Baslinux mailing list

[Sindi Keesan <keesan AT iamjlamb.com>]

Disabling lp1 onboard (it was set to the same address and IRQ as the MDA 
card's parport) made one difference:  When I typed
cat filename.txt > /dev/lp0
it did not just move to the next line (blank) but also gave me
a new prompt.  Nothing printed.

I will see if I have an MDA card with no parport, or one that I can 
disable easily.

I still cannot print my pdf files without them being shifted over.  I 
tried in DOS with gs 5.10 on both pdf and ps files, and with deskjet 500 
and Panasonic dot-matrix printers.  Can't figure out how to print with 
psview on the Panasonic.  Or how to convert a pdf or ps file to a straight 
image - is there a way?  pdfimages could not handle this, error messages.

I can read the files with a text editor and there is one section (after 
all the junk about fonts and colors) where the image appears as a string 
of characters.  Can this be converted (easily) to a plain tiff?  Or even 
gif or png?  What format does pdf use?  

I can't print with xpdf because I can't run Xvesa as 'user' - what do I 
need to do for that?

I will try gs 8.14 in Win98 if I get tired of reading tiny text on the 
screen with bmv (.ps reader).  

I bet the rest of you are loafing this weekend instead of working like us 
self-employed people.  

Is there some way to print with xpdf from the command line (not having to 
load X first)?  Does BL3 Xvesa work for 'user' not just root?

On Sat, 14 Aug 2004, Sindi Keesan wrote:

> Linux prints text (cat filename.txt > /dev/lp0) on a different computer
> with only one parallel port and no MDA card, and the same software as
> here.  Is there something I should be doing differently on a computer with
> two parports?  I did not need to specify IRQ 7 or anything different.  
> Perhaps I should have one DOS and one linux computer since all the DOS
> stuff works on here.  We had both parports working with DOS and Windows.  
> I will make sure lp1 is disabled onboard and try again here.
> 
> 
> On Sat, 14 Aug 2004, Sindi Keesan wrote:
> 
> > 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
> > 
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> > 
> 
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