[SOLVED] Installing a Dot Matrix printer - does not print.

[andrew-lohmann]

After installing a dot matrix printer and seeing a test page print successfully the printer will not print. The print job remains pending.

EPSON LX-800 using the PC parrallel port.
9 pin, A4 paper, I generally use set to Near Letter Quality 240x144 DPI (or 240x72 or 240x216 would be satisfactory).

OS; Mageia 3, KDE, 64 bit. But the problem is the same with Gnome and LDRE (all three are installed)

There are five or six printer drivers avaliable in the Mageia data base either Epson or generic which similarly test fine but don't print subsequently. The default printer is enabled.

[andrew-lohmann]

Further to my post above.

The print job reports Pending.
1) When I check Control Centre - Hardware - Printer; The printer is not Enabled.
2) I Enable the printer from the Tool bar and the specific printer Propertites - policies
3) A dialogue box apears saying printer error. When Diagonosed the problem is that the printer is not enabled.
I am back at step (1) again.

[wintpe]

Andrew

its been years since i did serial printing and that was before the likes of cups.

I feel that its not right that no one has responded, but can understand why, when you are using a

printer from a museum.

I had the LX-1000, the 18 pin version of that printer (i think it was LX or LQ) in 1990, and that was second hand and ageing then.

but, more importantly this printer should not need cups to work.

all you need is lpr lpd and lpadmin to set it up.

found this on someones page on google

this goes in the file /etc/printcap

Code: Select all

lp|epson|EPSON LX-800:\
        :lp=/dev/lp1:sd=/usr/spool/lpd/epson:\
        :of=/usr/lib/lp-filter/lpf-epson:\
        :sh:mx#0:pl#70:pw#80:


the only bit im not sure of today is the of= ie the output filter

that may not work, or exist in todays linux

change the lp=/dev/lp1 to whatever device you are using (lp1 is fine for parallel or /dev/tty0a or whatever the serial port is.

lpc stat should tell you what its status is.

lpr /etc/hosts should send a print to it.

etc

one thing to note about that of=

you can replace that with a script

that script could simply be

cat - > /tmp/xxxxxx

in other word cat standard in and redirect to a file

prints sent to this printer should end up in /tmp/xxxxxx

then you know your prints are getting this far.

at that point you can try cat /tmp/xxxxxx > /dev/lp1

if that dont work, then maybe the problem is with lp1

anyways understanding printcap and what you can do, makes making progress diagnosing printing problems

a little less like painting the back room through the letter box

hope that helps.

regards peter

[andrew-lohmann]

Thanks Peter,

I shall have to delve into things that I have not looked at before in linux.

The printer works on other Linux Distributions such as openSUSE and Linux Mint that I have experimented with since posting. But the driver offered by those were different called ESC/P... Set to; 240x216

[wintpe]

yes esc/p is a epson printer universal language

like pcl5 is to HP printers (but without all the graphics).

printers like 9 pin dot matrix usually have much lower working threshold

what does the printcap entry look like with the current setup.

might just need a tweak.

regards peter

[andrew-lohmann]

I switched to Linux Mint but have come back to Mageia and found some updates were ready including some for the printer. The printer when deleted and added again works. I am not sure about the driver; eps9mid worked properly once and eps9high has worked twice.

Thanks for your help.

[isadora]

Pleaase andrew-lohmann don't forget marking the topic solved.

Do so by editing the title/subject in the first message.
Write [SOLVED] left from this title, thanks ahead!