Once again: adding a PostScript printer to a PI

[Leslie Robert Lait]

In article <1990Nov30.001442.24330 at cunixf.cc.columbia.edu> 
shenkin at cunixf.cc.columbia.edu (Peter S. Shenkin) writes:

>Other instructions that appeared in this newsgroup said to use the System
>Manager tool's Print Manager to add a new printer, then make a change
>in /usr/spool/lp/interface/printer_name.  Well, the menu of known printer
>types is short, and none of them is a PostScript printer, as far as I can
>see.  (I'm trying to set up an Apple LaserWriter.)  Furthermore, I can't
>figure out where the hell the /usr/lib/vadmin/printers program, which is 
>what I assume System Manager is running, is getting its list of printers.  

We had the same sort of need on our PI.  The printer manager tool
seems to get its list of printers by looking at all the printer scripts in 
/usr/spool/lp/model.  Each script has NAME, DEVICE, and TYPE fields--
some in comments, some not--and the printer tool apparently finds these
fields and interprets them to categorize the scripts. 

We were able to set up our own PostScript printer queue by modifying
the dumb printer script, including the following lines:
      # NAME=TurboLaser, DEVICE=SERIAL
      #
      NAME=
      TYPE=PostScript
(Of course, there are other modifications, such as changing the
banner and trailer stuff.  We are using the serial port, by the way,
because the parallel port is being used by another printer.)

Set up your script first, then bring up the printer tool.  Your printer
should magically appear as one of the printers available ("TurboLaser").  
Of course, installing the printer causes the script to be copied to 
/usr/spool/lp/interface, where the non-commented NAME variable assignment
has been changed for you:
      # NAME=TurboLaser, DEVICE=SERIAL
      #
      NAME="TurboLaser"
      TYPE=PostScript

I'm not sure, but I think that the /filetype stuff you mentioned may
be referring to the creation of CONVERT rules for WorkSpace and
perhaps even the creation of new printer icons.

We learned this stuff just by fiddling around and by trial and error,
but it works for us (under 3.2 and 3.3).

Hope this helps.

(To SGI:  what I would like to see is the expansion of the three basic
devices beyond SERIAL, PARALLEL, and NETWORK.  Our default printer queue
actually runs the file through a text-to-PostScript filter and submits
it to a Postscript queue, and I can imagine someone setting up, say, the
audio chip on a printer queue (e.g., "lp -daudio voicemail.sound").
These things can be set up with the standard lpadmin commands, but it
sure would be nice to have the printer tool be able to deal with them.)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Leslie Robert Lait                           | 
lrlait at cdc910b21.gsfc.nasa.gov               |  "...Now hit any key.
My opinions are my own, not NASA's.          |   WAIT! NO! Not *that* key!"