3b1: The lp daemon returns! HaHaHaHa...!

Ned Nowotny ned at pebbles.cad.mcc.com
Sun Sep 3 08:18:26 AEST 1989


In article <2563 at cadillac.CAD.MCC.COM> ned%cad at MCC.COM (Ned Nowotny) writes:
>
>Since installing a WD2010 and MS3085 and reinstalling the system software
>and my own local files, the lp daemon seems to be on permanent vacation.
>

Well, I finally got the lp daemon back to work.

It seems that something about restoring my local files to the /usr/spool/lp
directory without going through the proper lp administration channels mucked
up the works.  The lp daemon would be started by lpsched, create both the
SCHEDLOCK file and the FIFO named pipe, check something, decide to terminate,
remove the SCHEDLOCK file and the FIFO named pipe, add a "STOPPED" entry to
the lp log, and then die.  Total elapsed time: less than a second of real time.

At one point, I had two printers supposedly registered with lp: HPLaserjet
(the printer that was supposedly enabled by restoring my local files to the
newly installed system on my new drive) and dumb (which I had manually added
to no avail by use of the proper lpadmin-accept-enable sequence).

The fix (?) that finally worked was to perform a disable-reject-"lpadmin -x"
sequence on both printers.  (I believe it was also necessary to do a
"lp -pdumb -rParallel" before the "lpadmin -xdumb" would work.  This step was
not necessary for HPLaserjet.)  Once this was done and "lpstat -t" claimed
that the scheduler still wasn't running (of course) and that there were no
printers registered with the system, I typed "lpsched" and, voila, the daemon
started and stayed.  At that point, I logged back in as install (I had done
some of the other stuff as "lp", but that does not appear to be significant)
and used the ua (Yeah, I know, ack!) to reactivate my printer.  Miracle of
Miracles, it worked!  All is now well with lp.

Of all the suggested fixes I received, the sequence above is most similar
to the suggestion made by Bob Ames in a message posted to this group.
However, I removed the apparently affected files by use of the lp
administration tools rather than by use of rm.  In any case, I would like
to thank all of the following people for their suggestions and help:

    Bob Ames       bob at rush.cts.com
    Alex Batyi     rescon!bud at rutgers.edu
    Rick Bladek    pacbell!pbhyf!arb at decwrl.dec.com
    John Canning   john at banzai.pcc.com
    Brant Cheikes  brant at manta.pha.pa.us
    Tanya Katz     tanya.katz at adds.newyork.ncr.com
    Mike Levin     levin at srhqla.SR.COM
    Don Ritchey    dritchey at ihlpb.att.com
    Jon ?          {princeton, att, bcr}!jonlab!jon

As a final note, it was not necessary to change any of the file or directory
permissions or ownership to get things working again.  (An interesting side
note is that the ua would list HPLaserjet as my parallel printer after I
restored my local files.  However, despite any attempt to change or remove it,
the ua would still insist that HPLaserjet was my parallel printer whenever
I returned to the "Printer Setup" form.)

Ned Nowotny, MCC CAD Program, Box 200195, Austin, TX  78720  Ph: (512) 338-3715
ARPA: ned at mcc.com                   UUCP: ...!cs.utexas.edu!milano!cadillac!ned
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