Title: Printing Problems Under UNIX with Intelligent Cards
Keywords: intelligent, printing, printer, scounix, xenix, problem, unix
Date: October 27, 1995
KDB: KDB-116
Revision: 0.00
Author: KAM
Distribution: External
Printing problems can occurr under Unix operating systems when using Connect Tech Intellicon or NT960 cards. The symptom of this problem is partial completion of print jobs, and if the print job is re-issued the same problem will occur over and over again.
The solution is to add a cat command in you /etc/rc file to keep the port open. >Example cat /dev/tty4a > /dev/null &
This can also be done on the command line for testing purposes. The reason the port stops printing is because the Unix OS transfers the print job into the Intellicon’s buffers, then issues a close or flush command. Unix has no way of knowing that there is still data in the card. This instructs the CTI card to stop transmission of data, and in fact the data is lost. The cat command on the port, keeps the port open and active all the time, preventing the above from happening. The above recommendation also applies to dumb serial ports as well.
End of KDB-116