Subject: Re: HP Jetdirect from Solaris 2.3 - SOLVED!!

From: [email-masked] (Joseph H. Meier)
Date: 13 May 1994 22:31:41 GMT

Thanks to HP who finally made good on their support by working with me
for several hours to resolve this problem!

In summary, the problem was that only user 'root' under Solaris 2.3
could print to the JetDirect interface because of numerous incorrect
file permissions.  The problems were further defined to be that 'root'
could print from the command line and all Solaris applications, but all
other users could not print at all. It appears that both Sun and
HP have made assumptions about permissions for printer definition files
and need to coordinate on this product more closely.

Files with permission problems included:

/dev/null
/etc/lp/interfaces/<hp-spooler_name>
/etc/lp/interfaces/model.orig
/etc/lp/printers
/var/spool/lp/log (maybe?)

To make things worse, the Solaris Print Manager takes the liberty of
changing the permissions of at least the /dev/null device whenever a
change to the HP queue is made using this tool.

There seemed to be a problem with the 'jetadmin' program in that it did
not setup TFTP/BOOTP correctly unless several of the seemingly optional
parameters were supplied with values.

HP plans add these changes to the README file of 'hpnpinstall' and
bundle in a tar file that correctly extracts itself. It also plans to
contact Sun for better coordination.

Joe Meier
Penn State University
[email-masked]

In article [email-masked], [email-masked] (Joseph H. Meier) writes:
>
>Has anyone successfully implemented a solution to print from *any*
>Solaris 2.3 application to an HP 4Si MX JetDirect interface???  
>
>After four days on the phone with HP JetDirect support, it is unclear
>that their engineers have ever successfully tested their product on
>Solaris 2.3.  I am caught in the middle of a finger-pointing game
>between Sun and HP, neither of whom are willing to provide a functional
>solution.
>
>System Info:  
>Solaris 2.3 with 'lp jumbo patch' 101317-09 installed (downloaded 5/6/94)
>HP JetAdmin software for Solaris (Rev. C.02.00) (downloaded 5/6/94)
>
>After working through some bugs in the the hpnpinstall scripts (which
>unsuccessfully attempt to use the  'tar xvof' under Solaris!),  I was
>able to successfully use the 'jetadmin' program to establish a print
>spooler on my system. I am able to print with full functionality to the
>hp print queue from the command line using the 'lp' command, and I can
>'cat' files to a /dev/(pseudo) mapped to the JetDirect interface on the
>network by 'hpnptyd'.
>
>I can NOT print to the hp print queue created by 'jetadmin' from WITHIN
>any OpenWindows DeskSet tool such as mailtool, or any Solaris app such
>as FrameMaker.  The DeskSet tools and FrameMaker DO work fine with all
>other available print queues on my system that were installed using the
>Solaris Print Manager tool, so it does not appear at first to be a
>configuration issue with the deskset tools or FrameMaker applications.
>
>When printing from FrameMaker or any deskset application to the HP
>printer:
>
>-'lpstat-p' shows that the print job is printing normally to the printer
>- 'jetadmin' shows an active connection from my desktop and increments
>	the number of accepted connections by one
>- 'jetadmin' indictates that it is currently printing
>- 'jetadmin' indictates that it the printer completed printing
>- deskset tools and Framemaker applications indicate successful printing 
>- the HP printer ready light blinks 2-3 times
>- nothing prints
>
>The same process occurs whether I attempt a 1, 10, or 500 page print
>job.  The printer indicates that it has completed printing within a few
>seconds.
>
>
>Interestingly, HP and Sun BOTH say that if printing works from 'lp' at
>the command line that their respective parts are fully functioning.
>
>Any HP or Solaris engineers out there reading this???
>
>
>Any ideas are greatly appreciated.  Please respond to me directly.
>
>
>Joe Meier
>Center for Information Technology
>Penn State University
>[email-masked]
>
>