[vox-tech] postscript printer problem

[Peter Jay Salzman]

begin Henry House <hajhouse@houseag.com> 
> I have an annoying intermittent problem with an Apple Laserwriter Select 360
> connected to a Linux box via parallel cable. The spooler is lprng, with an
> auto-generated print filter created by magicfilter, which treats the printer
> as a generic 300dpi postscript printer. The system is Debian testing.
> 
> The problem: intermittently (particilarly after the printer has just been
> turned on, but also after long idle periods), the printer loses the first
> hundred lines of a print job, so that it does not see the header identifying
> the job as postscript, and prints it as plain text instead. Subsequent print
> jobs work fine.
> 
> There is some activity in /var/log/kern.log:
> 
> 	# The printer has been turned on and a print job sent
> 	May  6 10:28:54 wotan kernel: lp0: compatibility mode
> 	May  6 10:29:03 wotan kernel: lp0 out of paper
> 	# The printout is faulty as described; the paper tray has paper
> 	# Second job sent; prints normally
> 	May  6 10:32:27 wotan kernel: lp0: compatibility mode

what happens when the printer is attached to a different computer?

i'm thinking maybe the cable is beginning to fail.  do you see similar
behavior with other machines?

pete