Joni wrote:

Hi guys whats up?

I have 2 hp laser printers into my network...the first one is hp 4550, the secund one is hp laserjet 5.

I am using this follow configuration into /etc/printcap;

rlp|hp4550 :\ :lp=:\ :rm=192.168.0.52:\ :rp=hp:\ :sd=/var/spool/lpd/remote:\ :mx#0:\ :sh:

rlp|hp :\ :lp=:\ :rm=192.168.0.72:\ :rp=hp:\ :sd=/var/spool/lpd/remote:\ :mx#0:\ :sh:

The fist one works perfectly but se secund one doesn´. an example, to print on ls -lhs | lpr -Php the result is this on the printer hp laserjet 5

bin boot dev etc floppy home initrd lib mnt none

opt

blablabla..........

insted....

bin boot dev etc floppy home initrd lib mnt none opt

somebody could help me i dont know what to do........

thanks a lot

Joni Hoppen

This is the very entertaining "staircase effect". Haven't seen this one in a long time. What's happening comes from the difference between UNIX and DOS interpretation of what a carriage return is. In UNIX (and so too Linux) a carriage return is simply a '\n', a.k.a., a "newline" (0x0A). In DOS, on the other hand, a carriage return is composed of two characters together, a '\r' (0x0D) and a '\n' (0x0A). You're sending the printer a UNIX code-- just a '\n'-- but it's expecting a '\r' and a '\n'. In other words, your printer is only doing half of the carriage return, just going down to the next line and not going to the beginning of that line. To fix it, you need to put another entry in your /etc/printcap file. I don't remember exactly what the code is, but I'm sure it's in the Printing-HOWTO. Search that document for the "staircase effect" and you'll have your answer. hth, ken -- A lot of us are working harder than we want, at things we don't like to do. Why? ...In order to afford the sort of existence we don't care to live. -- Bradford Angier