uport lp device problems, HP LaserJ

[dfriedlander at cdp.UUCP]

Mike, I had similar problems with 386/ix, which is a very
similar product.  As for problems with lpset, I simply stopped using
it and went through the administration menus instead.  They work better --
since they check for all the arcana of the lp spooler.
The other problem you are describing -- the printing of lines successively
to the right on the page -- has to do with the UNIX convention of ending
lines with a line feed only, and not a CRLF as DOS does.  Since DOS under
UNIX utilities generally output their data in UNIX format, the printer
does not respond properly.  There are two possible solutions to this:
1.  You can set your printer up to insert a carriage return wheneve
it gets a line feed.  This is sometimes called LF interpretation, or
something like that in the manual, and most printers will allow you 
to do this.  I am sure the HP has such an option.

2.  The other method is to create a printer driver that will do this for
you.  This is actually very easy to do.  Find your printer drivers, which
are located in ( I think) /usr/spool/lp/model, and copy one to a new name.
These drivers are simply scripts which the lp driver uses to send text to
the printer.  After doing some initial magic, they usually contain a line
which sends the text to the printer, line by line.  What you need to do
is put in a statement which converts a UNIX format text file to a DOS
format text file.  The utilities that do that on my system are "lef" and
"utod" (either one will do).

Install this printer using the usual administration utilities; text sent
here should print the way you want it.

David Friedlander
Io Consulting Inc.
1841 Broadway
New York, N.Y. 10023
(212)489-0530