AIX Printer Tips: HP JetDirect and JetDirect Ex3 Printing in AIX 4.2.1 and Later

About This Document

This document contains instructions for configuring and troubleshooting HP JetDirect and JetDirect Ex3 printers in AIX 4.2.1 and later.

Prerequisites to Configuring

AIX version 4.2.1 or later should be installed on the RS/6000 to use ports 2 and 3 or the HP JetDirect EX3 box. This document describes adding JetDirect queues at AIX 4.2.1 or later. For earlier releases of AIX see the technical document AIX Printer Tips: HP JetDirect Setup and Printing at AIX 4.2.0 and Earlier.
A working knowledge of Ethernet, addressing, TCP/IP, and SMIT (System Management Interface Tool) is assumed.
The printer should be configured for network printing (that is, the JetDirect card should be physically installed and configured as necessary).
This document assumes that you are NOT setting up a JetDirect card with an "lpd" (RFC 1179) daemon running on the card. Check with Hewlett-Packard for model specifications.
This document assume that your network is running TCP/IP protocol though you could be running multiprocotol--that is, Novell IPX in along with TCP/IP protocol.

The JetDirect card requires network configuration data (such as the card's IP address and subnet mask) each time the printer is powered on in order to communicate with the host system over the network.

The card can get this data either from a BOOTP/TFTP server on the network or from parameters entered manually from the front panel on the printer and saved in nonvolatile memory on the card. The method of attaining an IP address for the card is dependent on type of card (external box, like the EX model, or internal card) and the type of printer. When shipped from the factory, the card is set to get network configuration data from the network (BOOTP/TFTP server).

The method of setting the ip addresses is described in the technical document AIX Printer Tips: Setting the IP Address for HP Printers.

If you cannot manually configure the card to accept the IP address from the front panel of the printer, then to get configuration data from the network, the BOOTP/TFTP server must be configured. When BOOTP/TFTP is configured on the RS/6000, the RS/6000 server will recognize the network query (hardware address broadcast) generated by the card and will send the appropriate data to the card.

Important Notes

The BOOTP/TFTP server cannot be across the gateway from the printer.
There should be only one machine on the network that acts as the BOOTP/TFTP server.
AIX support for the HP JetDirect cards really only supports ethernet; however, you should be able to use the card on a token ring set up with only minor modification. See at the end of the document under TOKEN RING SETTING. This really only has to do with bootptab hardware type settings.
If you are going across a router from RS/6000 to JetDirect printer AND if you are using BOOTP/TFTP to download IP address to the printer, then YOU MUST make sure that the router is configured to allow bootp daemon to go across that particular router (this is something you must configure, AIX support cannot help you with this!).

Steps to Configure Server

Follow these steps on the RS/6000. These steps will configure the RS/6000 to use the JetDirect printer and will, if necessary, make the RS/6000 a BOOTP/TFTP server.

Have the following data written down and available prior to beginning (get this information NOW):

a. IP address for JetDirect card __________________________.
b. Hostname associated with IP address ____________________.
c. Hardware address of JetDirect card _____________________.
d. Network type (ethernet, token ring) ____________________.
e. Gateway address of network _____________________________.
f. Subnet Mask of network _________________________________.
g. Printer type (model, make) _____________________________.

Some of this data might or might not be used depending on your particular network setup and whether or not you want to set up your RS/6000 as a BOOTP/TFTP server. For instance, you might not be going through a gateway, in which case you will not have an entry for the gateway address.

For demonstration purposes, use the following set up (refer to the letters in the preceding list for references to the items below):

a. 150.1.1.4
b. hp4
c. 080109463974
d. ethernet
e. 150.1.1.1
f. 255.255.255.0
g. HP LaserJet IV

NOTE: The hardware address may be attained by printing out a test page on your printer once the JetDirect card is connected to your printer. Check the printer and JetDirect card manual for instructions on how to do this. The entry on the test page should look something like this: "LAN HW Address". Usually, the JetDirect card will also have the hardware address written on it. Make a note of the fact that the test page will also indicate that there is NOT an IP address presently on the card unless you have already entered one through the front panel.

STEP 1. To BOOTP/TFTP or not; deciding whether or not to make the RS/6000 a BOOTP/TFTP server. Some things to consider at this point:

a. Were you able to enter the IP address of the printer at the site of the printer (front panel input)?
b. Is there another BOOTP/TFTP server on the same network?

Refer to the following decision help matrix.

   Questions
   a    b      Answers
   ---  ---     ----------------------------------------
   Yes  Yes     Up to you as to if you want to set up the
                JetDirect through a BOOTP/TFTP server or not.
                Note that if you choose to set the JetDirect
                through a BOOTP/TFTP server, then you must make
                sure the BOOTP/TFTP server on the same network
                is configured appropriately.
                        
                Suggestion:  Do NOT set this up as a BOOTP/TFTP
                server.  In STEP 6, choose option No. 2.
                        
   Yes  No      Same as above.
           
                Suggestion:  Do NOT set this up as a BOOTP/TFTP
                server.  In STEP 6, choose option No. 2.
                
   No   Yes     If the other BOOTP/TFTP server on the same 
                network is a RS/6000, you must be on that RS/6000
                System/6000 to continue on with the steps.
                        
                Suggestion:  You really don't have a choice here
                but to set this up as a BOOTP/TFTP server.  In 
                STEP 6, choose option No. 1.
                        
                If the other BOOTP/TFTP server is not a RS/6000 then
                you must do what is appropriate on that system
                to configure the network data for the JetDirect
                down loading.
                        
                Suggestion:  Since the downloading of network 
                data is being done on the other machine, you don't
                need to set the RS/6000 up as a BOOTP/TFTP server.
                In STEP 6, choose option No. 2.

   No   No      You don't have a choice here. You must set up the
                RS/6000 to be a BOOTP/TFTP server since there is no
                other way to down load the network data to the
                JetDirect Card.
                        
                Suggestion:  Not really a suggestion.  In STEP 6, 
                you must choose option No. 1.

If you are setting up the RS/6000 to be a BOOTP/TFTP server then you must do the following prior to proceeding to STEP 2. If you are not, then just ignore the following and proceed to STEP 2.
First, in the "/etc/inetd.conf" file make sure "bootps" and "tftp" are not commented out; that is, the lines containing "bootps" and "tftp" should not begin with a # symbol (if the lines do begin with the # symbol, then you must erase the # from the lines).
Next, at the AIX command line type "inetimp". This will redigest the "inetd.conf" into something that the RS/6000 can use. We need to do this because you have just edited that file.
Finally, at the AIX command line type "refresh -s inetd". This will cause the "inetd" daemon to refresh itself, that is, to reexamine the redigested "inetd.conf" file for the new information.

STEP 2. Make sure the printer has a valid hostname and IP address:

If you are using a nameserver, ensure that the printer's IP address is in the nameserver database.
If you are not using a nameserver, ensure that the printer's hostname and IP address are in the "/etc/hosts" file.
```
           Sample "/etc/hosts" entry:
 
                hp4          150.1.1.4
```
If the hardware permits, enter the IP address you have chosen for the printer onto the printer now (usually through the front panel of the printer).

STEP 3. Entering the following at the AIX command line:

smitty mkpq
You will see the following menu screen (or something similar):

   ----------------------------------------------------------------
                         Add a Print Queue

  Move cursor to desired item and press Enter.  Use arrow keys to scroll.

     #  ATTACHMENT TYPE      DESCRIPTION
        local                Printer Attached to Local Host
        remote               Printer Attached to Remote Host
        ascii                Printer Attached to ASCII Terminal
        hpJetDirect          Network Printer (HP JetDirect)
        file                 File (in /dev directory)
        ibmNetPrinter        IBM Network Printer\
        other                User Defined Backend

  F1=Help                 F2=Refresh              F3=Cancel
  8=Image                F10=Exit                Enter=Do
  /=Find                  n=Find Next
   ----------------------------------------------------------------

STEP 4. Select hpJetDirect Network Printer (HP JetDirect) and press the "enter" key.

If the preceding option, No. 4, does not appear on the SMIT menu, then either AIX is not installed to the correct update level (3.2.5) or the system does not have all the necessary software installed. You cannot proceed unless you have No. 4 as an option. Check installation if you do not see the No. 4 option.
If you get a message that the software is not installed, then place the AIX Installation Media into the proper device and continue witht he installation of the HP JetDirect drivers. The install screens will give you only the printer drivers when entered from this point in smit. Once you have installed the software you will have to restart at STEP 1.

STEP 5. The following prompt will appear on the screen once you have chosen No. 4 and press the "enter" key:

   ----------------------------------------------------------------
                           Printer Type

   Move cursor to desired item and press Enter.

     Bull
     Canon
     Dataproducts
     Hewlett-Packard
     IBM
     Lexmark
     OKI
     Printronix
     QMS
     Texas Instruments
     Other (Select this if your printer type is not listed above)
  F1=Help                 F2=Refresh              F3=Cancel
  F8=Image                F10=Exit                Enter=Do
  /=Find                  n=Find Next
   ----------------------------------------------------------------

Select the printer manufacturer and press Enter.

STEP 6. The following menu will then be displayed (for example, after choosing HP):

   ---------------------------------------------------------------- 
                              Printer Type

  Move cursor to desired item and press Enter.

    hplj-2    Hewlett-Packard LaserJet II
    hplj-3    Hewlett-Packard LaserJet III
    hplj-3si  Hewlett-Packard LaserJet IIISi
    hplj-4+   Hewlett-Packard LaserJet 4 Plus
    hplj-4si  Hewlett-Packard LaserJet 4Si 
    hplj-4v   Hewlett-Packard LaserJet 4V
    hplj-5si  Hewlett-Packard LaserJet 5Si/5Si MX
    Other (Select this if your printer type is not listed above)
   ----------------------------------------------------------------

STEP 7. The following menu will then be displayed:

   ----------------------------------------------------------------
                      BOOTP/TFTP Server 

    Move the cursor to desired item and press Enter

     1.  Make this system a BOOTP/TFTP server  
     2.  Do NOT make this system a BOOTP/TFTP server  

   Enter number from list above (press Enter to terminate):  ->
   ----------------------------------------------------------------

From STEP 1, enter the number as appropriate to your situation.

Press the "enter" key after you entered a number.
If you choose option No. 1, then go to STEP 8 with bootp.
If you choose option No. 2, then skip to STEP 8 without bootp.
NOTE: Choosing option No. 1 will cause the creation of an entry in the "/etc/bootptab" file for the particular printer.

STEP 8 with bootp. After you choose option No. 1 and press the "enter" key, the following prompt will appear:

  ----------------------------------------------------------------           
                          Add a Print Queue

  Type or select values in entry fields.
  Press Enter AFTER making all desired changes.

                          
                                                [Entry Fields]
  Description                                 Hewlett-Packard LaserJet 5Si/5Si 
MX

  Names of NEW print queues to add
    PCL                                             [hp5pcl]
    PostScript                                      [hp5ps]
    HP-GL/2                                         []

  Printer connection characteristics
*    HOSTNAME of the JetDirect Card                 [hpprt3.aix.dfw.ibm.com]
*    HARDWARE ADDRESS of the JetDirect Card         [080109463974]
*    NETWORK INTERFACE                              Ethernet
*    PORT                                           [9101]  
     GATEWAY ADDRESS                                [9.19.169.202]     
     SUBNET MASK                                    [255.255.240.0]

F1=Help                     F2=Refresh                  F3=Cancel               
    F4=List  
F5=Reset                    F6=Command                  F7=Edit                 
    F8=Image 
F9=Shell                    F10=Exit                    Enter=Do
  ----------------------------------------------------------------

Enter the hardware address, host address, and so on and press the Enter key. In this example, the hardware address is 080109463974, and the hostname, which is either in the DNS server or in /etc/hosts, is hpprt3.aix.dfw.ibm.com. The gateway is 9.19.169.202 and the subnet mask that will be used is 255.255.240.0.
Two queues will be created in this example: hp5pcl for ASCII text, and hp5ps for PostScript files. The GL queue was not created, but could be if there are GL files to print.
The PORT value should be 9100 for normal HP JetDirect printers, 9101 for HP JetDirect EX3 port 2, and 9102 for port 3.
Hit to add the queues and then exit smit.

STEP 8 without bootp After you choose option No. 2 and press "enter", the following screen will appear.

  ----------------------------------------------------------------           
                          Add a Print Queue

  Type or select values in entry fields.
  Press Enter AFTER making all desired changes.

                          
                                                [Entry Fields]
  Description                                 Hewlett-Packard LaserJet 5Si/5Si 
MX

  Names of NEW print queues to add
    PCL                                             [hp5pcl]
    PostScript                                      [hp5ps]
    HP-GL/2                                         []

  Printer connection characteristics
*    HOSTNAME of the JetDirect Card                 [hpprt3.aix.dfw.ibm.com]
*    PORT                                           [9102]  

F1=Help                     F2=Refresh                  F3=Cancel               
    F4=List  
F5=Reset                    F6=Command                  F7=Edit                 
    F8=Image 
F9=Shell                    F10=Exit                    Enter=Do
  ----------------------------------------------------------------

The hostname for the printer hpprt3.aix.dfw.ibm.com should already be in the /etc/hosts file or in the DNS server.
The PORT value should be 9100 for normal HP JetDirect printers, and 9101 for HP JetDirect EX3 port 2, and 9102 for port 3.
Two queues will be created in this example: hp5pcl for ASCII text, and hp5ps for PostScript files. The GL queue was not created, but could be if there are GL files to print.
Press the Enter key to add the new queues.

Troubleshooting Tips/Diagnostics

If the job sits in the queue with status "RUNNING" ("lpstat" command will show status) and does not print, the JetDirect card is probably not booted up and never received tftp packets.
Common cause:
- Faulty cables or unterminated ethernet lines. If you have any other hosts on the same net, verify that they can still communicate with no errors. Check cables and termination.
Can you ping the hostname? Can you ping the TCP/IP address of the hostname? Check the IP address of the printer by printing out a test page to see if the IP address is indeed there on the printer. Then check to see if the IP address is the same as the one you have in the "/etc/hosts" file.
If you can ping the hostname, then try:
- telnet hostname 9100

What you type should get sent to the printer. This is an example telnet session that printed to our printer.


           mod590 /etc # telnet 150.1.1.4 9100
           Trying...
           Connected to 150.1.1.4.
           Escape character is '^]'.
           Hey guys, this is going to print!!!
           ^]

           telnet> quit
           Connection closed.

This printed "Hey guys, this is going to print!!!" at the printer.
If printing out the test sheet and the IP address and subnet mask are blank, then the card has not been configured. Find the area under TCP/IP labeled bootp. It should say bootp in progress. This means that the card is sending out boot packets but is not getting packets back from the RS/6000. Unless there is a problem with the packets that the Jet Direct card is sending, this means that the RS/6000 is not acknowledging the packets and sending replies.
Common cause:
The hardware address was entered incorrectly. You can verify the hardware address by examining the file "/etc/bootptab". The "ha" field should match the hardware address printed out in the test page. If this is incorrect, then change as appropriate. Then at the AIX command line, type "inetimp" to redigest the file and then type "refresh -s inetd" to refresh the "inetd" daemon. Turn off/on printer (if card inside printer) or turn off/on the JetDirect box (if external). If this does not work, then remove the entry from "/etc/bootptab" file and perform all the preceding steps in this document starting with STEP 3.
If the above still did not work, then try running "bootpd" daemon in debug mode. Do the following:
- a. Comment out the "bootps" line in "/etc/inetd.conf" file.
- b. Redigest "/etc/inetd.conf" again with "inetimp".
- c. Refresh "inetd" daemon with "refresh -s inetd".
- d. At AIX command line, type "bootpd -d -d -d -d -s".
- e. Turn off/on printer (if internal card) or turn off/on JetDirect box (if external). This will cause the hardware broadcast to start up.
If all goes well you should see something like this:
- bootpd: bootptab mtime is Wed Oct 19 13:21:23 1994
- bootpd: reading "/etc/bootptab"
- bootpd: read 1 entries from "/etc/bootptab"
- bootpd: dumped 1 entries to "/etc/bootpd.dump".
Then hopefully you'll see something like this:
- bootpd: bootptab mtime is Wed Oct 19 13:21:23 1994
- bootpd: request from hardware address 080109463974
- bootpd: hardware address not found: 080109463974
- bootpd: Dats all folks...
If you don't see this or if nothing else comes up then the RS/6000 is not seeing any hardware broadcast across the network. You have a definite hardware problem on the network. Check your network connections and settings.
If you see the preceding, then the third line, "bootpd: hardware address not found: 080109463974", is indicating that you do not have an entry in the "/etc/bootptab" file for the particular hardware address. Check your file for the proper entry. Also check for other entries that are outdated or unused and delete them.
Make sure your subnet mask is set correctly. If your subnet mask is 255.255.255.0 then you don't need an entry for "sm=255.255.255.0" since this is assumed. However, if your subnet mask is different--for example, 255.255.0.0--then you definitely need an entry "sm=255.255.0.0" in your /etc/bootptab file for the printer in question. You can use "ifconfig <network type>" command to figure out your network mask. For example, "ifconfig en0":
en0: flags=2000063<UP,BROADCAST,NOTRAILERS,RUNNING,NOECHO>
inet 150.1.1.1 netmask 0xffff0000 broadcast 150.1.255.255
Note the subnet mask of 255.255.0.0 in this example.
You could see a certain error from running bootpd:
bind fail::socket name already in use
bootpd:bind:

This error indicates that you have another bootpd process running on your system. Do a "ps -ef | grep bootp" to get the PID of the bootp process presently running and do a "kill -9 PID" to get rid of the process. Then retry the bootp in debug mode again.
Also note that with the external JetDirect box EX model, there is an indicator LED light called "Fault". If this light is on or is blinking, then you have a hardware problem with the JetDirect. Please call Hewlett-Packard for hardware help.
Some printers accept more than one interface, serial or parallel. Be sure that you have the interface set to the one that you are using. This is especially true with the external JetDirect.
If you are having problems getting the printer working with the BOOTP/TFTP server, try attaching the printer DIRECTLY to the Ethernet card in the RS/6000. After you get that working, set up the printer to use the RS/6000 as the BOOTP/TFTP server.

Caveats

To conserve resources, bootpd exits if it receives no request for 15 minutes. It will restart when another request is received. Therefore, you will not see it running all the time.
Removing the virtual printer will not clean up the entry in bootptab or the device file in /var/spool/lpd/pio/dev. You must delete these yourself.

JetDirect Card Resets Printer Between Jobs

A customer did the following:

1. sent a control setup file to the printer
2. sent a file to use the control file settings
The file didn't use the control file settings.

This is caused because the HP JetDirect card resets between each job. This is necessary because the card is multiprotocol and must reset to be ready for the next job.

Token Ring Settings

There is only one thing you need to do when you are using a token ring network: change the "ht" variable in "/etc/bootptab" for your particular entry to "tr"; that is, "ht=tr". This is only done once you have finished ALL the steps.
Example of the setting in "/etc/bootptab" using the demonstration example as token ring instead of ethernet:

       ---------------------------------------------------------------- 
  hp4:ht=tr:ha=080109463974:ip=150.1.1.4:sm=255.255.255.0:gw=150.1.1.1:
       ----------------------------------------------------------------

Legend for "/etc/bootptab" File

first field -- hostname (may be full domain name and probably should be)
hd -- home directory EF=http://www.flash.net/~laixsoft/
sa -- boot server IP address
gw -- gateways
ha -- hardware address
ht -- hardware type
ip -- host IP address
sm -- subnet mask
tc -- template host (points to similar host entry)
hn -- name switch
bs -- boot image size

HP JetDirect and JetDirect Ex3 Printing in AIX 4.2.1 and Later: AIX Printer Tips: jetd421.html ITEM: FAX
Dated: 99/03/10~00:00 Category: zap
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