I've got an aging Canon MPF50 (also called evidently, Canon MPC600F in Japan). It's on the parallel port.
I presume the device is /dev/lp0 (there's no/dev/lp1, etc). I do see a /dev/parport0, though). The
printer is plugged in, turned on, showing status ready, etc. I'm just trying to see if I have basic
communication. A "cat foo.ps > /dev/lp0" as root gets me no response. A "cat foo.ps > /dev/parport0" gets me "cat: write error: Invalid argument", so I guess that's not the one. From my old days using a line
printer, cat'ing something to a printer device printed it. Shouldn't the device cough, return an error code,
print garbage or something? How do I make sure that /dev/lp0 is a character device, and that there's
a ready printer on it?
The port communication is separate from any device driver issues. I can't find any linux drivers for Canon
MFP50, or MP600F. I don't need anything but basic text printing. Maybe some generic driver would be
usable for that? If so, what do I install?
Stuart
I presume the device is /dev/lp0 (there's no/dev/lp1, etc). I do see a /dev/parport0, though). The
printer is plugged in, turned on, showing status ready, etc. I'm just trying to see if I have basic
communication. A "cat foo.ps > /dev/lp0" as root gets me no response. A "cat foo.ps > /dev/parport0" gets me "cat: write error: Invalid argument", so I guess that's not the one. From my old days using a line
printer, cat'ing something to a printer device printed it. Shouldn't the device cough, return an error code,
print garbage or something? How do I make sure that /dev/lp0 is a character device, and that there's
a ready printer on it?
The port communication is separate from any device driver issues. I can't find any linux drivers for Canon
MFP50, or MP600F. I don't need anything but basic text printing. Maybe some generic driver would be
usable for that? If so, what do I install?
Stuart
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