Parallelport greyed out and can't install my printer[Solved]

[woody3883]

After the installation of Sabayon4 r1, I can't install a printer which is connected to the parallelport.
In the configuration center the lp option is greyed out. It worked all fine in sabayon 3.5. I can not find the answer here.
Has it something to do with cups 1.3.9??
I need my printer often so I can not search to long for an answer.
Anybody an idea?

[woody3883]

No one??
Dmesg says that the system did find parallelport and even it gives me the name of my printer!!
It also gives a unregister parport and the registered parport but I don't know of this has something to do with this problem.
Anybody an idea and can help me out I need my printer very badly.

With regards,
Wout

[Fitzcarraldo]

Well, I don't know, but have you looked in the directory /dev to see if /dev/lp0 exists? If so, does it look like a real device if you enter the command 'ls -la'? The other place I would check is in the kernel configuration file (/usr/src/linux/.config) to see if Parallel printer support has been built into the kernel. If not that would explain why you're having trouble. You would need to rebuild the kernel (see the SL Wiki HowTo on using genkernel). As SL=Gentoo, the Gentoo Printing Guide might also be of help to you.

[woody3883]

Well it seemed that parallel printing in the kernel is build in. However I can't find it in the config file.
But I can't find lp0 in the dev map.
How do I correct that??

Wout

[woody3883]

By the way Fitzcarraldo I see that you use an Ati 1600pro card, how does that work? I use also a ati 1600 pro pci-e card but performance is poor video flikker tvtime doesn't work well. That is when I use Compiz.
Wout

[Fitzcarraldo]

If you do some googling and include the keyword "gentoo" you'll find several suggestions to try. One of them is:

Code: Select all

# rm /dev/lp0
# mknod /dev/lp0 c 6 0

The ATI Mobility Readeon X1600 in my laptop works quite well with Linux, including Compiz-Fusion. But note that the flicker with video under Compiz-Fusion is an inherent problem with the AMD Catalyst driver (fglrx) and has yet to be completely fixed. If you watch your videos under e.g. Metacity or KWin then there should be no flicker. Alternatively, in the preferences/settings of your media players you can switch to the x11 or xv driver instead of the OpenGL driver and that gets rid of the flicker under Compiz-Fusion. You can configure the fglrx driver to work better under Compiz-Fusion too: Setup an ATI card with the new FGLRX drivers

[woody3883]

Ok it works I had to modprobe lp and /etc/init.d/cups start.
This did the trick.
Thanks Fitzcarraldo you put on the right trail.
So my printer works just fine again, however I wonder what was wrong because I tried it on another computer and that gave the same result. Just have to find how to start these at boot time.
I tried all the suggestions on the link you provided but no improvement. That it worked fine without compiz. I had already foundout, but I like compiz and I use it very often so I hope to find a solution.
I you or anyone else have an idea?? I would like to try it, otherwhise I have to wait for a fix or an update.

Wout


Moderator Edit (14.12.09 20:05): The command should be "/etc/init.d/cupsd restart"

[Fitzcarraldo]

If cups is not starting automatically at boot then you need to enter, as root:

Code: Select all

rc-update cups add default

to add it to the default runlevel, but try the lsmod command first to see if it is already loaded.

To load modules automatically at boot, add them to the end of the file /etc/conf.d/modules:

Code: Select all

modules="<module1> <module2> <module3> etc."

(If you've already got a line modules="<module1> etc." then just add the extra module to the end of the existing list on that line.)

Also as root, see what modules are in the module database:

Code: Select all

module-rebuild list

and try:

Code: Select all

module-rebuild populate

If there are any modules declared in that list that are wrong (several instances of the same driver but older versions, or modules that are definitely not applicable to your PC, for example), then you can remove them using:

Code: Select all

module-rebuild del <module name>-<version>

and if any are missing then the above-mentioned populate command should put it in there, but you can do it individually with:

Code: Select all

module-rebuild add <module name>-<version>

EDIT (14.12.09 20:05): That should have been "rc-update cupsd add default"

[woody3883]

OK, thanks again Fitzcarraldo it al starts now automaticly. You were a big help. Because a have a fulltime job and own a litle computer business and have a wife and three sons, I don't have always the time to look for all those things. Far most of the problems I encounter, I manage to solve on my own, indeed by google or forums, but sometime you just can't find it or you are looking at the wrong places.

Thanks again,

Wout

[Fitzcarraldo]

To be able to watch non-flickering video with fglrx driver whilst running Compiz-Fusion:

Kaffeine Player:
Settings > xine Engine Parameters
Video
Beginner Options
select xshm driver

MPlayer:
right-click > Preferences
Video
x11 X11(Ximage/Shm)

SMPlayer:
Options > Preferences
Output drivers
Video: x11

Totem:
Enter the command gstreamer-properties in a Terminal window
Video
Default Output
Plugin: X Window System (No Xv)

VLC:
Tools > Preferences
Video
Output: X11 video output