How to set up spooling for a HP JetDirect interface?

[Jorge Gonzalez Villalonga]

Tulipant-Gergely at dbrt.hu wrote:
> 
> I've set up Samba and LPRng for HP printers with
> JetDirect cards. It works for one user at a
> time. But if the printer is off-line or busy, the
> samba client does not get an error message, but
> the job gets lost. :( I would like the print
> jobs to be spooled on Linux even when there is an
> active print job or when the printer is off-line.
> Unfortunately I'm not familiar with lpd.
> 

The question is that JetDirect don't know about spooling. I have here a
LaserJet 4MPlus with a JD interface, and I had the same problem, until I
stuck a print server in front of it. If you want spooling, you'll have
to do it (well, Linux will do it for you ;-). You just have to set up a
print queue with Lpd on the samba host, and make samba print through it
instead of doing it directly to the JetDirect.

In my LJ4 manual, it says that the firmware in the jetdirect is not
multithreaded, and so it can't handle two tasks simultaneously, i.e., if
it's printing, then it can't handle the network, and viceversa.

My setup is a low-end 486 with LInux as a printer server, and the LJ4
connected to it through the parallel port. And it spools.

-- 
Jorge Gonzalez  <jorgegv at icai.upco.es>       -o)
ICAI - Universidad Pontificia Comillas       /\\
Administrador de Sistemas                   _\_v