On Fri, Jun 20, 2008 at 03:21:51PM +0000, Debian Bug Tracking System wrote: > > This is an automatic notification regarding your Bug report > which was filed against the kernel-image-2.6.8-3-386 package: > > #296687: Parallel port too fast for old printer
I think I found a workaround a few years ago. I went into the BIOS at startup and set the parallel port to SPP (standard parallel port) which makes it work like a very old-fashined slow port. After this, it printed fine and I didn't seem to have any more problems. But shouldn't Linux be able to cope with a more modern paralled port connected to a very old printer? I think the more modern port was supposed to be backward compatible. Since it works OK for me now, I'm not going the reset the Bios and test it again. So while the bug will be closed, it might still exist. > > It has been closed by Martin Michlmayr <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. > > Their explanation is attached below along with your original report. > If this explanation is unsatisfactory and you have not received a > better one in a separate message then please contact Martin Michlmayr <[EMAIL > PROTECTED]> by > replying to this email. > > > -- > 296687: http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=296687 > Debian Bug Tracking System > Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] with problems > Date: Fri, 20 Jun 2008 17:08:38 +0200 > From: Martin Michlmayr <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: Kernel from Debian 3.1 no longer supported > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Version: 2.6.8-99+rm > > You reported a bug against the Linux kernel (version 2.6.8) that was > shipped with Debian 3.1 (sarge). Since Debian 3.1 is no longer > supported and the kernel has changed so much that it would be very > difficult to verify every outstanding bug from 2.6.8, I'm hereby > closing your bug report. > > If you still see this issue with the kernel from the upcoming release > of Debian (lenny, version 5.0), then please me know and I'll be happy > to reopen this bug report. > > Thanks. > > -- > Martin Michlmayr > http://www.cyrius.com/ > > Date: Wed, 23 Feb 2005 16:54:21 -0800 > From: David Lawyer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: Parallel port too fast for old printer > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Package: kernel-image-2.6.8-1-386_2.6.8-3.1_i386.deb > Version: NA > > I'm using a 23-year-old NEC 3530 Spinwriter printer with a parallel port > interface (most of them were serial, which work OK with Linux). It > works fine with kernel version 2.2.20. For kernel 2.4.26, if I type: > cat "This is a test" > /dev/lp0, it prints "his is a testt". In other > words the first strobe somehow misses the 1st byte but gets the second > byte. For my 2.6 kernel version, at first I couldn't get it to print at > all. But then I gave the option dma=none, etc. to the parport_pc module > and then it would erratically print about half of what cat sent to the > printer. Sometimes it would do no more than a linefeed. > > What I think is happening is that the parport_pc driver is sending too > fast for the printer. The driver may not be doing handshaking right. > My PC parallel port is a fast ECP one, but the printer parallel port it > connects to is just a 23-year-old Centronics: SPP. So the driver should > wait for ACK after each byte before sending the next byte. Does it? My > printer manual shows the protocol and timings expected. It shows about > 10 us between the start of adjacent bytes. Since the printer takes > 20,000 us to print a character (50 chars/sec.) the 10 us spacing is > 2,000 times faster than needed. My timing diagram show the next byte > being sent to the printer about 1us after the end of the ACK pulse. > The timing diagram also shows that BUSY is not asserted until the > 512 bytes printer buffer is almost full. It doen't get asserted when > recieving a byte as was claimed by someone on the Internet. > > There was no problem with using an old NEC serial printer since one just > sets the serial speed for 600 baud. But I can't use it anymore since it > broke. Since the serial driver works OK for old serial ports, shouldn't > the parallel port driver do likewise? > > David Lawyer > David Lawyer -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
