[hpoj-devel] new "ptal-mlcd" I/O driver checked into CVS

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

Hi,

I'm pleased to announce that the new "ptal-mlcd" I/O driver I've talked a
lot about lately is now checked into CVS.  In addition to providing a more
robust I/O infrastructure for the hpoj software, ptal-mlcd now supports USB
for the OfficeJet G, K, and LaserJet 3200 series.  I would like to invite
everyone to download the new code from CVS and try it out, particularly
those who have requested USB support or who have reported problems with the
old kernel-mode drivers related to SMP machines or particular kernel
versions.

In addition to the ptal-mlcd addition, I also changed ptal-printd to fork
into the background by default (unless the "-nofork" switch is given), and
reorganized the codebase and build process somewhat.

Please let me know on the hpoj-devel mailing list of any problems that you
find that I may have missed, but also be sure to look at the "Bugs and TODO"
page (http://hpoj.sourceforge.net/todo.shtml) for information on known
issues.  In particular, xojpanel is temporarily disabled while I finish the
new PTAL PML support, and there are currently some performance and CPU
utilization issues I need to resolve as well.

To get the code out of CVS, follow the instructions in the "CVS" section at
http://hpoj.sourceforge.net/download.shtml.

(Joe, since you still depend on the old functionality of ojlib to do your
xojpanel development, you might want to save your old sandbox and create a
separate one if you want to try out the new code.  Also, I haven't checked
in your latest xojpanel changes since it currently isn't being built, but I
can if you're at a stopping place for the time being and would like me to
check in what you have so far.)

At this point I think it's safe to cease further development on the
"ieee12844*.c" kernel-mode drivers, since ptal-mlcd is designed to address
many of the limitations of the old drivers.  I'd like to take this
opportunity to thank Burkhard and Damien for their efforts in maintaining
that code recently, as well as Gerhard and Roger for developing it
originally and in cooperation with Andreas for starting this project in the
first place.

I look forward to the bug reports.  Enjoy!  :-)

David