Finding your printer

Finding your printer

[Dan Murphy]

Hi listers.
I recently connected a printer to my linux box and wanted to see if I
can get it to print.  I have looked at the printing-howto and the
printing-usage howto, but I wonder if there's a way to have Linux
check to see if the printer is there?  I looked in /dev and I see
/dev/lp0 /dev/lp1 and /dev/lp2, but I don't know what they are for.
I'm running kernel 2.4.5, and when I compiled it I enabled parallel
printer support as well as parallel port support.
In the howto, it mentions /dev/lp, but there isn't one and before I
start tinkering around, I was wondering if anyone has had experience
with this.
thanks.

Re: Finding your printer

[Charles Hallenbeck]

Dan -

Check out the command 'lpr' - just give it a filename and away
you go.
Caution - you may need to be sure your end-of-line characters are
crlf instead of just lf. If you do "lpr filename" and get
everything printed on top of itself, do this: "cat filename |
todos | lpr".

HTH - Chuck


On Sat, 12 Jan 2002, Dan Murphy wrote:

> Hi listers.
> I recently connected a printer to my linux box and wanted to see if I
> can get it to print.  I have looked at the printing-howto and the
> printing-usage howto, but I wonder if there's a way to have Linux
> check to see if the printer is there?  I looked in /dev and I see
> /dev/lp0 /dev/lp1 and /dev/lp2, but I don't know what they are for.
> I'm running kernel 2.4.5, and when I compiled it I enabled parallel
> printer support as well as parallel port support.
> In the howto, it mentions /dev/lp, but there isn't one and before I
> start tinkering around, I was wondering if anyone has had experience
> with this.
> thanks.
>
>
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
>

*<<<=-=>>>*<<<=-=>>>*<<<=-=>>>*<<<=-=>>>*
Visit me at http://www.mhonline.net/~chuckh
The Moon is New

Re: Finding your printer

[Dan Murphy]

thanks chuck, I'll try that.

Re: Finding your printer

[Gregory Nowak]

I never printed with linux. However, the lpx devices are your parallel ports.
So, lpt1 is /dev/lp0 lpt2 is /dev/lp1 and so on. Hth.
Greg


On Sat, Jan 12, 2002 at 05:07:06PM -0500, Dan Murphy wrote:
> Hi listers.
> I recently connected a printer to my linux box and wanted to see if I
> can get it to print.  I have looked at the printing-howto and the
> printing-usage howto, but I wonder if there's a way to have Linux
> check to see if the printer is there?  I looked in /dev and I see
> /dev/lp0 /dev/lp1 and /dev/lp2, but I don't know what they are for.
> I'm running kernel 2.4.5, and when I compiled it I enabled parallel
> printer support as well as parallel port support.
> In the howto, it mentions /dev/lp, but there isn't one and before I
> start tinkering around, I was wondering if anyone has had experience
> with this.
> thanks.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup

Re: Finding your printer

[Geoff Shang]

Hi:

I'm guessing that /dev/lp is probably meant to be a symlink to whatever
device is correct, probably /dev/lp0.  This is common for sound devices
(e.g. /dev/audio points to /dev/audio0 and /dev/dsp points to /dev/dsp0).

Geoff.

Re: Finding your printer

[Dan Murphy]

Hi Jeff.  Well I think I might be looking at a dead parallel cable, but I
won't have access to another until tomorrow.
thanks.  I see /dev/lp0,1 and 2, but they are listed as character so I'm
not sure what that's all about.

Re: Finding your printer

[Charles Hallenbeck]

Dan -
Input-output devices are either 'character' or 'block'. Block
devices have a file system and the data are stored in files. So
your printer devices are definitely character devices.

HTH - Chuck


On Sat, 12 Jan 2002, Dan Murphy wrote:

> Hi Jeff.  Well I think I might be looking at a dead parallel cable, but I
> won't have access to another until tomorrow.
> thanks.  I see /dev/lp0,1 and 2, but they are listed as character so I'm
> not sure what that's all about.
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
>

*<<<=-=>>>*<<<=-=>>>*<<<=-=>>>*<<<=-=>>>*
Visit me at http://www.mhonline.net/~chuckh
The Moon is New