ITEM: BF0247L

Transparent Printing on 7318-S20 and Telnet Session Locks



       

       


      

ENV:

     AIX 3.2.5 
     7318-S20 (w/ P10-Style Port) 
     Wyse 50 Terminal 
     NEC SpinWriter Printer

DESC:

     Customer wants to set up transparent printing on a 7318-S20's
serial port (configured as a P10).

ACT:

     Told customer we will follow the instructions on pages 3-14
and 3-15 (setting up tranparent print on a P10 port) of the 7318 
Guide and Reference (SC23-2542-00) instead of pgs 4-40 and 4-41 
(setting up transparent on S20).  After setting it up "totally" 
as a P10-Style transparent print port and adding a virtual printer, 
we were able to get the output to the printer.  However, the 
output is going to the screen also.  Customer is going to 
try hooking the transparent printer to a PC off of the 7318 and 
see if the results are different.

DESC:

     Customer set the PC running (PASSPORT - application) up and
attached the printer to its port.  He's seeing the same results 
as we got yesterday where the output was going to the screen AND 
the printer.

ACT:

Another problem the customer is seeing is the dropping of telnet 
sessions -or- the lockup of ports on the S20 (using static sessions).  
Customer is faxing some information from the error log.  I checked for 
any PTFs he may have put on the system (as there have been previous 
reported problems on servers hanging).  There were NONE.  I
will order the latest PTFs for the customer.

     Ordered for the following PTFs for the customer:
            U440674
            U435193
            U440254 

DESC:
            In reference to the telnet sessions dropping:
     The information the customer faxed from his error log indicated 
a "sio004" error message.  The description of this error is "Excessive
line errors; temporarily disabling port."  The recommended actions
(from the S20 Guide and Reference) are as follows:

"Verify the data rate, parity, or character size on the port matches
the attached device.  Improve the physical connection with a 
shorter cable or slower data rate."

I've shared this information with the customer and he is going to 
check this information out.  He said he probably wouldn't be able 
to get around to it until tomorrow sometime.  After discussing 
cable lengths/distances, I learned the customer had the following 
scenario:

  RISC \<------->  WAN  \<------>  7318 ---- Multiplexer (which goes out
                                                |       to phone lines)
                        6ft. cable ----->       |
                                                | 
                                           Multiplexer  

                                            |  |  |  |
   
                                             Terminals     

NOTE:  The 2 Multilexers are in different buildings.  This could 
       possibly be the problem.
the machine.
 
DESC:

     Customer said they are not seeing the dropping of the telnets
on terminals that are running the same application (PASSPORT) that
are not connected to the 7318.

ACT:

     Asked if they have put the PTFs on.  Customer said they are 
downloading a new release of their database and didn't want to 
put the fixes on now.  (He said they actually wouldn't get around
to it for a couple of weeks).  The PTFs should fix the session
lockups.

In regards to the printer problem: 

We discussed setting some line disciplines for the remote printers
(attached via the 7318).  It seems they were seeing some performance
problems with these printers.  Suggested the following actions to 
the customer:

Turn the VPD and status functions off in the /usr/lib/cns/cnsd.conf file
  To turn these functions off, edit the cnsd.conf file as follows. 

\#log    config  svclts  2sess   periodic method vpd     boot    stats
 log     config  method novpd nostats
 After editing the file issue the command : cnsview -c "daemon init" 

                               -and- 

Force the line discipline to the host on EACH tty or lp device using 
the cnsview command: 

             cnsview -c "set ldisc hostld 1" /dev/lpxx


Response:

ACT:

     SMIT
          o   Software Installation and Maintenance
          o   Install / Update Software
          o   Install / Update Selectable Software (Custom Install)
          o   Install Subsystems (Selective Fixes)

Fixes seemed to install OK.  NOTE:  U440674 has been SUPERSEDED
                                    BY U441341.

When customer tried to print, there is only garbage going to 
the terminal screen.

tput mc5 > /dev/tty8   =   Sent the file to the terminal screen
tput mc4 > /dev/tty8   =   Sent the file to the terminal screen

Try to print something to the queue.  Only garbage is going to 
the terminal.  Tried to cat to the terminal (tty8) and this 
was still OK.  Tried to cat to the printer (lp1) and garbage 
went to the screen.  

We are trying to remove and readd the queue and the printer.
Readded everything OK.  Tried to cat to the printer (lp1) this 
gives us the same results as we had a couple of weeks ago (printing
to the screen and the printer).

Changed the "_d" attribute to be "p".  RESULTS =  It's still 
going to the screen and the printer.

Just to make sure we know what is going on, I want to try  to summarize
what we know now for the customer:

cat file > /dev/lp1        prints to both the screen and the printer.
cat file > /dev/tty8       prints to only the screen.
tput mc5 > /dev/tty8 then catting a file to /dev/tty8  prints only to the screen.
tput mc4 > /dev/tty8 then catting a file to /dev/tty8 only prints to the screen.

What does this tell us:
1.  Either mc5 is filtered by the tty, or mc5 is not the right sequence.
2.  Either:
     a.  The printer is broken, or
     b.  The device driver is broken and is sending the file twice.

How do we determine which is happening?
1.  Change Transparent Print Escape Sequences to something we can see like
the words "START" and "STOP", leave the mc5 and mc4 sequences the same.

echo "AAAAA" > /dev/lp1
If:
1.  This prints to both the terminal and the printer, then the Transparent Print Escape
Sequences we use in smit are not being used.
2.  This prints 2 copies to the terminal, one surrounded by START and STOP, then
we have a broken AIX driver.
3.  This prints STARTAAAAASTOP and nothing else to the screen,  AIX is working
right, and the terminal is broken.

Based on the results above we then have the following actions:
If we matched 1:
1.  Replace the old Change Transparent Print Escape Sequnces, and change
mc5=START, and mc4=STOP,  Repeat the test.
If we matched 2:
2.  We open a PMR, something is broken and we have a test case.
If we matched 3:
3.  Customer needs to:
a.  Try the same terminal off a native port.
b.  Try a different terminal off the same port.

Response:

DESC:

     I suggested to customer to test with 3 sets of escape sequences
for the mc4 and mc5 attributes.

  1 set would be the default values in the wyse.ti file which are:
     mc4 = \\024 
     mc5 = \\030

   The other set would be the values that the 7318 Guide and Reference
suggest when using a wyse-50 terminal:

     mc4 = \^T
     mc5 = \\Ed\#

     The third set was a set he got from his printer book which were:

     mc4 = \^T
     mc5 = \^R  

ACT:

     Customer said he tried the orginal mc4 and mc5 escape sequences
in the wyse.ti file (mc4=\\024  mc5=\\030) and transparent printing
is now working.


Support Line: Transparent Printing on 7318-S20 and Telnet Session Locks ITEM: BF0247L
Dated: March 1996 Category: N/A
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