installing USB printer on OS/2 Warp 4.52

[KevinP]

I need help installing a USB printer under OS/2 Warp 4.52.  I have a USB HP Envoy 5000 printer.  I have the v10.253 USB drivers installed.  I have CUPS installed.  I have PM Printer Manager installed.  The procedures I have seen talk about installing a port first and then assigning a driver to it.  I can set up a CUP port but not a USB port.  There is no .pdr file which the system seems to want/need.  I have the usbprt.sys in my \OS2\boot directory but the utilities will not recognize that as a driver.  I cannot assign the usbprt.sys to the CUPS port, if that is what I am supposed to do.  There is no Printer setup option under my System Setup object; there is one under Connections. 

[Pete]

Hi KevinP

Can I suggest a read of the "How To"  -  https://trac.netlabs.org/ecups/wiki/HowTo  -  before you go any further. It is a little dated now but still relevant.

Presuming the printer is a HP Envy 5000 - rather than Envoy - you will also need to install the hplip package.


Regards

Pete

[KevinP]

Hi KevinP

Can I suggest a read of the "How To"  -  https://trac.netlabs.org/ecups/wiki/HowTo  -  before you go any further. It is a little dated now but still relevant.

Presuming the printer is a HP Envy 5000 - rather than Envoy - you will also need to install the hplip package.


Regards

Pete

Thanks, Pete.  I will take a look at it.

[Pete]

Hi KevinP

Starting "Install Printer" aka PRINTMAN.EXE /create should work through all the steps required to setup the cups printer and hook it up to the OS/2 Print system giving you a printer object all apps can use.

I seem to recall you need a usb library installed, possibly libusbcalls and/or libusb1, to handle cups usb printing - the OS/2 usb printer driver usbprt.sys is only of use for printers using the old IBM printer drivers so can be REM'd/deleted from config.sys

Hopefully someone will point you at the correct usb library if I've got it wrong above...


Regards

Pete

[KevinP]

I still am not having luck getting a driver installed.  I am wondering if maybe something needs to be added to LIBPATH.  Neither PM Printer Manager nor CUPSWIZ find any drivers.  When I click the "Locate" or "Browse" options and search through various places where drivers "should" be, they never find any.  I "think" I have all the necessary background software installed.  I put prndrv.exe in the root directory and when I run it, it finds the printer, the printer queue, but the only drivers it finds are the IBM NULL and FAXPRINT drivers from the old IBM Works suite.  I have put hp-lip in and psprint but the wizards do not find any drivers from them if that is what they are supposed to do.

[Pete]

Hi KevinP

Before starting Print Manager make sure

   1] cupsdaemon is running

   2] printer is powered on


Nothing cups related needed in the config.sys libpath.

Did you install cups from zip, warpin or rpm packages?


Regards

Pete

[KevinP]

Hi KevinP

Before starting Print Manager make sure

   1] cupsdaemon is running

   2] printer is powered on


Nothing cups related needed in the config.sys libpath.

Did you install cups from zip, warpin or rpm packages?


Regards

Pete

Ah!  Starting the CUPS daemon helped.  I installed CUPS with the Arca Noae Package Manager with yum.  It is in \usr\lib\cups.  I was able to get psprinter drivers installed.  When I use the Web interface for CUPS it does not find the printer.  When I try printing to it I get a message about it not spooling.  I should have taken a photo of the exact message and will do that tomorrow.  I had the hp-lip package installed so I had thought I would be able to get drivers for my HP printer through that but haven't been able to.  I have tried using a psprint driver for an HP Color Laser.

[Andi B.]

I have tried using a psprint driver for an HP Color Laser.

Postscript printers via standard drivers (psdriver) are a complete different thing printing over cups. If you've a Postscript (or PCL) capable printer you don't need cups in the first place. But you can run PS printers with both drivers in parallel. As you write'USB printer' I'm pretty sure you don't have a PS (or PCL) capable printer. Right? If you're printer does not support PS you don't need do play with psprinter driver.

Maybe it's only me but I'm a bit confused which printer you wanna use and which driver package (standard IBM or Alex PS, PCL or cups) you wanna install.

[KevinP]

I have tried using a psprint driver for an HP Color Laser.

Postscript printers via standard drivers (psdriver) are a complete different thing printing over cups. If you've a Postscript (or PCL) capable printer you don't need cups in the first place. But you can run PS printers with both drivers in parallel. As you write'USB printer' I'm pretty sure you don't have a PS (or PCL) capable printer. Right? If you're printer does not support PS you don't need do play with psprinter driver.

Maybe it's only me but I'm a bit confused which printer you wanna use and which driver package (standard IBM or Alex PS, PCL or cups) you wanna install.

Andi,  I am not that knowledgeable about printers.  The printer I have is a Hewlett Packard Envy 4500 which is a color inkjet type of printer.  I do not have another type of printer on hand that I could test. 

[Martin Iturbide]

Hello KevinP

I know it is a different printer and I used ArcaOS, but I have this quick instructions for my Epson.
- https://wiki.os2world.com/index.php?title=Epson_EcoTank_L4150
I tried both, the "Legacy IBM OS/2 Printer Driver / USB" and the "CUPS Printer Driver / Wifi Network". Maybe with these instructions you can experience the different procedures.

Regards

[KevinP]

Hello KevinP

I know it is a different printer and I used ArcaOS, but I have this quick instructions for my Epson.
- https://wiki.os2world.com/index.php?title=Epson_EcoTank_L4150
I tried both, the "Legacy IBM OS/2 Printer Driver / USB" and the "CUPS Printer Driver / Wifi Network". Maybe with these instructions you can experience the difference procedures.

Regards

Thank you, Martin.  I will try it.

[Pete]

Hi KevinP

If cups browser interface does not discover your printer I suspect you have something missing - possibly libusb1 and/or libusbcalls is/are not installed? You may also need the bc package installed.


Regards

Pete

[KevinP]

Hi KevinP

If cups browser interface does not discover your printer I suspect you have something missing - possibly libusb1 and/or libusbcalls is/are not installed? You may also need the bc package installed.


Regards

Pete

Hi, Pete

I will check to see if those are installed.  I can install a printer, driver, and port and send a job to the queue but it does not print so there is a "failure to communicate" somewhere.

[Andi B.]

....

Andi,  I am not that knowledgeable about printers.  The printer I have is a Hewlett Packard Envy 4500 which is a color inkjet type of printer.  I do not have another type of printer on hand that I could test.

Hewlett Packard Envy 4500 does not support Postscript (PS) nor PCL. So it does not understand one of the standard well known printer languages but proprietary commands only. So the standard IBM OS/2 drivers (psprint, ...) don't work. No need to play with the OS/2 printers settings.

Your only option is cups. It's important to understand that's a different thing than the OS/2 printer drivers/settings. When you say -

I can install a printer, driver, and port and send a job to the queue

I fear you mean the OS/2 printer install and managing objects. They will not work as you've no special hp driver for this special printer.

You have to set up and control your printer via cups only. That is via web browser interface (IIRC localhost:631). There you have to install your printer via hplip (?). As long as you can not print a testpage from here (browser interface, printer tab, service drop down...) nothing else can print anything.

See picture for example of cups setup with four printers.

[Neil Waldhauer]

I think it should work without CUPS running at all. Just install hplip and run PrinterManger /install to install the correct queue. There, you will need to specify the correct USB printer port.

Actual printing will require correct installation of the IBM USB printer daemon. I haven't done that since the 1990s, so I don't remember the details. In the 1990s it was all automatic, but we didn't have so many printer drivers.

I wonder if you have seen usbprint.txt from IBM? (attached)