Printing? |
September, 27, 2003 9:33 PM |
zorvix |
I know the lack of printing is completely not XPF's responsibility... But, does anyone know any way to print from the serial ports on a 7300 with XPF? I imagine there must be some kind of open source software, or unixy-command thing to send the commands to the serial ports... CUPS has support for my printer, and GIMP-PRINT does to, but it seems there is no way to use a serial port... How do owners of Beige G3s do it? Aren't these OS X supported computers? |
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RE: Printing? |
September, 30, 2003 11:20 AM |
cjsconfections |
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For what it is worth, this issue drove me nuts for the last year. I love X but Apple's decision to cut X support for serial ports apparently has some (but not much) merit. My Epson Stylus Color 850 is my favorite ink jet printer. Fast, no problems, etc. but one of the reasons that it is fast is that the Epson drivers for the serial port connection allowed that port to be overclocked to something like 10X the native speed of the port. X is very sensitive to hardware issues and with different manufacturers doing their manipulations of the serial ports over the years, it was decided by Apple to eliminate the anarchy and potential problems with the serial ports by not supporting them. The ports are not inactivated. They work just fine because you can still hook a modem up to them which Apple does want to happen. All the rest of the stuff (printers, Wacom tablets, scanners, etc.) can work if someone will write the drivers for them. Apple won't. The reports that I have seen where serial ports on any machine (old world, beige, or newer with serial port adapters) is that if you can get the printer to work on the serial port, it will be at the very slow native speed of the serial port and not the fast speed you had in os 8 or 9. The only solutions that I have seen are usb adapters (Some have had success but they didn't work on my system. They locked up X.) and ethernet adapters which can cost more than the printer. The protocols for ethernet and usb are more rigid and are supported. If you get an Axis ethernet adapter for your printer, you can have the old world speed in printing and use Classic with the old printer drivers. If you have an Appletalk printer, you can get an Appletalk/ethrnet adapter and again, using Classic drivers, print through ethernet. I still have an Appletalk Imagewriter II hooked up with an ethernet adapter and it runs fine in X using Classic. As for the Epson, I gave up and decided to use an extra 8500 which runs 9.1 to use my scsi scanner (unstable on X), my Epson printer, a cad/cam machine, and my adb Wacom tablet. |
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RE: Printing? |
September, 29, 2003 7:35 AM |
jonck |
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Hi Zorvix, "But, if I wanted to buy a printserver, or an ethernet to localtalk adapter... I wouldn't be using XPostFacto... ;-) ... it's just that I want this to work..." My thoughts exactly. You can get anything to work if you throw enough money at it, but what's the sport in that? :-) Anyway, thanks for the URL Zorvix, it looks like all the information I need to get my trusty old NTR up and running through the serial port under X is there. Cheers, Jonck |
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RE: Printing? |
September, 28, 2003 10:18 PM |
rsouder4 |
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Just want to second dbrimm's opinion on epson. I've got a stylus photo 820 and I think I use up more ink trying to unclog the &!#% thing than I do printing with it. |
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RE: Printing? |
September, 28, 2003 8:38 PM |
zorvix |
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I have a Stylus Color 800... But, if I wanted to buy a printserver, or an ethernet to localtalk adapter... I wouldn't be using XPostFacto... ;-) It's not that I can't print (because there are other OS X computers on my LAN with printer sharing), it's just that I want this to work... |
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RE: Printing? |
September, 28, 2003 7:53 PM |
egonzales21 |
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What printer are you trying to use? Is it the LaserWriter NTR? If it is the Laserwriter, then does it not have both a localtalk and parallel/centronics port. tschang is right. Connect the printer to a printserver using the parallel port connection. The only specific requirement is that the printserver support AppleTalk for OS X to see the printer without problems. With 10.2 or greater one can use gimp- print and ghostscript to make a TCP/IP connection to the server and then use the gimp-print driver. Your other option is to use a LocalTalk-to-Ethernet adapter which is also reported to work. If your printer is either a ImageWriter and or Color StyleWriter; give it up and buy a new USB printer. |
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RE: Printing? |
September, 28, 2003 7:49 PM |
zorvix |
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Ha, I found it here: http://www.mcgillis.org/~matthew/printing.html I haven't tried it yet though... but I have a Epson SC 800... |
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RE: Printing? |
September, 28, 2003 7:43 PM |
zorvix |
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These forums really need a search feature... and they need to be updated to be faster... But, I too searched several pages back, and couldn't find the printing thread... Did you find this info on a website somewhere, though? |
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RE: Printing? |
September, 28, 2003 6:56 PM |
jonck |
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Hi Marty, Do you think you can find your post on this subject and bump it to the front? I have searched several pages back in this forum and wasn't able to find it, I'm either glancing over it or not looking back far enough. I'd really appreciate it, I have a nice personal laserwriter NTR which is working very well under 9, but having to switch back to 9 every time I want to print something is rather a pain :-) Thanks very much, Jonck |
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RE: Printing? |
September, 28, 2003 6:02 PM |
mjoecups358 |
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I have my stylewriter 1200 working via the serial port in my powertower pro. You install a special "method" called serial in a cups directory. Then you install Ghostscript and you edit a FoomaticRip file... Then it works. The printer turns on and off automatically just like it should and it's kind of cool that it prints postscript now... Marty PS I posted a thread about it before. |
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RE: Printing? |
September, 28, 2003 12:40 PM |
tschang |
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Hi, I'm new to this forum, but I do want to report a solution that I discovered but have not seen anywhere else: I have a 7600 and an HP LaserJet 6MP ($800 when new). Needless to say, LocalTalk was not going to work. There is a more elegant solution than the LocalTalk-to- ethernet adapters. Netgear makes a compact print server (PS101) that attaches to the parallel port of the LaserJet - no bulky external box. Run an ethernet cable to your router/switch. Configure OSX's Printer Setup to look for the print server, and select the correct printer description. Voila! Extra life for an old workhorse. On the box of the Netgear PS101, there is no mention of Mac support, but it does work. It was $50 after a $20 rebate recently. |
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RE: Printing? |
September, 28, 2003 3:19 AM |
dbrimm |
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zorvix: Time to give it up. I to tried to print to my venerable old StyleWritter II (Canon). As far as I am concerned in the bubble jet world, the printer to end all printers. I tried every hack I could find to make it print on serial from OS Xx on the 7300 to no avail. (It did work fine in a cold boot to OS 9.1). I went and bought a Canon i550 and it is just flawless in OS X.x (Don't even think of Epson). Better yet, my teenager with his iMac DV SE and my old hacked 7300 share this printer and it works beautifull and for less than $140. My advice, retire your old serial printer, go USB in OS Xx, in 7300's or similar, with a newer printer (Canon) and you won't look back. I don't think XPostFacto has anything to do with printing in OS X. It just allows you to install OS X on old unsupported machines as far as I know. |
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