Puppy421 using printer on Windows XP [SOLVED]

[Kenny-M]

I am trying to setup Puppy-4.2.1 to print to a printer attached to a Windows XP machine.

Puppy has CUPS 1.3.10 loaded.

The printer is an HP PSC-1310 and is connected to the XP machine on a USB port. Windows can print fine.

I have had no success. The print job stays in the Puppy queue.

The queue name on the XP machine is called psc1310.

If someone who has printed from Puppy to XP could provide instruction
I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks.

[8-bit]

When you say the print job stays in the Puppy queue, I assume you have opened the CUPS web interface to check that.
After clicking on JOBS, did you also click on Printers and see if there were any errors given.
That is where they would appear.
It sounds like you have the addressing wrong for accessing the printer.
BUT....
I had problems with printing from Puppy to XP and found it was not Puppy's fault or my settings on Puppy.
It turned out to be the firewall settings on XP were not allowing the printing.
So be sure to check the Windows firewall settings.

[Kenny-M]

8-bit,

Yes the XP machine is running McAfee protection which does work well.

Any idea what ports I should open? I saw no entries in McAfee logs?

I'm thinking I should start from scratch again. Setup XP and Puppy again.

Any steps/procedures you could share would be appreciated.

[mikeb]

As it stands the only access to the printer will be via samba/windows file sharing...check up in HOW TOO section as this is a common request but I've never done it this way as I have puppy share the printer.

mike

[barriew]

How are you addressing the printer in the CUPS set-up? By the name of the XP machine? If so, try using its IP address. If this works, you can go back to using its name if you edit the hosts file to add the XP machine name and IP address.

This worked for me. If you need more specific information I will try to write a more detailed description.

Barrie

[Kenny-M]

barriew,

The print job leaves puppy but gets stuck in the XP machines print queue.

Sometimes the printer will load the print heads as if to print but then simply stop.

The XP machines print queue shows the job and the only way to clear them out is to stop and start net stop spooler and net start "TCP/IP Print Server".

Puppy is setup as smb://<ip of XP machine>/psc1310

Where psc1310 is the queue name on XP.

I read somewhere about raw mode but I can't seem to find that. I don't know if this will effect the XP queue emptying or not.

The printer works fine when printing from within XP.

[barriew]

Kenny-M

That looks like my set-up, except that I use the XP printer's 'share' name, not the print queue - or is that what you mean by the queue name?

I assume that you were able to find the correct PPD file for you printer. Mine is a Canon.

Barrie

[Patriot]

Hmmm .....

HP PSC-1310 uses LIDIL printer language supported using hpijs/hplip. If it hasn't been done, I would suggest hooking up the printer to puppy and make a simple test print to verify that cups+hplip/hpijs is working.

I have in the past used 3 different methods of printing to NT/XP based machines :
1. SMB shares
2. Unix print services
3. IIS IPP server

Of the three above, smb shares and unix printing services are generally available even on XP Home machines. IIS IPP is generally not available so it will not be touched here.

For smb shares:
Do differentiate between printer queue and printer share. Use a meaningful name for your printer queue during printer setup but use a short single word share name, ex: printer queue = HP PSC 1310 All-In-One; printer share = PSC1310.

Example smb uri based on XP shared levels (simple/user):
smb://192.168.1.100/PSC1310
smb://guest@192.168.1.100/PSC1310
smb://username:password@192.168.1.100/PSC1310

More info on dealing with smb printer shares can be found here.

Additional note: I'm seeing stable results with copying smb to /usr/lib/cups/backend and followed by 'chmod 0700 smb' ...


For Unix print services:
1. Get your XP CD (or your setup files) ready.
2. Control Panel -> Add New Programs -> Add Remove Windows Components -> Other Network File and Printer Services (click Details)
3. Install Print Services for Unix
4. Printer setup needs to be done twice. First for windows printing (doesn't have to be shared) then second for unix printing (shared for lpr port).
5. In CUPS setup page, the uri will look like this: lpd://192.168.1.100/PSC1310

When using either one of the above, you must have a working driver installed on puppy as all printer data conversion is done on the (puppy) host and the final processed data will be sent as-is to the windows shared printer.


Rgds

[Kenny-M]

Yes, by queue name I mean share name.

I downloaded the ones I could find:
hpilj-2.8.2-static-1-patched421.pet and
foo2zjs-i486.pet

CUPS shows the correct printer HP PSC-1310

But, the jobs are still hanging in XP's queue "HP PSC1310 Series"

In the XP print queue you see:

Document Name Status Owner Pages Size Submitted Port
Remote Downlevel Document Printing Guest N/A 64KB/4.5MB 9:40:44AM 8/31/2009 USB001

The print jobs seem to get to the XP but never have any "pages". The example above showed 64K of 4.5MB and Pages N/A?

Also, I don't understand The Document Name of "Remote Downlevel Document".

[Patriot]

Hmmm .....

I just noticed this ...

The XP machines print queue shows the job and the only way to clear them out is to stop and start net stop spooler and net start "TCP/IP Print Server".

That would mean you already have "Print Services for Unix" installed. Another way that also works with this enabled is ex: "lpd://192.168.1.100/PSC1310" and this should properly enumerate the document name ... If you also want user name enumerated then it's ex: "lpd://guest@192.168.1.100/PSC1310" ... Also check the printer ports and confirm that "bidirectional port" is disabled ...

Using smb does give "Remote Downlevel Document" at times and I've no idea of the actual cause (yet).

Added: Ah yes ... this kb explained the RDD above ... so, cups doesn't provide a document name when printing ...

..... foo2zjs-i486.pet .....

The PSC1310 does not use this driver. Using this may send the wrong firmware to the printer.


I've just made several printing simulation to a XP based machine with smb and lpd uri from puppy (cups 1.3.10) and they're printing perfectly ... Beyond this, I'm unable to suggest any further as I have no idea how's your XP machine is configured ...


Rgds

[Kenny-M]

Patriot,

Well the problem appeared to be the XP machine had the printer setup to do bi-directional printing. Turning that off allowed Puppy to print to the XP HP PSC-1310 printer.

That begs the question since the PSC-1310 is a multifunction Printer/Scanner/Copier what do I loose by turning off bi-directional printing? Or, the better question might be what does it do turned on.

I ended up using smb://192.xxx.xxx.xx/PSC1310

Thanks alot for your help!! I was pulling my hair out.

P.S. If I recall when testing 4.3.1 CUPS did not have the HP PSC-1310 and adding pet hpilj-2.8.2-static-1-patched421.pet did not help. Hopefully there will be a hpilj for 4.3.1.

[mikeb]

what do I loose by turning off bi-directional printing

if my brain is working things like ink level monitoring or its to do with acknowledging that each page has been processed and windows codes don't play nice with linux...I vaguely remember having to do something similar

mike

[Kenny-M]

Mikeb,

Well if that's all it is "ink level monitoring" I'll leave it off since the thing complains about ink level when there is pleanty left and I generally wait for the output to look poor then change the ink cartridge.

Those ink cartridges aren't cheap.

P.S. Trying to look through the HOW TOO section turned up lots and lots of unrelated threads. I tried doing a search "smb AND printing". Not sure I am using that 'AND' thing in search.

Thanks

[Patriot]

Hmmm .....

..... windows codes don't play nice with linux...

Well, I'll sure try to whack 'em into playing nicely (with enough motivation) ...

@Kenny
Bi-directional printing simply (as simple as possible) means that data is sent-and-received simultaneously. Uni-directional printing simply means that (printing) data is sent to printer and when the line is clear, the printer reports back to the host of the result ..... Just a tad slower in that sense ...

IIRC, this was a "huge" thing using EPP/ECP ports back then and printing to laserjets was noticeably faster with these (nostalgic memories ... hmmm) ... Those EPP/ECP cables was thick+shielded and cost almost 3 times more than normal ones (back then) ...

Nowadays, most printers normally uses usb interface and even without bi-directional printing enabled, they are still very much faster than parallel interfaces ... and yes, printer status stuffs should still work (from the hp, epson, canon printers I've encountered so far). Just that it only works on the host machine (in this case the XP box). So, let's have a nice cup of coffee now ....

And if this issue is solved, kindly change the title to [Solved] ...


Rgds

[mikeb]

Patriot has the brain........

[Kenny-M]

This issue is resolved thanks to Patriot.

Brains? I used to have some then as I get older I have a harder time finding them...

[8-bit]

Hmmm .....




Bi-directional printing simply (as simple as possible) means that data is sent-and-received simultaneously. Uni-directional printing simply means that (printing) data is sent to printer and when the line is clear, the printer reports back to the host of the result ..... Just a tad slower in that sense ...

Being an old dotmatrix user, it always was my understanding in the dos days that bi-directional printing meant that data when sent to the printer would be processed to the extent that the printer would print with the printhead in both directions. Forward and return.
When Windows came out, all output to the printer was handled with the printhead only printing in one direction.

So in effect, one looses half the print speed.

[Kenny-M]

8-Bit,

The printers ability to print in both directions is different. I had an old OKIdata 132 column dox matrix printer that could print forwards and backwards. In older printers before ECP & EPP data could be only be sent from the PC to the printer. This meant no information about the status of the print job could be transmitted to the user. Bidirectional printing allowed the printer to convey messages to the PC, which made it easier for the user to track print progress, and be informed about the status of various parameters of the printer-ink level, for example.

Of course with the advent of USB things have changed. Simpler?

See Patriots comments.

[SOLVED] [CLOSED]

[nobody]

.....
For Unix print services:
1. Get your XP CD (or your setup files) ready.
2. Control Panel -> Add New Programs -> Add Remove Windows Components -> Other Network File and Printer Services (click Details)
3. Install Print Services for Unix
...Rgds

I signed up just to thank you for solving my very frustrating, but, in retrospect, very basic, difficulty printing from a Ubuntu laptop to a Win server on an HP psc 1310 printer. Installing print services for Unix cleared it all up. Thanks!

[nobody]

Disabling bidirectional support was also necessary (didn't want to leave that out). Thanks, again, Patriot.