Digital Products NETPrint and JETXPrint Printing at AIX Versions 4.x


Contents

About this document
Estrada, Inc. references
Hardware setup
Printing to NETPrint at AIX 4.x
Setting up AIX as a bootp server
Setting up as an AIX ARP server
Telnet configuration of the NETS/JETX box
Additional information

About this document

This document describes methods for setting up remote queues to print to printers attached to Digital Products NETPrint and JETXPrint print servers. This information is provided to assist you in the setup but the print servers are not part of the IBM product set and are not supported by AIX. These instructions do not provide an endorsement of the Digital Product print servers.

This document applies to AIX Versions 4.x.

The NETPrint and JETXPrint print servers are manufactured by Digital Products, which provides support for these products on AIX. In most cases you will simply set up the NETPrint print server as a remote queue. If it has multiple ports, use the queue names PORT1, PORT2, and so on.

Digital Products offers both external boxes - X designation, and cards that fit in some Hewlett-Packard printers.

In some cases, you will need to set up AIX as a bootp server for the NETPrint. You can either make an entry into the /etc/bootptab file or use the arp -s command as described at the end of the document.


Estrada, Inc. references

The following is information on how to find technical support assistance:

Hardware setup

The setup should look like this:
                                                          /
                                                         /
     +-------------+  connected   +-------------+       /
     | Client      |     via      | NETPort     |     +---------+
     | RISC System |--------------| Print       |-----| printer |
     | hostname: A |    TCPIP     | Server      |     |         |
     +-------------+              +-------------+     +---------+

Printing to NETPrint at AIX 4

Overview

Since the NETPrint box supports the LPD protocol, the setup simply involves setting up the printer as a remote printer. The remote queue name that you use will indicate the port on the server (PORT1, PORT2, and so on). These instructions describe how to create the remote queue to print to the NETPrint box with AIX virtual printer support to control attributes like pitch and paper drawer. This assumes that the NETPrint box has an IP address. If it does not have one, contact Digital Products on how to set one up. The box does support a BOOTP protocol, and this document describes how this MIGHT work from AIX. The latter procedure has not been tested.

Setup instructions

The following instructions should allow you to set up an AIX queue to print to a NETPrint server. This assumes the NETPrint has an IP address and is attached to a printer. You should be able to print a test page to the printer before following these instructions. The test page should contain the IP address of the NETPrint box.

  1. Add an entry to the /etc/hosts file as follows:
         123.1.1.2         netp1
    

  2. Test the TCP/IP connection. Enter:
        ping netp1
    
    If this does not show a successful connection, fix the communication problems before continuing with adding a printer.

  3. Add the remote queue. Enter:
       smit mkpq
    

    Fill out the following screen:

          Add a Remote Print Queue with Local Filtering
    Type or select values in entry fields.
    Press Enter AFTER making all desired changes.
                                                    [Entry Fields]
    Description                                 Hewlett-Packard LaserJ>
    Names of NEW print queues to add
       PCL                                     [pcl1]  <- Enter ASCII queue
       PostScript                              [ps1]   <- Enter PostScript 
                                                          queue name
       HP-GL/2                                 []                       
      
    Remote server characteristics 
       HOSTNAME of remote server               [netp1] <- Enter /etc/hosts 
                                                          printer name
       Name of QUEUE on remote server          [PORT1] <- Enter port # case 
                                                          sensative.
       TYPE of print spooler on remote server   BSD    <- Use BSD selection 
       Send PASS-THROUGH FLAG to queue          no     <- Set this to off
          on remote server?
    
    NOTE: The remote server queue PORT1 or PORT2 determines port on NETPort box.

    Press Enter to add the queue.

  4. Test print to the queue. Enter:
        lptest 10 10 | qprt -Ppcl1
    
  5. Customize your settings using SMIT. For example, to change the pitch to 17, enter:
        smit chpq
    

You should now have a working queue to print to your NETPort attached printer.


Setting up AIX as a bootp server

NOTE: This procedure has not been tested.

Overview

AIX can act as a bootp server to deliver an address to the NETPort or any other bootp client. When the NETPort is turned on, if it is set to get its address through bootp, it will send out a bootp request. This request contains a hardware address. If AIX has the hardware address in its /etc/bootptab table and is set up to respond to bootp requests, then it will send an IP address, IP gateway, and subnet mask to the hardware address that made the request. The /etc/bootptab file documents itself fairly well. Some clients also want a bootp download file. AIX can deliver the file, but the file must come from Digital Products. It is not known if this is required in this case.

Setup

  1. Edit /etc/bootptab and add the following entry:
     netp1:hn:ht=ether:ha=0800095e9e10:ip=5.1.1.5:
           sm=255.255.255.0:gw=5.1.1.152:
    

  2. Enable bootpd and tftp in the /etc/inetd.conf file by uncommenting the following lines. Remove the # sign at the beginning of each line.
      bootps  dgram   udp     wait    root    /etc/bootpd bootpd
      tftp    dgram   udp     wait    nobody  /etc/tftpd tftpd -n
    
  3. Refresh the inetd daemon. Enter:
      inetimp
      refresh -s inetd
    
  4. Turn on and off the NETPort box.
  5. Print a test page to see if the IP address was loaded.
    If the address was not loaded, stop bootpd and rerun bootpd in debug mode. The most common problem is entering the wrong hardware address. The debug mode will show you the address being broadcast.
  6. ping the address.

    Setting up as an AIX ARP server

    AIX will also support ARP download of IP addresses. Use:
    1. arp -s (IP address of NETS\JETX) (LAN address of NETS\JETX)

      For example:

          arp -s  192.00.20.10   01-12-23-FE-A2-00
      
      NOTE: You must use dashes (-) to separate the numbers of the LAN address. In this example, the IP address 192.00.20.10 is the IP address we are assigning to the NETS\JETX unit.

    2. See the arp table with the command arp -a.
    3. Enter ping 192.00.00.10. At this time, there may be no reply.
    4. Reset the NETS/JETX by resetting the power.
    5. Enter ping 192.00.00.10. This time there should be a reply.

      Once you get a successful ping, the NETS/JETX has its IP address.


    Telnet configuration of the NETS/JETX box

    1. Go to the $ or # prompt in AIX and telnet to the NETS/JETX.
      • Enter tn netp1 where netp1 is the host name of the NETS/JETX box.
      • The login and password is sysadm.
    2. When the main menu appears, select option 1 to configure the remaining IP parameters (subnet mask and default gateway if applicable).
    3. Press Enter to get back to main menu.
    4. Choose option 3 to disable any protocols that you are not using.
    5. Go back to the main menu, and choose option 2, LPD Printers, to set the type of output. If you receive garbled output, increase the strobe to 5 or 10 microseconds.
    6. Save changes and reset the NETS/JETX. You should now be ready to proceed with the AIX setup steps.

    Additional information

    AIX support is only responsible for setting up the remote queue. Digital Products is responsible for making this work with their product.

    Some of the information needed was obtained from Digital Products Technical Support Bulletin TSB 2004, TSB 2011, and TSB 2002, obtained from the Web page listed in the References section.




    [ Doc Ref: 91946152810460     Publish Date: Apr. 23, 2001]