This chapter provides information for the person who is the administrator of the system, or who sets up printers and scanners and troubleshoots problems.
The administrator of the system can set default printer-specific options using the Printer Manager. Once these options are set, they automatically apply to all print jobs submitted by all users. Any user can override the default options using either the Printer Manager (as described below) or PrintPanel (see “Setting Options for Printing Files” in Chapter 2); the new options will apply only to print jobs submitted by that user.
 | Note: If a user prints from the command line using the lp command and specifies an option using -o then all default printer-specific options are ignored (the options specified with -o are the only options used in this case). |
The administrator can set default printer-specific options by following these steps:
Log into the system as root.
Start the Printer Manager by clicking the launch icon, or by choosing “Printer Manager” from the System toolchest.
Choose “Set Options” from the Printer menu.
Set the printer-specific options (see “Setting Options for Printing Files” in Chapter 2 for information), then click the OK button.
In the dialog box that appears, click the All Users button.
Impressario has a client/server network printing architecture. Impressario servers are workstations that control at least one printer or scanner. Impressario clients are workstations that use the printers or scanners controlled by Impressario servers.
When you submit a print job from an Impressario client, your file, along with any print options, is transmitted to the server. The server queues up your print job upon receipt of a print request. Once the printer you specified is available, the server processes the options sent with the print job, converts the file to a printable format (if necessary), and then prints the file. The client polls the server occasionally to retrieve information on the status of the printer and the print queue. The server processes these requests and sends back the information to the client.
The server consists of drivers that communicate with the printer, and filters that convert data from one format to another.
The client consists of graphical tools for submitting and monitoring the status of a print job, and a network interface for sending print requests to the server.
Impressario uses the SVR3 spooling system to queue print jobs. Impressario supplements the spooling system with graphical printing tools, filters, and a network status daemon called podd. The configuration files for the spooling system are located in the directory /var/spool/lp. The following additional directories are created when Impressario is installed:
| /var/spool/lp/pod | contains the configuration, status, and log files for each directly connected printer | |
| /var/spool/lp/gui_model | contains the templates for the graphical options panels for each printer | |
| /var/spool/lp/gui_interface | contains the instantiations for the graphical options panels for each printer | |
| /var/spool/lp/settings | contains the printer settings files (see below) | |
| /var/spool/lp/activeicons | contains “tagged” files that represent the state (busy, idle, broken) of a printer; they are used for iconic representation of printers on the desktop | |
| /var/spool/lp/app-defaults | contains application default files for PrintPanel for remote printers | |
| /var/spool/lp/devices | contains device files for printers | |
| /var/spool/lp/psparams | contains PostScript interpreter files | |
| /var/spool/lp/psparams | scratch files and working directory for the PostScript interpreter | |
| /var/spool/lp/PPD_model | contains PostScript Printer Definition (PPD) files for the Impressario PPD driver | |
| /var/spool/lp/PPD_untested | contains untested PostScript Printer Definition (PPD) files for the Impressario PPD driver |
This section identifies the location of the settings files and describes ways to save multiple settings for a single printer.
| Note: See Chapter 2, “Printing With Impressario”, for information on saving the settings for a particular printer. |
When you save printer settings, the configuration information is saved in the directory /var/spool/lp/settings. Within this directory are directories named after each printer on your system. For example, the settings files for the printer named “speedy” are located in the directory /var/spool/lp/settings/speedy. The settings files are named after the user who saved printer configuration information from the PrintPanel. Thus, if the users named “joe” and “peg” saved settings for the printer “speedy,” there will be settings files named /var/spool/settings/speedy/joe and /var/spool/settings/speedy/peg.
You may find it convenient to save useful groups of settings for a single printer. For example, say you have a printer named “speedy” that can print single-sided or double-sided pages. Whenever you print presentations, you want them single-sided; when you print long documents, you want them double-sided.
Rather than change speedy's settings when you change the type of document you're printing, you can create two instances of speedy, say “speedysingle” and “speedydouble.” Set one to print single-sided and the other to print double-sided. You can print to these new printer queues directly from an application, by dragging and dropping the file (see “Dragging and Dropping Files to Print” in Chapter 2), or by opening PrintPanel and selecting the file you want to print (see “Opening Impressario Tools” in Chapter 1).
To create a copy of speedy with new printer options, use the Printer Manager to add a new printer queue (adapt this example as needed):
Open the Printer Manager from your System toolchest.
Type in the new printer name. For example, speedydouble.
Choose Remote Host.
Note: Even if the printer is connected directly to your workstation, choose Remote Host instead of Local Host. Type in the name of the SGI system that administers “speedy.”
Click on List Printers. A list of printers appears, including speedy.
Choose speedy from the Printer List, and click OK to exit this window. A printer icon called speedydouble now appears in the Printer Manager.
Click once on the speedydouble icon to select it.
Click Options. Change the paper to double-sided, and click OK to exit this window and save the new settings.
You can use the Scanner Manager to access a scanner that is connected to another system on the network (see “Setting Up Scanner Software” in Chapter 1) and use gscan to scan from the scanner (see “Choosing to Scan From a Scanner” in Chapter 3) as long as both systems have Impressario installed.
When you set up a new scanner or access it for scanning, the client system contacts the server system and requests that it start the scannerd daemon. Since scanners cannot queue scan jobs, only one user can use the scanner at a time.
The Impressario Server printing software can recognize many different types of files. Once a file type is identified, the printing software uses a set of rules to convert the file from its original type into a printable format.
Included with Impressario is the file viewing program vstiff. vstiff uses the same set of rules as the printing software and is able to convert virtually any type of file into a format that can be viewed on your display. You can use vstiff as a debugging tool; if a print job does not print or prints incorrectly, run vstiff on the file you want to print and note any error messages it displays.
| Note: vstiff uses the PostScript interpreter psrip to display some file types. psrip is included with the Impressario software; however, an optional license must be purchased if you wish to use psrip. If the optional license has not been purchased then you can use the showps command to display PostScript files. |
See Chapter 4, “Viewing Files With vstiff”vstiff” and the vstiff(1) reference page for information on using vstiff.
| Note: The rule set and filters exist only on an Impressario server. vstiff cannot convert all printable files into a viewable format on systems that do not have Impressario installed. |
Once you've used the Printer Manager to set up the printers that you want to access (see “Setting Up an Impressario Printer” in Chapter 1), printing files is usually very straightforward—you ask an application to print a file, then pick up your completed job from the printer.
The work that the system does to make files print, however, is fairly involved—especially when you are sending files over a network to printers that are not directly connected to your workstation. If printing problems do arise, the information in this section should help you correct them quickly.
The information applies to you only if you are printing from within an application or from the desktop.
This section covers two main topics:
“A Troubleshooting Roadmap” gives you a brief overview of the printing process, plus step-by-step information to isolate and resolve printing problems. You'll get more out of this section if you also read “Understanding the Printing Process”, but, if you're anxious to resolve a problem without reading through background information, start with this section.
“Understanding the Printing Process” describes the process in detail, outlines how and when the process may fail, and describes the troubleshooting tools that are available to you.
A successful printing process includes these four basic steps:
You must issue a print command and specify a printer that is set up to work with your system.
Your system (the local system) must correctly process the request and send it to the system to which the printer is physically attached (the printing system).
Note: If the printer is physically attached to your system, the local system is also the printing system; if the printer is attached to another system on the network, that system is the remote printing system. The printing system must process the print request and send it to the printer.
The printer must be in working order; if it's out of paper or toner, it cannot print.
See “Understanding the Printing Process” for a more detailed description of what the system does at each step.
The troubleshooting steps below show you how to determine which part of this process is failing. Be sure you know the administrator's password; various steps require that you become the administrator.
If you sent your job to the printer more than 30 minutes ago, send it again. This way you can monitor its progress from the start.
Start the Printer Manager by choosing “Printer Manager” from the System toolchest.
Find the icon for the printer to which you sent your job.
If the icon is there, double-click it to open it.
If you don't see the icon, that printer has not been set up to work with your system. See “Setting Up an Impressario Printer” in Chapter 1.
Find your print job in the queue.
The entries in this window are jobs that have already reached the printer's queue.
If you see your job in the queue and the printer is attached to the local system, skip ahead to step 6.
If you see your job in the queue and the printer is attached to a remote system, go on to step 5.
If you don't see your job, see “Job Never Appears in the Local Queue”.
Note: Your job may not appear in the queue immediately after you issue the print command; either it printed so quickly that the system didn't have time to display it in the queue, or there is a problem. If the printer did not print the job, wait several minutes before assuming it's not going to appear in the queue.
Physically go to the system to which the printer is connected. Its queue contains all print jobs that have actually reached the system. Find your print job in the remote queue.
Your job is labeled with your login name and is the same size as it is in the local queue. It does not have the same job number.
If you see your job in the remote queue, go on to step 6.
If you don't see your job, see “Job Never Appears in the Remote Queue”.
Watch the queue of the printing system (the system to which the printer is attached).
If your job disappears from the queue, skip ahead to step 9.
If after several minutes no jobs disappear from the queue, go on to step 7.
If all the jobs ahead of yours disappear, and jobs behind yours disappear while yours remains at the top of the queue, delete your job and try to print it again.
Make sure the printer is printing requests. Physically go to the system to which the printer is attached, open the printer's queue window, and choose “Printer Printing Your Queued Jobs” from the Queue menu.
If your job disappears from the queue, skip ahead to step 9.
If no jobs disappear from the queue, go on to step 8.
Check whether lpsched, the print spooler that controls the flow of jobs out of the queue, is running. On the printing system, open a shell window and type:
lpstat -r
Then press Enter.
If the lpsched spooler is running, you see this message:
scheduler is running
Go on to step 9.
If the lpsched spooler is not running, you see this message:
scheduler is not running
See “Checking and Restarting lpsched” to turn it on.
Check the physical state of the printer; for example:
Turn the printer off and on.
Make sure the paper or transparencies are properly loaded, there is enough toner, and the printer isn't physically jammed.
Check all status lights and panels on the printer for error messages.
Make sure the cable is securely connected to the correct ports on both the system and the printer.
If you find a physical problem, correct it and try printing again.
If you find no physical problem and no jobs disappear from the queue, the job's owner (possibly you) should cancel the job and try to print it again. If the next job in the queue does not disappear, go on to step 10.
If you find no physical problem and your job disappears from the queue but does not print, see “Job Disappears From a Queue but Never Prints”.
Remove all jobs from the queue and choose “Send Test Page” from the Printer menu to send a test page.
If the test page prints, try printing your job again.
If the test page doesn't print, contact your local support organization.
Use this section if the printer icon to which you sent your print job appears in the Printer Manager, but your job does not appear in the local queue. You should be looking at the printer's queue window.
Choose “Send Test Page” from the Printer menu to test the printer setup.
If the test job appears in the queue, try printing your job again. If your job still doesn't appear, go on to step 2.
If the test job does not appear in the queue, make sure both “Printer Accepting Your Jobs” and “Printer Printing Your Queued Jobs” are chosen in the Queue menu. Send another test job. If it still doesn't appear, contact your local support organization.
Make sure you followed the correct steps to specify a particular printer for your job.
If you chose from a list of available printers and the job doesn't appear in the queue, go on to step 3.
If you typed the printer name into a field, or if the application filled in the field for you, make sure the name exactly matches that of a printer that appears in the Printer Manager; then try printing again. Remember that names are case-sensitive; “Printer1” is not the same as “printer1”. If the printer still doesn't appear, go on to step 3.
If you didn't explicitly specify a printer when you made the print request, either you or the application previously specified a default printer; the job may be in another printer's queue.
See the user's guide that came with the application to find out how it specifies a default printer and how you can change it. (For example, when you select a file and choose “Print” from the Selected toolchest or menu, the file is automatically sent to the printer that you specified as the default in the Printer Manager.) Change the default and try printing again. If it still doesn't appear, go on to step 3.
Make sure you gave the application all the printing information it needs.
Some applications have both a print command and a print dialog box. If a dialog box appeared and you didn't notice it, didn't fill it out correctly, or didn't confirm your information (that is, click an Accept or OK button), the job will not go to the queue.
If there is a dialog box, fill it out completely, then try printing again. If the job still doesn't appear in the queue, go on to step 4.
If there is no dialog box, go on to step 4.
Open the console window and check for error messages.
Note: You must look in the console; error messages will not be reported to any other shell window. If there are no error messages, contact your local support organization.
If a message states that you're out of disk space, then there isn't enough space for the system to create a version of the file that is in the correct format for the printer. Remove files or directories that you no longer need and try to print your job again. You could also try just printing a range of pages rather than the entire file.
If a message specific to the application from which you are printing appears, for example, a message stating that the application couldn't find a necessary file, refer to the documentation that came with the application.
Look in the file /var/spool/lp/log for error messages.
Use this section if your print job appears in your local queue, but does not appear in the queue when you view it on the system that's connected to the printer. You should be looking at the printer's queue window.
See if there is already a different job in the remote queue that was sent from your local queue (that is, a job that belongs to you or to another user on your local system).
If no jobs from your local queue appear in the remote queue, go on to step 2.
If your local queue has already sent one job to the remote queue, it will not send another job to the remote queue until the first one prints. Wait until the first job disappears and, if your next job still does not appear in the remote queue, go on to step 2.
Make sure the local printer queue is sending print requests to the remote system.
Make sure “Printer Printing Your Queued Jobs” is chosen in the Queue menu. If no jobs from your local queue appear in the remote queue, go on to step 3.
Make sure the information about the remote system and remote printer that is shown in the printer's queue window is accurate.
If someone changed the name of the printer or physically moved the printer and connected it to another workstation, your jobs cannot reach it. See “Changing the Setup of a Printer” in Chapter 3 of your Personal System Administration Guide to give the system the new information. Then try printing again.
If the information about the remote system and printer is accurate, go on to step 4.
Check whether lpsched, the print spooler that controls the flow of jobs from the local queue to the remote system, is running. On your own system, open a shell window and type:
lpstat -r
Then press Enter.
If the lpsched spooler is running you see this message:
scheduler is running
Go on to step 5.
If the lpsched spooler is not running you see this message:
scheduler is not running
See “Checking and Restarting lpsched” to turn it on.
Test the network connection by opening a shell window and using the /usr/etc/ping command with the remote system's hostname. For example, if the remote hostname is mars, type:
/usr/etc/ping mars
Then press Enter. You see some messages that will repeat indefinitely; to stop the messages, press Ctrl-C. You see a summary of the connection. Look for these lines:
mars PING statistics <#>packets transmitted,<#> packets received,0% packet loss
If this line reports 0% packet loss, your connection to the remote system is working. Go on to step 6.
If this line reports between 1% and 100% packet loss, your connection to the remote system is not stable. Physically go to the remote system to make sure both the printer and the system are turned on. If they were off, turn them on, and try to print again.
If they were already turned on, make sure the remote system is communicating with the network; use the /usr/etc/ping command on the remote system to try to reach a system on the network other than your system.
If the remote system can communicate with any other system on the network, your system may not be connected to the network properly. On your own system, try the /usr/etc/ping command with another hostname; also make sure your network cable is properly connected to your workstation. If you cannot communicate with any system over the network, or if a high percent packet loss continues, contact your network administrator. Either your network connection or the network itself has a problem.
Check the access permissions on the remote system by trying to copy a file to the remote system using the same login account that lpsched uses to copy over your job. For example, use jot to create a small text file named testit, then copy it to the remote system (mars) using the lp account; type:
su lp
rcp testit lp@mars:/usr/tmp
If you see no error messages, the file successfully reached the remote system. Go on to step 7.
If you see an error message saying that the login was incorrect or that permissions were denied, contact the Administrator of the remote system; the Administrator needs to make changes to the lp account.
Choose “Send Test Page” from the Printer menu on your own system to test the printer setup.
If the test job appears in the remote queue, go on to step 8.
If the test job does not appear in the remote queue, physically go to the remote system, open the queue window for the printer, and turn off and on “Printer Printing Your Queued Jobs” and “Printer Accepting Your Jobs” in the Queue menu. Go back to your own system and send another test job. If the test job appears, try to print your job again.
Physically go to the remote system and open the console window to check for error messages.
Note: You must look in the console on the remote system; error messages will not be reported to any other shell window. If a message states that the system is out of disk space, then there isn't enough space for the system to accept the file or to make a copy of the file to print. Have the Administrator of the remote system remove files or directories that are no longer needed and try to print your job again.
If a message specific to the application from which you are printing appears, for example, a message stating that the application couldn't find a necessary file, refer to the documentation included with the application.
If there are no error messages, try to print your job again. If your job still does not appear in the remote queue, contact your local support organization.
Use this section if your print job disappears from a local or remote queue but the printer never prints it out.
Check your mail messages.
If the administrator of the printing system deletes your job, you receive a mail message to that effect. Contact the administrator to make sure you may try to print the job again.
If there is no such mail message, go on to step 2.
Check whether the printer is printing any jobs.
If the printer prints the next job in the queue, there is something wrong with your particular job; go on to step 3.
If all jobs are disappearing from the queue but the printer does not print them, skip ahead to step 4.
Send the job again, and check whether the printer receives it.
Most printers have a status mechanism (a blinking light or digital message) that shows that the printer has received a job and is trying to print it.
If the status mechanism shows that it is trying to print your job but never does, the job is too complex; the printer either gave up after a specified period of time (that is, it “timed out”), or the printer does not have enough memory to hold the job. If possible, break it up into smaller jobs and try printing it again (for example, send only two pages of a ten-page document). If it still doesn't print, go on to step 4.
If the status mechanism doesn't show that it is trying to print a job, the printer didn't receive data that it could understand. This means the initial processing that your application or other filter did to prepare the file for printing did not produce a file in the correct format for this printer. You may be missing some filtering software. Try printing the file on a different type of printer. For example, if you initially sent your job to a color image printer connected to a parallel port, now send it to a black and white PostScript printer connected to a serial port. If it still doesn't print, go on to step 4.
Remove all jobs from the queue on the printing system and choose “Send Test Page” from the Printer menu to send a test page.
If the test page prints, the printer is set up correctly, but cannot print the types of files you are sending it. Contact your local support organization.
If the test job disappears from the queue but doesn't print, contact your local support organization.
Use this section to check whether lpsched is running, and to restart it if necessary.
Check whether lpsched is running by typing:
lpstat -r
Then press Enter.
If the lpsched spooler is not running, you see this message:
scheduler is not running
Go to step 2 to turn it on.
If the lpsched spooler is running, you see this message:
scheduler is running
Turn on lpsched if it is not running.
Open a shell window on the system where it is not running, then log in as root by typing:
su
Then press Enter.
If a prompt for a password appears, type the password, then press Enter. If a prompt appears but the root account has no password, just press Enter.
Start lpsched by typing:
/etc/init.d/lp start
Then press Enter.
Log out of the root account by typing:
exit
Then press Enter.
Make sure lpsched is now running by typing:
lpstat -r
Then press Enter.
If the lpsched spooler is running, you see this message:
scheduler is running
Jobs that were not reaching a remote queue because lpsched was not running on the local system should now reach that queue; jobs that were not disappearing from the printing queue because lpsched was not running on the printing system should now print out.
If you do not see this message, contact your local support organization.
This sequence of steps describes the process that your system uses to print files. The details (such as system name, application name, and job IDs) are only examples.
On your own system (saturn), you ask an application (IRIS Showcase™) to print a file (slide1), and explicitly or implicitly request a particular printer (color-seiko).
IRIS Showcase (or another filter program) creates a new version of slide1 (a new file) that is in the correct format for color-seiko.
IRIS Showcase runs the lp command on the file on saturn. lp assigns the file a job ID number (10), sends it to color-seiko's queue, and alerts lpsched (the spooler that controls the flow of jobs out of the queue) that the file (job #10) is ready to be printed. The printer's queue displays job #10 in the local queue for color-seiko.
color-seiko is actually connected to another system on the network (mars) where it is named seiko1. When job #10 reaches the top of color-seiko's queue, lpsched copies it across the network to the /usr/tmp directory on mars.
lp on mars makes a copy of job #10 in /var/spool/lp/request. It then assigns it a new ID number (20) that doesn't conflict with other IDs on mars, sends it to seiko1's queue, and alerts lpsched on mars that job #20 is ready to print. The Printer Manager on mars shows job #20 in seiko1's local queue; the Printer Manager on saturn continues to show job #10 in color-seiko's queue.
When job #20 reaches the top of the queue, lpsched sends the job over a cable to seiko1.
seiko1 receives job #20 and prints out slide1 on paper or a transparency.
Job #10 disappears from color-seiko's queue; job #20 disappears from seiko1's local queue. lpsched sends the next job in color-seiko's local queue to mars.
This section shows how the printing process may fail at each step shown in “Understanding the Printing Process”; it does not describe how to correct the failure. See “A Troubleshooting Roadmap” for a step-by-step approach to isolate and correct failures in the printing process.
When you ask an application to print a file on a certain printer:
The file may go to a printer other than the one you expect because a hidden default is set.
You may specify a printer that's not currently set up on your system.
You may not actually complete the print request.
When the application or filter tries to create a new version of the file:
There may not be enough memory or disk space in the system for the new file. If this is the problem, you see an error message in the console window.
The new file it creates may not be in the correct format for the printer (usually due to missing filter software). You will not find out that this has happened until the printer fails to print it. An error message appears in the /var/spool/lp/log file.
When the application runs lp on the file:
The printer may not be allowing new jobs to enter its queue, that is, “Printer Accepting Your Jobs” is not chosen in the printer's Queue menu.
If lp tries to make a copy of the file in /var/spool/lp/request, there may not be enough memory or disk space in the system for the new file. If this is the problem, you see an error message in the console window.
lp may not be able to find the printer you specified. If you typed in a printer name that does not exist, lp cannot submit your job to that printer's queue.
The permissions on the file may not be set up to allow others to read it; in this case lp cannot process it. If this is the problem, you see a message in the console window saying permissions were denied.
When lpsched tries to copy the file to the remote system:
If lpsched is not running, it cannot direct the file to a printer or remote system. Typing lpstat -r determines whether lpsched is running.
The remote queue may already contain a job that came from your local queue. lpsched on your system waits until the job that is already in the remote queue disappears from that queue before it sends the next job.
The printer may not be allowing jobs to exit from its queue, that is, “Printer Printing Your Queued Jobs” is not chosen in the printer's Queue menu.
The network may be down.
Your system may not be communicating with the network; for example, your networking software is not working or your network cable is loose.
The remote system may not be communicating with the network; for example, it may be turned off.
The remote system may not allow your system to use the printer. See Chapter 2, “Printers” in the optional IRIX Admin: Peripheral Devices guide for information on using the addclient command.
The remote system may not have enough disk space to accept the file.
When lp on the remote system tries to process the file:
When lp tries to make a copy of the file in /var/spool/lp/request, there may not be enough memory or disk space in the remote system for the new file.
The remote printer may not be allowing new jobs to enter its queue, that is, “Printer Accepting Your Jobs” is not chosen in the printer's Queue menu.
The printer on the remote system may be gone or renamed. For example, if someone changed the name of seiko1 to seiko2, lp on the remote system cannot find seiko1. lp does not report this back to your system, so your job remains in the local queue as if it were printing, but never appears in the remote queue. lp does record the problem in the /var/spool/lp/log file on the remote system.
When lpsched sends the job over the cable to the printer:
If lpsched is not running, the file will never be directed to a printer. Use the lpstat -r command on the remote (printing) system to check lpsched.
The printer may not be allowing jobs to exit from its queue, that is, “Printer Printing Your Queued Jobs” is not chosen in the printer's Queue menu on the remote (printing) system.
The cable may be loose or disconnected.
The cable may be broken or frayed.
The cable may not have the correct pinouts to match the printer or the system.
The printer may be turned off.
When the printer receives the job and tries to print it:
The printer may be jammed or out of supplies such as paper or toner.
The printer may not have enough memory to print a complex job. In this case, the printer's status mechanism shows it is trying to print, but then the printer gives up after a specified period of time, removes the job from the queue, and prints nothing.
The printer may not understand the format of the job because the application or filter did not convert the file correctly. In this case, the printer's status mechanism never shows that it is trying to print, and the printer removes the job from the queue but never prints it.
When jobs disappear from the queue:
Jobs may disappear from the queue but never actually print as described above.
Jobs may never disappear from the queue if the physical printer is not working correctly.
If jobs ahead of yours in the queue disappear, then jobs behind yours disappear while yours remains at the top of the queue, there is something wrong with your job; cancel it and try to print it again.
When you troubleshoot printing problems using “A Troubleshooting Roadmap”, you use a number of different tools and techniques. This section summarizes the tools, and suggests other sources of information on isolating and correcting problems.
| “Send Test Page” | |
This choice appears in the Printer menu in the Printer Manager window and in each individual printer's queue window. When you choose “Send Test Page,” you run the lp command on a sample file that is already in the correct format for that printer; in other words, you bypass steps 1 and 2 of the printing process described in “Understanding the Printing Process”. | |
| lpstat | |
This IRIX™ command provides an alternate view of the queues that the Printer Manager displays; it also reports whether lpsched is running. To see a full lpstat listing that includes queues for every printer on the system plus the status of lpsched, you would type: lpstat -t | |
| /var/spool/lp/log | |
This file contains a history of all printing activity and errors. Its messages are often difficult to understand, but you may find some useful error information that you can use for troubleshooting. For example, a “login incorrect” message that has a timestamp near a time when your job could not reach a remote queue may make you suspect that there is a password on the lp account on the remote system. | |
| /etc/init.d/lp start | |
This IRIX command restarts the scheduler, lpsched. | |
| Other documentation | |
Appendix A in the optional IRIX Admin: Peripheral Devices guide contains a detailed table of printing error messages and Chapter 2 describes how to use the lp system from an IRIX shell; the lp reference page gives a complete listing of all the command line options for lp. | |