Summary: Jetadmin and Solaris 2.4

From: Dr. Dave Checketts (checkedg@eee.bham.ac.uk)
Date: Thu Jun 01 1995 - 07:25:09 CDT


My original posting on May 19th was as follows :-

>
> I am currently upgrading to 2.4 and trying to configure printing via a
> jetdirect card without any joy in the case of remote jobs.
>
> I have downloaded the latest version of the jetadmin software (C0233) and
> have the required jumbo kernel patch on Solaris 101945-23.
>
> I installed the laserjet4 with jetdirect card using the jetadmin tool onto
> a host and it worked fine. When I attempt to send jobs to it from a remote
> host, the job appears in the queue, the printer light flashes momentarily
> and then the job vanishes down a big hole.
>
> I know that I could install the printer directly on the remote host using
> jetadmin but with 40 machines to setup, this does not look like a very
> efficient method. I use custom jumpstart to install my machines and so
> need something which can be run from the command line (in the post_install
> script maybe). For other (non-jetadmin) printers, I can add them as remote
> devices using the 'lpadmin' command.
>
>
> 1) Has anyone else got this to work?
>
> 2) Is there something more that needs to be done on the remote host?
>
> 3) If it is not possible to use in master server mode, then is there a command
> line equivalent of the 'jetadmin' tool so that I could add the printer locally
> on each host in the post-install script.
>
>
> This problem has been bugging me for a while and HP are not proving very
> helpful saying that I must go through my dealer to get any tech support.
> The dealer has so far proved to be unhelpful also.
>
> Thanks in anticipation of your help. I will summarise.

Well here is the summary. Apologies for the delay. Thanks to all who responded.
The feedback I got has not been particularly rewarding as it would seem that
there are a number of unhappy HP customers out there with similar problems
with little assistance forthcoming from HP.

*********************************************************************************

Ramesh (rr@netrix.com) posted a similar query to my own at around the same time.
He later summarised by saying that his solution was to use a Solaris 2.3 machine
as a print host and that he could then send from 2.3 or 2.4 clients without
difficulty.

Amy (amy.hollander@amp.com) said that she was told by HP that it was not
possible to use the jetadmin software in this way. They had indicated that
the printer should be installed as a local printer on each host.

Debbie (debbiek@arlut.utexas.edu) said that she had been having the same problem
for a while but now seemed to have figured out the sequence of commands required
to make it work. I have tried the suggested method but without any joy.

Andreas (burkh@umc.com) mentioned some problems encountered when printing
more than two pages and suggests patches to both Solaris and Jetadmin. I
already the latest patches in place.

Sean (seanm@sybase.com) is even having trouble on 2.3 print hosts and is getting
core dumps in the /var/spool/lp dir. Maybe that is a different problem Sean.

**********************************************************************************

I have managed to get my supplier to place a call with HP and that has now been
open for nearly 2 weeks. The supplier calls every couple of days to say that
they are still waiting on HP to give a solution. (Am I surprised......?).

WORKAROUND
----------

This is hopefully only a temporary measure (where have I heard that one before?).
I looked into the Jetadmin configuration software and found it to be just a
collection of scripts. To install a printer for Solaris 2.4, 4 different
scripts are called. The first 3 just obtain information from the user. The
4th actually does the lpadmin jobs. I decided that I could at least automate
the installation process by making some small mods to the scripts (or copies of).
This is not ideal as it means the printer is seen as a local printer on each
machine. This has it's drawbacks, e.g. users cannot see the true job queue size
from other hosts; any later mods would have to be made on numerous machines etc.

My solution then was :-

a) Make a copy of the ~Jetadmin/admin/addprinter script for each printer
to be added. Call the copy something which identifies the printer.

b) Check what gets set in the ~Jetadmin/jetadmin, ~Jetadmin/admin/hpnpcfg
and ~Jetadmin/admin/option6solaris scripts and preset the values at the
start of the addprinter script. I set the following :-

MOTIFPATH=/usr/openwin/lib:/apps/motif/lib
LOG=/tmp/hpnpcfg.log
INTFDIR=/etc/lp/interfaces
MODELDIR=/usr/spool/lp/model
SPOOLNAME=ljet4_337
PERIPHNAME=jetdirect337
XTERM=""
HPNP=/usr/lib/hpnp
hpnpbin=/usr/lib/hpnp/bin
MODEL=net_lj4x
BANNER=""
CLASS=""
LOGNAME=""
XLANG=""
TEOJ="no"
JRECOV="yes"
JOBM="yes"
DEVTYPE=""
DEFAULTP=""

I then run the modified scripts from a post-install script in custom jumpstart.
It seems to work ok so far but it will be very difficult to incorporate future
jetadmin upgrades. I know it's not very elegant but it works NOW so I will use it.

I really don't believe that a company of the standing of HP do not have an
answer to this one but that appears to be the case at this point in time.

I can supply the full responses to anyone who is interested.

Regards

Dave

***************************************************************************
Dr. Dave G. Checketts | E-Mail d.g.checketts@bham.ac.uk
Computer Officer |
School of Elec. & Elec. Eng., |
University of Birmingham | Telephone: 021 414 4322
Birmingham, B15 2TT, | Fax: 021 414 4291
England
***************************************************************************"



This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : Fri Sep 28 2001 - 23:10:26 CDT