[vox-tech] postscript printer problem

[Henry House <hajhouMAPSse@houseag.com>]

I have an annoying intermittent problem with an Apple Laserwriter Select 360
connected to a Linux box via parallel cable. The spooler is lprng, with an
auto-generated print filter created by magicfilter, which treats the printer
as a generic 300dpi postscript printer. The system is Debian testing.

The problem: intermittently (particilarly after the printer has just been
turned on, but also after long idle periods), the printer loses the first
hundred lines of a print job, so that it does not see the header identifying
the job as postscript, and prints it as plain text instead. Subsequent print
jobs work fine.

There is some activity in /var/log/kern.log:

	# The printer has been turned on and a print job sent
	May  6 10:28:54 wotan kernel: lp0: compatibility mode
	May  6 10:29:03 wotan kernel: lp0 out of paper
	# The printout is faulty as described; the paper tray has paper
	# Second job sent; prints normally
	May  6 10:32:27 wotan kernel: lp0: compatibility mode

Nothing appears in /var/log/lpr. Even though the printer claims via the
kernel log to be out of paper, there is plenty of paper in its feeder tray.

Here are the lines relating to parallel support in Wotan's kernel
configuration:

	#
	# Parallel port support
	#
	CONFIG_PARPORT=m
	CONFIG_PARPORT_PC=m
	CONFIG_PARPORT_PC_CML1=m
	# CONFIG_PARPORT_SERIAL is not set
	CONFIG_PARPORT_PC_FIFO=y
	CONFIG_PARPORT_PC_SUPERIO=y
	# CONFIG_PARPORT_AMIGA is not set
	# CONFIG_PARPORT_MFC3 is not set
	# CONFIG_PARPORT_ATARI is not set
	# CONFIG_PARPORT_GSC is not set
	# CONFIG_PARPORT_SUNBPP is not set
	# CONFIG_PARPORT_OTHER is not set
	CONFIG_PARPORT_1284=y

Any ideas would be appreciated.

-- 
Henry House
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