I am having a crazy time getting Slackware (10.0) to recognise my parallel port, every time I try to list devices it is never there..... I dont understand why.

I am currently trying to install a HP LaserJet 2100 printer to the parallel port and CUPS cannot find it either... since its on a parallel port.

I need to devise a way to test the parallel port.... see if I can get it to respond,

"cat /proc devices" lists nothing that resembles a parallel port (lp_ ??).

anyone have any suggestions

Which modules are loaded atm?

Is parport there? If the board has a PNP-BIOS you
may need to have that enabled as well for the driver
to pick up the correct IRQ/port/DMA ...



Cheers,
Tink

maybe parallel port support wasnt compiled into the kernel. if not, ur gonna need to recompile the kernel with pp support in

yeah I actually did recompile the Kernel But oddly enough what the ultimate fix was uncommenting parallel printer support in the rc.modules file (DOH! ).... Kinda odd tho I recompiled the kernel and it still didn't function with it commented..... Slthough I might have only configured parallel port support and forgotten Parallel Port Printer support (becuase oddly enough those are two seperate things up in the kernel), thanks for your suggestions tho

ive been trying for days (all my free time)
to get slackware to print to a parrallel printer.

and ive not found a single person who's managed it.
[edit] just found a post by some1 who claims to have managed it after a few months of trying, waiting to see if he will respond to me[/edit]

anyways... to get you started,
modprobe parport
modprobe parport_pc
modprobe lp

after that, CUPS detects, and allows you to add your frinter just fine.
and every time you tell it to print, it informs you that the message has been sent to the printer sucessfully.

but the printer dont even twich.

seems you need to use a more advanced distro like fedora for printing in linux.

Well, i got my Epson Stylus Color 660 (parallel port) working under cups and printing fine. Also I share it to my other computer using Samba without problems.
The only thing i needed to do was to uncomment the corresponding lines in /etc/rc.d/rc.modules and (this is option but i wanted it) install a package that add more options to my printer under cups which is called gimp-print.
To know that your printer works, just do: lpr <someimage> and it should print it without any problems. Then you can configure more stuff, but if that command doesn't work, you must be doing something wrong. Oh, also i didn't installed lprng (or something like that) the freebsd styled printing system, just cups.

qwijibow, even if u modprobe the the modules, u still need to uncomment it in rc.modules as many have said, and u also need to make sure that its in the kernel and its supported. and btw, i think slackware is one of the more advanced distros out there, and imho, more that fedora.

My Epson Stylus C82 printer on a parallel port (and using CUPS) prints beautifully in Slack 10 and did so on the first attempt. Sometimes, people have a tough time once the OS and print system sees the printer because they are trying to use the wrong driver(s) for their particular printer.

aslong as they get loaded, its not important where you load them.

the solution was, slackware does not come with a vital program needed to the 700 series of HP printers,
i compiled it, and now allis well with the world.

What did you need? I got an office jet running with the hpijs drivers and CUPS included in 9.1, I assume they are in 10 as well.

For what its worth.
I could print fine in Slack9.1 (parallel port HPlaserjet6P)
Installed Slack10 and set up printer in KDE and when I tried to print ... nothing happened.
To make a long story short:
/etc/cups/printers.conf had
DeviceURI parallel:/dev/unknown-parallel0
under my printer.
Changed to
DeviceURI parallel:/dev/lp0
Printer now works.
Hope it helps someone.
Earl

Well, thanks to this thread I stopped being lazy and got my damn printer to work! Thank you to everyone here, my HP LaserJet 5P now prints under linux (or at least the test pages seem to be fine) when connected to my parallel port!
I had to do this first to get a parallel port, alternatively you can uncomment the relevant lines in /etc/rc.d/rc.modules - it's fairly obvious what to do ;)

Next I had to install some packages which I didn't install when I first installed Slackware 10. You can get these packages from a mirror - I used ftp://ftp.heanet.ie

I had to install

ap/espgs-7.07.1-i486-2.tgz
ap/hpijs-1.6-i486-1.tgz
ap/gimp-print-4.2.6-i486-1.tgz
ap/gnu-gs-fonts-6.0-noarch-1.tgz

(I'm not sure why I installed gimp print to be honest, but I don't think it's gonna harm your system!)

Next, I just went to localhost:631 and added my printer. I noticed certain additions to each menu - this was good! Simply selected the new HP option and selected the right printer!

Thanks again, good luck with your own printer!

Steve

the 700 series of HP deskjet (HP 710c, 712c 720c 722c) are WinPrinters,
you need to download a PDD file from linuxprinting.org which is basically a configureation file for CUPS. and you need a program called pnm2paa which sits between CUPS and /dev/lp0 and converts regular print code to Winprinter code.

this program odes not come with slack10. but its easy enough to compile.

Cool beans then. I have one of the old Officejet 700's must be a difference between the officejet and deskjet lines.

yeah, the deskjet are cheap ass lamo winprinter versions of office jets