Hi guys, this is my first post here.

After installing slackware 9.1 on my Dell Inspiron 8200, I got a nice email
from Patrick Volkerding saying, among other things, that in his opinion,
using apsfilter is the way to go with printing.

So I tried running /usr/share/apsfilter/SETUP, and had some partial success.
I can now print plain text files, but I can't seem to print postscipt files.
The printer is an HP LaserJet 8500. My /etc/printcap file is below.

I used to use RedHat ("use" is the key word here), to typeset LaTeX
and TeX documents, among other things.

Any ideas? TIA.

rgb

# /etc/printcap
#
# See "man printcap" for information on editing this file.
#
# In most cases it is better to use a tool to write the printcap
# for you (at least initially), such as apsfilter
# (/usr/share/apsfilter/SETUP, used in conjunction with the
# LPRng lpd daemon), or with the web interface provided by the
# cupsd print daemon at this URL: (deleted so I can post
# (if you use CUPS).
#
# APS1_BEGINrinter1
# - don't delete start label for apsfilter printer1
# - no other printer defines between BEGIN and END LABEL
lp|PS;r=600x600;q=medium;c=full;p=letter;m=auto:\
:lp=:\
:rm=NPI0905A8.smsu.edu:\
:rp=lp72m:\
:if=/etc/apsfilter/basedir/bin/apsfilter:\
:sd=/var/spool/lpd/lp:\
:lf=/var/spool/lpd/lp/log:\
:af=/var/spool/lpd/lp/acct:\
:mx#0:\
:mx#0:\
:sh:
# APS1_END - don't delete this

Did you install Ghostscript? I use CUPS so I installed ESP Ghostscript http://www.cups.org/ghostscript.php and it works well with my HP Laserjet 1100 but APFL Ghostscript may work as well http://ghostscript.com/doc/AFPL/index.htm

Yes, Ghostscript is installed. The command "gs --version" tells me 7.05.6. And I am using gv to preview ps files. When I ran the /usr/share/apsfilter/SETUP script, the second last step was to print a test page. At that time, apsfilter printed the file test.ps. But when I go to the command line and try "lpr somefile.ps" it doesn't print, although the lpq command shows that it is there in the queue.

I believe the printer I'm using is a postscript printer, so do I even need to be using apsfilter?

To use apsfilter on non-ASCII files, use
lpr -P lp <filename>.

Ghostscript only translates various file types into ghostscript and the command for the translation is placed in /etc/apsfilterrc when you do a ./SETUP from /usr/share/apsfilter.
I think PV says that about apsfilter because it is easier by comparison to set up the LPD system than CUPS. I