[plug] printer newbie question

[Alan Graham]

I haven't seen any better qualified replies, so I'll give it a go.  The
first problem you have is that it's a usb printer.  /dev/lp0 is the
device address of the parallel printer port.  To find the address given
to your usb printer, you need to have a look in your syslog out put.  I
can't rmember the default syslog file for RH 7.3 (/var/log/messages ?),
but you can find out by looking at /etc/syslogd.conf.  If you can't find
it there then make sure the USB printer is switched on and connected,
reboot, and have a look at the output of dmesg.  Try 'dmesg | grep usb'

If you don't get any output from dmesg, or there's nothing in the
syslog, then you don't have usb support in the kernel and you'll have to
compile it in.

If you have usb support, you'll see something like:

Feb 24 18:40:41 lisa kernel: usb.c: registered new driver usbdevfs
Feb 24 18:40:41 lisa kernel: usb.c: registered new driver hub

Hopefully, you'll then see a usb driver picking up the printer.  This
line will give you the name of the usb printer device (eg,
/dev/usb/lp0). 

If (like me at the mo :-( ) you see lines like this:

hub.c: USB new device connect on bus2/1, assigned device number 2
usb.c: USB device 2 (vend/prod 0x4b8/0x5) is not claimed by any active
driver.

let me know how you fix it !  (actually, I just need to enable usb
printing in the kernel.  I will, real soon now.)

BTW, consider installing cups and gimp-print (remove lpd, bsd-lpd
first), as it's a lot easier in the long run to administer printers with
cups.

Regards

Alan

On Fri, 2003-02-28 at 12:54, John Knight wrote:
> G'day fellers!
> 
> I'm afraid I know next to nothing about printers, so I'll need a bit of 
> help, as the RH site's not too crash hot and I'm not finding what I'm after. 
> The printer is a USB, HP officejet d145, on an RH 7.3 box, using RH's 
> printer setup tool.
> 
> What type of printer should I start with? Local? I've started with that, and 
> moved onto the device section. The only option is /dev/lp0, is that okay for 
> a usb printer? I've been using the officejet d145 driver provided in the 
> list, but not a lot's happening.
> 
> I honestly haven't got a clue when it comes to printers, so if there's any 
> kind PLUGgers out there that can help me, Dad and I will be eternally 
> grateful. :)
> 
> John
> 
> Make lunch, not war.
> 
> 
> 
> _________________________________________________________________
> Hotmail now available on Australian mobile phones. Go to  
> http://ninemsn.com.au/mobilecentral/hotmail_mobile.asp
> 
>