All customers will access the new box atlrms01 via the network. This includes all terminals and printers. All the terminal are connected to and X.25 pad located and the customer facility. This pad passes the traffic onto our IP network. Our network uses ATM Cisco equipment for the backbone. Our facility here at Winword is connected to the ATM backbone via a T1 link located in the modem rack. The printers are connected to a Lantronix device known as a Print Server located at the customer facility. This Print Server device has 1 parallel port, 1 serial port, and 1 network port. This device must be programmed with an IP address to be able to access the network. Print requests are routed from the the Unix host through the network to the serial/parallel port on the Print Server to the printer. All problems with the network will be addressed by the RMS networking team (right now Tracy & Doug).

Troubleshooting Printer Problems

All printers on the new system are network printers with either a Print Server or a Jet Direct Card. These two devices will accept print requests from the network and pass it to the printer. These two devices are visible to the network as hosts and have an IP address. These addresses are located in the /etc/hosts file. Special printer queues are setup within the Unix environment that utilize the hostname of the remote device (the Print Server or Jet Direct Card). These queues use special files located in /usr/spool/lp. Use ping to see if the host is on the network or if the network is even accessible. Use lpstat -t to see a list of print jobs that might be pending. Use cancel to cancel a print job. Use lp to actually print a file to a printer.

$ ping doe

ping: unknown host doe

$

Resolution: add host name and it’s IP address to /etc/hosts

$ ping doeptr01

PING doeptr01: 64 byte packets

---- doeptr01 PING Statistics----

3 packets transmitted, 0 packets received, 100% packet loss

$ ping doerouter

PING doerouter: 64 byte packets

64 bytes from 147.146.150.1: icmp_seq=0. time=20. ms

64 bytes from 147.146.150.1: icmp_seq=1. time=13. ms

64 bytes from 147.146.150.1: icmp_seq=2. time=19. ms

64 bytes from 147.146.150.1: icmp_seq=3. time=14. ms

---- doerouter PING Statistics----

4 packets transmitted, 4 packets received, 0% packet loss

round-trip (ms) min/avg/max = 13/16/20

$

Notice that the main router that connects the client’s local network with ours is up. All routers will have host address of 1. If the router in up, chances are that the network is up. But this is not always the case. In this example, the host is disconnected from the network either by physical access or power.

$ ping doeptr01

PING doeptr01: 64 byte packets

64 bytes from 147.146.150.158: icmp_seq=0. time=20. ms

64 bytes from 147.146.150.158: icmp_seq=1. time=13. ms

64 bytes from 147.146.150.158: icmp_seq=2. time=19. ms

64 bytes from 147.146.150.158: icmp_seq=3. time=14. ms

----doeptr01 PING Statistics----

4 packets transmitted, 4 packets received, 0% packet loss

round-trip (ms) min/avg/max = 13/16/20

$

$ lpstat -t

scheduler is running

system default destination: rears_lp0

device for rears_lp0: /dev/null

remote to: lp0 on ears890

rears_lp0 accepting requests since May 9 13:45

printer rears_lp0 disabled since May 15 14:31 -

reason unknown

fence priority : 0

rears_lp0-214 root priority 0 May 15 14:32

.profile 517 bytes

rears_lp0-215 root priority 0 May 15 14:32

.profile 517 bytes

rears_lp0-216 root priority 0 May 15 14:32

.profile 517 bytes

printer queue for rears_lp0

no entries

atlrms2: Warning: rears_lp0 is down

atlrms2: rears_lp0: ready and waiting

$

Notice that the printer rears_lp0 on this system is disabled. The printer is also a set up as a remote printer. The actual physical printer is known as lp0 on ears890. Enabling the print queue rears_lp0 on this system doesn’t mean that it is enabled on ears890. If the printer queue is still full, check the queues on ears890 by doing the same thing.

$ enable rears_lp0

$ lpstat -t

scheduler is running

system default destination: rears_lp0

device for rears_lp0: /dev/null

remote to: lp0 on ears890

rears_lp0 accepting requests since May 9 13:45

printer rears_lp0 is idle. enabled since May 15 14:34

fence priority : 0

printer queue for rears_lp0

no entries

atlrms2: rears_lp0: ready and waiting

$

Notice that enabling the printer sent all the print jobs.

$ lpstat -t

scheduler is running

system default destination: rears_lp0

device for rears_lp0: /dev/null

remote to: lp0 on ears890

rears_lp0 accepting requests since May 9 13:45

printer rears_lp0 enabled since May 15 14:31 -

fence priority : 0

rears_lp0-215 root priority 0 May 15 14:32

.profile 517 bytes

rears_lp0-216 root priority 0 May 15 14:32

.profile 517 bytes

printer queue for rears_lp0

no entries

atlrms2: Warning: rears_lp0 is down

atlrms2: rears_lp0: ready and waiting

$ cancel rears_lp0-216

NAME

lpstat - report line printer status information

/usr/bin/lpstat -t

DESCRIPTION

The lpstat utility writes to standard output information about the current status of the line printer system. If no arguments are given, lpstat writes the status of all requests made to lp by the user that are still in the output queue.

NAME

lpsched, lpshut - start/stop the LP request scheduler

DESCRIPTION

lpsched Schedules requests taken by lp(1) for printing on line printers. lpsched is typically invoked in /sbin/rc. This creates a process which runs in the background until lpshut is executed. The activity of the process is recorded in /var/adm/lp/log.

lpshut Shuts down the line printer scheduler. All printers that are printing at the time lpshut is invoked stop printing. Requests that were printing at the time a printer was shut down are reprinted in their entirety after lpsched is started again. All LP commands perform their functions when lpsched is not running.

NAME

accept, reject - allow/prevent LP printer queuing requests

DESCRIPTION

The accept command permits the lp command (see lp(1)) to accept printing requests for each named LP printer or printer class destination queue.

The reject command causes the lp command to reject subsequent printing requests for each named destination queue. Requests already queued will continue to be processed for printing by the lpsched scheduler

NAME

enable, disable - enable/disable LP printers

DESCRIPTION

The enable command activates the named printers, enabling them to print requests taken by lp. Use lpstat to find the status of printers disable deactivates the named printers, disabling them from printing requests taken by lp. By default, any requests that are currently printing on the designated printers are reprinted in their entirety either on the same printer or on another member of the same class.

NAME

lp, cancel - print/alter/cancel requests on an LP printer or plotter\

/usr/bin/lp -dlp0 filename

/usr/bin/cancel lp0-xxx (where xxx is the queue number)

DESCRIPTION

The lp command queues files for printing. The cancel command deletes a queued request.

NAME

ping - send ICMP Echo Request packets to network host

/etc/ping doeptr01

DESCRIPTION

The ping command sends ICMP Echo Request (ECHO_REQUEST) packets to host once per second. Each packet that is echoed back via an ICMP Echo Response packet is written to the standard output, including round-trip time. The default datagram length is 64 bytes.