Guide to Printers and Printing

Inoperative Printer Checklist

If you have inoperative printers, check the following items for locally attached printers that have never worked:

• Run the test pattern for the printer with only the power cable attached to the printer.
• Verify that you have the correct cable for the printer.
• Make sure the cable is securely plugged in.
• Verify that you have created a device for the printer (with Devices, SMIT, or at the command line).
• Try the following command immediately after a reboot or when you have not tried to send anything to the printer since a reboot.

  echo Does the printer work? > /dev/lpn

  where lpn is the name of the printer device you are testing. If the message prints at the printer, set up the virtual printer definition for the printer. If the statement hangs or returns an error message, the problem is not the operating system or the queueing system. It is one or more of the following:

  • The cable.
  • The setup such as baud rate, handshaking, and port number. The printer and the computer must have the same settings.
  • A bad port on the computer.
  • A broken printer.
• If you have trouble getting a serial printer to work on an 8-port, 16-port, or 64-port adapter or on a modem, try to get the printer working on S1 or S2 directly on the computer. Once the printer works on S1 or S2, move the printer to the desired port. If S1 and S2 are unavailable, try moving the printer to any other port.