Re: [9fans] drawterm etc.

Re: [9fans] drawterm etc.

[Russ Cox]

It sounds like you typed "aux/listen tcp17013"
rather than just "aux/listen tcp".

Russ

[9fans] problems

[D. Brownlee]

Hello,

It's installed. Thanks to everyone that made this possible.

Problems:

1. My printer's paper tray doesn't hold enough sheets to
print the manuals. It looks as though, in devlpt.c, that
outch() doesn't check for Fpe when it finds an error. This
was encountered when trying to print vol1.ps.

2. When I tried to print volume two, with 'mk', page numbering
restarted at each chapter. There is a 'prfile' script in that
'doc' directory, but it looks like the page numbers were determined
when 'alef' was part of the system. Could we have a big vol2.ps,
like vol1.ps, or an updated 'prfile'?

3. 'ftpfs' doesn't completely cope with MacOS! What about the rest
of us? ;) I can work around it for now by moving whatever I want to
get with 'ftpfs' to the 'McIntoshHD'.

Later,

D. Brownlee

Re: [9fans] problems

[Russ Cox]

	1. My printer's paper tray doesn't hold enough sheets to
	print the manuals. It looks as though, in devlpt.c, that
	outch() doesn't check for Fpe when it finds an error. This
	was encountered when trying to print vol1.ps.

That has always annoyed me.  If you
tell me what the code should be I'll fix it.

Russ

Re: [9fans] problems

[D. Brownlee]

Hello,

The lpt driver is in /sys/src/9/pc/devlpt.c. That file has a
function outch():

	for (tries = 0;; tries++){
		status = inb(base+Qpsr);
		if(!(status & Fselect) || !(status & Fnoerror))
			Error(Eio);  /* occurs when the paper tray is empty */
		.
		.
		.
	}

which might be changed to:

	for (tries = 0;; tries++){
		status = inb(base+Qpsr);
		if(!(status & Fselect) || !(status & Fnoerror))
			if (!(status & Fpe)) { /* paper ran out */
				tries = 0;
				continue;
			}
			else
				Error(Eio);
		.
		.
		.
	}

I haven't tried this -- I haven't discovered how to rebuild
the kernel yet. 'Fpe' is already defined in devlpt.c. I may
have the test on 'Fpe' inverted -- don't know.

I think that the desired behaviour is that when the paper
runs out this will wait until someone comes by and installs
some paper, which should cause the 'Fpe' bit to change. That
is how some other PC *nix systems behave.


D. Brownlee


Russ Cox wrote:
> 
>         1. My printer's paper tray doesn't hold enough sheets to
>         print the manuals. It looks as though, in devlpt.c, that
>         outch() doesn't check for Fpe when it finds an error. This
>         was encountered when trying to print vol1.ps.
> 
> That has always annoyed me.  If you
> tell me what the code should be I'll fix it.
> 
> Russ

Re: [9fans] problems

[D. Brownlee]

I recently suggested a change without knowing
too much about how Plan 9 drivers work. Perhaps,
when 'Fpe' is detected, 'tsleep' should be called.
(wouldn't want to hang the whole system until someone
adds some more paper!) Or is the driver scheduled
independently? It is probably best to call 'tsleep'
in any case.

D. Brownlee


Russ Cox wrote:
> 
>         1. My printer's paper tray doesn't hold enough sheets to
>         print the manuals. It looks as though, in devlpt.c, that
>         outch() doesn't check for Fpe when it finds an error. This
>         was encountered when trying to print vol1.ps.
> 
> That has always annoyed me.  If you
> tell me what the code should be I'll fix it.
> 
> Russ

Re: [9fans] problems

[Russ Cox]

The right change is probably to sleep
waiting for a status change interrupt
as it does a little bit later; what I wondered
about was the sense of Fpe and whether
it actually had something to do with paper.

Russ

Re: [9fans] problems

[D. Brownlee]

Reading from the "IBM PS/2 Hardware Technical Reference,"
"Parallel Port Controller (Type 1)," not necessarily an
up to date or applicable document, it says, concerning the Status Port:

	Bit 5	This bit represents the current state of the printer
			'paper end' signal (PE). When this bit is set to 1, the printer has
			detected the end of the paper.

in contast, another bit is described:

	Bit 3	This bit represents the current state of the printer '-error'
			signal (-ERROR). When this bit is set to 0, the printer has
			encountered an error condition.

Hope that helps,

D. Brownlee


Russ Cox wrote:
> 
> The right change is probably to sleep
> waiting for a status change interrupt
> as it does a little bit later; what I wondered
> about was the sense of Fpe and whether
> it actually had something to do with paper.
> 
> Russ