 users scroll backwards a page with Shift-PageUp?
It works for me on all other computers I tested with BL2 (at least four) 
and is not the keyboard (I tried 84 and 104 key keyboards).  Shift-PgUp 
does not normally scroll so don't try that.  
--------------------------
I would really like to get linux printing with ghostscript since I am 
having trouble with a DOS pdf print job that prints every other page 
shifted 1.5" to the right, or even more than that, which not only wastes a 
lot of black ink printing a dark stripe on the left but cuts off 1.5" of 
text on the right.  It also used up my inkjet cartridge.  But I have the
same version of gs (5.10) in DOS and linux at present.  I suspect there is 
something odd about this pdf file which gs does not like.

I can view the whole page onscreen with gs or bmv (ps reader for linux), 
and since I can scroll with bmv, I was hoping I could somehow scroll right 
and then print the correct part of a page.  Or print with xpdf.  

pdftoimage gives me a bunch of error messages so I can't convert to image
and print that.  Usually it works but maybe it cannot handle pdf that is
nothing but scanned images. pdftops worked at least.  And this is not a
pdf 1.5 file so gs 5.10 also works on it.

I may try printing in DOS with psview, which I think lets you scroll and
print parts of pages.  I have been trying to translate from the screen and
it is hard on the eyes due to poor copy which for some reason prints a bit
better on paper.  bmv only goes to 1280 but xpdf at 1600 looks no better
and takes about 30 sec per page to display or scroll.  P300 cpu.

Any ideas would be appreciated.  I would HATE to have to use Windows 
(assuming ghostscript works right there after I download it for 2 hours).
I am supposed to get this stuff translated within a few days.  Maybe the 
local university library has the journal.  Maybe ps would print out better 
than pdf?  Got to refill the cartridge first to find out.  Or print 
dot-matrix.

Thanks for any help.

Sindi