Guide to Printers and Printing

Terminal-Attached Printer Checklist

Check the following items when the printer attached to an ASCII terminal does not produce output:

• Verify that the AUX port on the terminal is configured with the same settings as your printer. To do this, consult your terminal documentation for information about setting values for the AUX port. Consult your printer documentation for information about configuring the printer's serial interface. Relevant values include those for baud rate, parity, data bits, stop bits, and XON/XOFF.
• If your terminal is emulating a terminal of a different type, you may need to set the PIOTERM environment variable.

  export PIOTERM=TerminalTypeEmulated
  

• Verify that you have the correct cable for the printer.
• Make sure the cable is securely plugged into the terminal's auxiliary port.
• Make sure the print queue is READY:

  lpstat
  

If the status for the terminal-attached printer queue does not read READY, enter the following commands to cancel all jobs on the queue and restart it:

qadm -Xqname 

qadm -Uqname

where qname is the name of the terminal-attached printer queue. You must resubmit your print jobs.

• Verify that the pioout command has the correct permissions:

  /usr/lib/lpd/pio/etc/pioout -r-sr-xr-x

  To reset permissions, enter the following command:

  chmod 4555 /usr/lib/lpd/pio/etc/pioout
  

• Check Local Printer Checklist .
• Sometimes printer control codes conflict with the terminal's control codes. If the previous checklist items do not produce output, reconfigure your virtual printer as an ASCII Printer. See Configuring a Virtual Printer and Print Queue .

If echoes of keyboard input are mixed with printer output, check the following:

• Adjust the virtual printer attributes specific to terminal-attached printers. To do this, use the SMIT fast path command:

  smit chvirprt
  

• Resubmit the print request and avoid typing while the request is printing.
• If the ASCII terminal locks, turn the terminal off and on.