I'm trying to set up a NEC Silentwriter 95f (postscript laser) as a serial
printer for my SE/30, in the eventual hope that I'll be able to use it with
CAP's lwsrv as a print server.  I installed lprps, a text to PostScript
filter, and created an entry in /etc/printcap:

lp|Silentwriter 95f:\
	:lp=/dev/tty01:\
	:sd=/var/spool/lpd:\
	:lf=/var/log/lpd-errs:\
	:af=/var/log/lpd.acct:\
	:if=/usr/local/lib/psif:\
	:br#19200:ms#0:sf:sh:rw:sb:\
	:fc#0177777:fs#003:

When I try...

{sabi#ttyp3@roadrunner:4} 2:04pm ~>lpr cs-cshrc
{sabi#ttyp3@roadrunner:5} 2:04pm ~>lpq
lp is ready and printing
Rank   Owner        Job  Files                 Total Size
active sabi         18   cs-cshrc 	           842 bytes
{sabi#ttyp3@roadrunner:6} 2:04pm ~>lpq
no entries

my printer displays "PROCESSING", then "WAITING", then times out, and no
error messages show up.  When I call lpr with -m I even get the daemon to
mail me with "Your printer job completed successfully."

How could I monitor what is going on to see what's wrong?  I am using a 8
pin serial cable (has worked in the past for Mac-to-Mac communication), and
have configured the printer's serial port via the front panel to be 19200,
N81.  The 'fc' and 'fs' info from above I got from the INSTALL  document
included with lprps.  I tried with lower bps rates, down to 2400, but all
that did was succeed in extending the amount of time that the printer
displayed "PROCESSING".

I've never set up a PS printer serially before (or any printer on this
system) so if I'm missing something obvious, or not so obvious, I'd
appreciate any ideas.

Thanks,

<sabi
 _____________________________________________________
|Nicholas Riley  |             nriley@cs.brandeis.edu |
|nriley@tiac.net | nriley@staff.feldberg.brandeis.edu |
|________________|_<http://www.tiac.net/users/nriley/>|