RE: [Hpoj-devel] newbie question

[PASCHAL,DAVID (HP-Roseville,ex1) <dav...@hp...>]

> > It should report something like "Hewlett-Packard" (possibly all
> > uppercased) and "OfficeJet Series 700" for the manufacturer and
> > model fields.
> 
> forgive my ignorance on the subject but how would such information get
> to these files?  is there some package or something I have to
> install/run before I try to install your sofware?  I have the lpr
> package installed... is there anything else I need?

The "files" in /proc are not actually stored on disk anywhere.  They are
generated by the kernel (in this case, the parport drivers) on-the-fly when
they are accessed.  Normally when the parport drivers are loaded, they do
their own probe of the parallel port(s) to attempt to retrieve a device ID
string from any attached peripherals, and a somewhat abridged version of the
device ID string is available as /proc/parport/0/autoprobe (for port 0).
ieee12844pp.o does its own probe to get to the actual (unabridged) device ID
string from any attached peripherals.  It appears that in both cases, the
device ID string cannot be read.

> > Strange.  Did you do this while the parport, parport_pc, and
> parport_probe
> > modules were loaded?  I would have expected to see lines like:
> >	0378-037a : parport0
> >	0778-077a : parport0
> 
> yes, I did.  I can see the 3 modules loaded.....

Try "cat /proc/ioports" again after insmoding "lp".  Maybe you need an
actual parallel port client driver (not just the parport helpers) for it to
show up.  I am concerned that your parallel port isn't showing up in the
list.

> > I'm really starting to run out of ideas here.
> 
> no! no! :)  this can't be that difficult!
I'm trying my best here.  :-)

> > The only thing I can think of is that
> > maybe you have a bad parallel port or cable.
> 
> I use this printer to print from my laptop so I know the printer's
> good and so is the cable.
> 
> > What brand/model of computer are you using?
> 
> it's an old brandless P90 with Phoenix BIOS and a 20G drive. but I
> know his parallel port is good because before I installed Linux on it
> I could print from it on Win98.

What are you running on the laptop?  Linux or Windows?

When you first set up this peripheral on Windows 98 (whether on the P90
before Linux or on the laptop if that's what you're running there), was
Windows able to detect the device in a "plug and play" fashion?  In other
words, when you booted or otherwise made it probe for new hardware, did it
pop up a "New hardware found wizard" and indicate that the found device was
an HP OfficeJet 700 and automatically pick the right driver, or did you have
to tell it what driver to use yourself?

Or on the other hand, did you use the Windows-based software that came with
the OfficeJet?  That type of software tends to be pretty picky about
insisting that you use it only with the right model, so if it was happy then
it must have been able to probe the device.  Did you try scanning or faxing
(to/from the PC, not standalone) under Windows?

David