CUPS printing, parallel port not found in lpinfo
 

Sorry if this been asked before-- I read most of the other threads on CUPS already and they haven't helped me.

I'm trying to set up my printer on my Slackware 9.1 system.
The Printer is a HP DeskJet 712C, and its connected to my parallel port.

When I type:

bash-2.05b# /usr/sbin/lpadmin -p DeskJet -E -v file:/dev/lp0 -m deskjet.ppd
lpadmin: add-printer (set device) failed: client-error-not-possible

when I type "lpinfo -v" here's what shows up.

network socket
network http
network ipp
network lpd
direct scsi
direct usb:/dev/usb/lp0
direct usb:/dev/usb/lp1
direct usb:/dev/usb/lp2
direct usb:/dev/usb/lp3
direct usb:/dev/usb/lp4
direct usb:/dev/usb/lp5
direct usb:/dev/usb/lp6
direct usb:/dev/usb/lp7
direct usb:/dev/usb/lp8
direct usb:/dev/usb/lp9
direct usb:/dev/usb/lp10
direct usb:/dev/usb/lp11
direct usb:/dev/usb/lp12
direct usb:/dev/usb/lp13
direct usb:/dev/usb/lp14
direct usb:/dev/usb/lp15

^^
notice that the parallel port does not show up.

i also type "modprobe parport_pc" and it says

bash-2.05b# modprobe parport_pc
FATAL: Module parport_pc already in kernel.

^^

I checked my .config file and my parallel port is indeed hard compiled into my kernel.

now when I type: "dmesg | grep parport"

parport0: PC-style at 0x378 [PCSPP,TRISTATE,EPP]
parport0: cpp_daisy: aa5500ff(98)
parport0: assign_addrs: aa5500ff(98)
parport0: faking semi-colon
parport0: Printer, HEWLETT-PACKARD DESKJET 710C
lp0: using parport0 (polling).

^ look what shows up!

I know I'm pretty close to getting this working. What am I missing?

thanks in advance for any help!

Is there anything else I need to add that would help?

what does it show when you do:
ll /dev/lp0
Do you have the rights set properly and the device too?

you mean

ls -l /dev/lp0?

when I do that, I get this:

sh-2.05b$ ls -l /dev/lp0
crw-rw---- 1 root lp 6, 0 Apr 27 1995 /dev/lp0

I looks like I get read/write access to lp0. I suppose that means I have the correct permissions.

No takers? Has anyone had any sort of similar experience?

Is it just the way I'm typing it in the CLI?

a shot in the dark but is cupsd running on your system?

also, have you tried using
localhost:631
in the location bar of a webbrowser? It will get you to the cups admin page.

^^

Yeah I tried that first, actually. But there's not much output I can cut and paste when I do it through mozilla.

When I click the "add printers" button, I don't see a "lp0" option.

Ok... now we look if your lp0 is working properly....

- Attach your printer, turn it on and put paper in. Connect it firmly to comp.
- cat /etc/passwd > /dev/lp0
- cat /etc/passwd > /dev/lp0 (2-3 times until it starts printing)

If it prints it means your printerport is working then we can go on...
If not we must reconfigure your port.

This is interesting..

Here's my output--

bash-2.05b# cat /etc/passwd > /dev/lp0
bash: /dev/lp0: No such device or address

Mystery!

^^

how about I go about "enabling" lp0?

I thought my parallel port was enabled when I typed in dmesg and it showed up!

What's going on now?

Just wanted to say thanks to ROLF68!

I had the exact same problem as the original poster with an HP Officejet T45xi. I ran all of the same commands as he did with the same results. After I changed the permissions on lp0 and restarted cups with /etc/rc.d/rc.cups restart it showed up.

Thanks Again Rolf68 and to everyone else here on the forum!
You guys are great!

Hey, well thanks for the update, too.

I'll try the same thing you did!

Linuxquestions makes me happy :)

All I did was

chmod 777 /dev/lp0

Its a home network so I don't care about permissions on the printer

Anyway, it didn't seem to change anything at first until I restarted cups. I assumed it wouldn't work but went in to localhost:631 and to mu surprise, it was there.

Now heres the funny part. I logged out of X to reinstall NVIDIA (did a kernel recompile for i686) and when I did I saw lines in console where I had been trying to access lp0 and had no permissions. Once again, had I just configured from command line rather than KDE, I could have saved myself alot of heartache....

oh well, you live and you learn.

good luck!

I just wanted to put my two cents worth in and say thank you. For whatever reason I guess permissions got changed on my /dev/lp0 and my DJ 722c quit working. This has cured it. Thank you very much :-)

hrm seems to still not to work, even with the permissions change and the cups restarting.

It prints perfectly fine in windows.