Subject: Re: SYSV4 and DVI Laserjet IIIp printer driver Date: Sun, 5 Jan 92 15:09:10 MET PROBLEM: Fred Appelman wrote: +> I am looking for a TeX printer driver that runs under System V release 4 +> (Dell Unix) that can drive my Laserjet IIIp printer. I have already tried +> various packages, but have been unsucessfull so far. The printer has +> 1 Mb of printer memory. +> +> I have tried the following: +> dvi2lj (Version 0.50) -- Compiles fine. When I print I do get a result, +> but several of the letters are printed at the +> wrong position. My reply: +I am really wondering, what is going on to happen under Dell Unix. +As i am the author of the driver mentioned above, i KNOW that on a lot +of various platforms and operating systems your problem never occured. +I have no DELL unix around, but at least with interactive unix, the driver +works like a charm. + +The most frequent problem with the driver in the UNIX world is, that +the printer setup is somewhat messed up. people spoiled with postscript +do not pay attention that the printer setup (such as line-print filter, tty +settings) is 8 bit transparent. The easiest way to figure out whether +this is happening is to print a tex document containing just the +text "aeiou" whith cmr10 (no magn). the with of the i in the font is 10 +pixels, which is encoded in pcl as 0x0a, which many printer drivers like +to translate in . As a consequence the output after "i" is messed +up. SOLUTION (Fred Appelman): Thank you for your help. The problem was exactly as you described. The printer output was not 8 bit transparent. Your suggested test procedure was brilliant. By directly copying the data to the device file, I had no problems, so I was pretty sure that the problem was somewhere in the driver. I have found the error: This is a part of the original code: : ${TERM:=unknown} if [ ${TERM} = hplaser ]; then jetfile=1 else TERM=hplaser export TERM jetfile= fi tput lines 1>/dev/null 2>&1 || TPUT=: After the fix: : ${TERM:=unknown} if [ ${TERM} = hplaser ]; then jetfile=1 else TERM=hplaser export TERM jetfile=1 fi tput lines 1>/dev/null 2>&1 || TPUT=: So a description of the fix: 1. Log in as root 2. Edit the file /usr/lib/lp/model/hplaser 3. Change line 486 from jetfile= into jetfile=1 4. Remove the printerdefintion: lpadmin -xlj (or whatever name you have choosen) 5. Reinstall the printer lpadmin -p lj -mhplaser -T "hplaser" -v /dev/lp Note1: The name of the printer (lj) or the device (/dev/lp) can vary. Note2: This fix was necessary on Dell UNIX SYSVR4 relase 2.0 Newer releases may not need this fix.