HP LaserJet 5 driver is missing xxd and mpage in Puppy 1.0.8

Please post any bugs you have found
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jeffrey
Posts: 168
Joined: Mon 16 Jan 2006, 04:20
Location: Christchurch, New Zealand

HP LaserJet 5 driver is missing xxd and mpage in Puppy 1.0.8

#1 Post by jeffrey »

I tried to install a network printer conected to a Windows 98 machine using Samba, but had problems. First I used LinNeighborhood to connect to the Windows machine (although I'm no longer sure if that step is necessary). Then I needed to add a samba interface script to /etc/pdq/interfaces, eg /etc/pdq/interface/samba-1.0

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interface samba {

   help "Use this interface if your printer is connected
         to a Samba server"

   requires "smbclient"  # This is part of the Samba system.


   required_args "WHICH_PRINTER"

   argument { 
      var = "WHICH_PRINTER"
      desc = "Samba printer name"
      help = "This is the Samba name of the printer, eg
              //computer/printer"
   }

   send_exec { /usr/sbin/smbclient -N "$WHICH_PRINTER" -c "print -" < $INPUT }
 
}
The above code is based on the posting http://www.murga.org/%7Epuppy/viewtopic ... ight=samba
Then I found that this would fail to connect because Samba seems to add a trailing space to the computer name, but I resolved this by adding the computer name and IP address to /etc/hosts.
Finally I struggled with the LJ5 driver file, /etc/pdq/drivers/misc/hp-laserjet-5-0.9, which contains lines indicating that the programs xxd and mpage are required, but these are missing from the Puppy distribution.
A workaround is to mimic their existence by linking bogus copies of them to something tame, such as /bin/true, ie

Code: Select all

ln -s /bin/true /usr/local/bin/xxd 
ln -s /bin/true /usr/local/bin/mpage
I recommend:
1. That the samba interface file be included in the distribution,
2. That smbclient be fixed so that the host file entry is not required, and
3. That xxd and mpage be included in the Puppy distribution.
Another useful post is http://www.murga.org/%7Epuppy/viewtopic ... ight=samba

raffy
Posts: 4798
Joined: Wed 25 May 2005, 12:20
Location: Manila

Printing solved

#2 Post by raffy »

I resolved this by adding the computer name and IP address to /etc/hosts
Hey, jeffrey, you just solved the big riddle of how to print to Windows machines in Puppy!

Thank you very much for this. I will link this thread of yours to the suggestions for 1.09.

Edit: More details - it could be a line like "192.168.0.16 print_station_name" added to /etc/hosts using plain text editor (like leafpad). Get the number and machine name from the network and TCP-IP properties of the Windows PC (the one connected to the printer).
Last edited by raffy on Tue 21 Mar 2006, 23:29, edited 1 time in total.

jeffrey
Posts: 168
Joined: Mon 16 Jan 2006, 04:20
Location: Christchurch, New Zealand

#3 Post by jeffrey »

You're very welcome. I found it quite frustrating and thought that others may appreciate having a little help. The real problem is that smbclient seems like it should be able to resolve the host name without the need of a host file, but fails probably because it appends a space to the hostname (and I've never met a hostname in my 30 years' experience with a trailing space, or even an embedded space for that matter).

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