Connecting HP Laserjet 5 to PSF/AIX and paper size
ITEM: RTA000152434
Q:
Topic thread:
Printer Systems (PRINT - NA/ATS)
PSF/AIX
PRINT XPSF6000
We have two problems:
Q1) This afternoon I tried to connect a HP Laserjet 5 to a AIX/PSF
platform. If we use the procedure from the manual 'Printing
Administration 2.1' (S544-3817-03) it results in an error which
states that the AIX queue already exists.
This procedure describes the following:
1. Create a AIX printerqueue (name SB1) using the provided
driver from the AIX cd
2. test this queue using the lp command
3. add a printer in PSF and set the name to the name that was used
above; but this will result in an error.
We then changed the qprt -P pcl command to qprt -P SB1 and used as
PSF queue name SB. This will result in two AIX queues (when checked
with the lpstat command) like:
SB1 hp@sb
SB dev1
When we then print something with PSF the file will first pop-up in
the SB queue and a few seconds later it will show in the SB1 queue
and transferred to the printer. I wonder why it has to be this
way and so does the customer.
Q2) The other problem is that when you print something from AIX or
PSF the printfile will use letter sized paper as a default. I
tried several things in smit but there is no option to change this.
I have a feeling it is defaulted in the printer driver for the HP,
I looked into this file but it is all coded. (/var/psf/@local/sb)
A:
R1) When PSF/6000 (and later PSF/AIX) were designed, like our other
PSFs, they were designed to use the native operating system
spooling subsystem as much as possible in order not to "reinvent
the wheel". For driving IPDS printers, it was not so much of an
issue since the operating systems themselves (with the possible
exception of OS/400) did not drive IPDS printers natively;
therefore, PSF had to own the function of a printer driver
(formatting, error recovery, etc.).
However, for non-IPDS printers in the OS/2 and AIX worlds, the
operating systems already had drivers and spooling subsystems that
could drive PCL or PPDS printers. Therefore the decisions were
made to utilize the existing capabilities of the operating systems
and not to duplicate functions the operating systems already
provided. That's why when PSF/AIX prints to a PPDS or PCL printer,
what PSF/AIX really is doing is preparing the PPDS or PCL
datastream from the input file, then requeuing that PPDS or PCL to
the AIX qdaemon which then handles the communication and any
recovery issues with the printer device itself.
As time has passed, our production customers have demanded
more capability than the base AIX spooling subsystem can provide,
thus the implementation in PSM and Infoprint Manager which bypasses
the AIX spooling subsystem. Both PSM and Infoprint Manager are
designed in such a way that they use the existing AIX drivers and
AIX print commands to communicate with the printers; however, jobs
no longer go through the qdaemon, and you will not see any entries
for PSM or Infoprint Manager printers in the /etc/qconfig.
That's kind of a long historical explanation of why PSF/AIX requeues
jobs to the qdaemon and existing AIX printers.
Because of this requeuing design, it can be confusing to define PCL
or PPDS printers to PSF/AIX, particularly when the examples in the
books (at least back in PSF/6000 days) used names that easily
confused the reader. As you've discovered, the PSF queue and the
underlying AIX queue to which the PSF queue points must have
different names. This is because both AIX and PSF/AIX put entries
in /etc/qconfig, and each queue stanza (though not each queue device
stanza) must have a unique name.
So when you defined your PSF queue called SB, you should have coded
the "COMMAND to execute for printer output" as:
qprt -P SB1 -dp -Z¢ -o -fv
where "SB1" is the name of the AIX printer previously defined and
where the character following the Z is an exclamation point (¢).
You can verify this command under Device Options (under Show/Change
Characteristics of a Printer).
R2) Let's separate this into two issues:
(a) Printing from PSF
(b) Printing from AIX
2a) Recall that I said PSF/AIX creates the PCL or PPDS that it then
requeues to an existing AIX queue. By default, the size of the
PCL/PPDS it creates is LETTER. To change this, you use the
smitty psfcfg, Show/Change Characteristics..., Bin Mapping Options
panel for each bin and select the appropriate size paper. You
will need to recycle/bounce the PSF/AIX queue in order for this
change to take effect (psfctl -dtu psfprt).
2b) For printing from AIX, I agree with you that there's something
in the AIX virtual printer set up. You didn't mention the AIX
level, but I'm going to assume AIX V4. You mention a file in a
directory that I'm not familiar with and don't see on any of the
AIX systems I can browse, and that is /var/psf/@local/sb.
Do you mean /var/psf/sb/sb.profile? hat is the binary version of the PSF
printer profile (the rough equivalent of AIX colon files for
virtual printers). That would come into play under (2a), but not
for AIX printing (2b).
Or could you mean a file in /usr/lpd/pio/predef (AIX colon file
templates) or in /var/spool/lpd/pio/@local/custom (the customized
colon files for virtual printers you have defined)? This is also
a binary file and cannot be edited directly; you will need to use
the AIX smit panels or commands to change the default values for a
virtual printer.
Note that it is somewhat risky to add, delete or modify virtual
printers while printing is going on, although there is an AIX PTF
that helps eliminate problems in this area. I don't have the PTF
number handy, but can find it if you're interested.
Hopefully you're on AIX V4, so you can use the smit panels to change
the default paper sizes. The following instructions were generated
on an AIX 4.2.1 system for an AIX JetDirect-attached printer using
the hplj-5si colon file.
From the AIX command line, enter "smit chpq" or "smitty chpq". From
the list, select the print queue name (SB) that you want to change.
Then select the first option "1 Printer Setup".This will bring up
a panel where you'll see a list of the different paper sizes for the
different input bins. You can list the valid paper sizes in the
predefined colon file by pressing PF4 or selecting the List button.
Select the one you want from the list, then press Enter or DO to
make the change. Then run a test AIX job to make sure that your
change took effect.
If you need a paper size that is not one of those listed, then
you'll need to modify the colon file for the printer. A question
of that technical depth on AIX printing would need to be queued to
the AIX PRINT WWQ&A queue rather than to PSF/AIX.
Let me recommend a couple of books on AIX printing and also an internal
use only web site with lots of good AIX printing information:
- AIX Version 4 Guide to Printers and Printing (SC23-2783)
- AIX 4.3 Guide to Printers and Printing (SC23-4130)
- Printing for Fun and Profit Under AIX V4 (GG24-3570)
I hope this helps. Please reopen if you have additional questions.
Thanks for using WWQ&A/ViewBlue.
Q:
Thanks for your information.
The customer is on AIX 4.3. I tried also on a test system with
AIX 4.2.1 and I have installed the HP laserjet 5si again there.
and surprise -- all the options are there , papersize etc...
I have opened a PMR with our support center, because I suspect
a software bug in the HP LaserJet 5SI prt driver for AIX 4.3.
A:
Thanks for the update. You might be able to copy the predefined colon
file for the hplj-5si from the AIX 4.2.1 system to the AIX 4.3 system
as a workaround, and then create a new printer using that, but I'd
prefer to let the AIX Support Center comment on that as there may be
some ramifications that I'm not aware of.
Closing.
S e a r c h - k e y w o r d s:
psf/6000 psf/aix psf aix psm laserjet hplj-5si colon virtual printer
letter paper size wrong incorrect error queue spool respool queue
queuing double queueing bin mapping
WWQA: ITEM: RTA000152434 ITEM: RTA000152434
Dated: 07/1999 Category: XPSF6000
This HTML file was generated 2000/11/30~13:34:09
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