I have recently hooked up my old canon BJ30 via parallel to my A1200, I downloaded the Canon Drivers and prefs tools from aminet, it al appears to be set up ok, the Printer prefs shows it just fine.

I can print from Wordworth 7 ok, but trying to print raw text won't work.

If I try to print from CED it asks where to send output, PRT: just fails and says "Error opening destination". Trying to send output to PRT or PAR from the CLI fails too:

Saturday 05-May-12 23:43:47

12.System:> echo >PRT: Test
echo: unable to open redirection file
12.System:> type s:User-Startup >PRT:
type: unable to open redirection file
12.System:>

Printer.device and Parallel.device are both present in DEVS: trying to use the Generic driver or the bundled BJ10 driver won't work either.

Last edited by danwood on 07-May-2012 at 01:04 PM.

@danwood

See http://www.gregdonner.org/os39faq/installtips.html#4

Printing

"Q: Have the printer drivers been updated since the OS 3.5 Boing Bag 1 release? [bad drivers removed in OS 3.9 SE CD]

A: Not yet. Please note that there are two sets of printer drivers on the 3.9 CD:

The drivers in: AmigaOS3.9:Emergency-Boot/Devs/Printers/ are the original drivers from the OS 3.5 CD, and should work fine.

The drivers in: AmigaOS3.9:OS-Version3.9/Workbench3.9/Storage/Printers/ are from Boing Bag 1, and are known to be buggy."


It might be worth checking which drivers you have installed.


Regards, Michael,

aka rockape

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@rockape

Quote:

It might be worth checking which drivers you have installed.

None, it doesn't matter. CanonDisk is being used.

@danwood

What in your PRT DOSDriver?

@Hypex

Ah, I do not have a PRT mountlist in DOSDrivers! I've checked my Storage drawer on my hard disk and the 3.9 CD and cannot find one either!

What should it say?

Screenshot of Printer prefs:

http://i.imgur.com/YH5kp.png

@danwood
Even though Hypex is right about the need for a PRT DosDriver for OS4, I'm not sure it is true for OS3 (3.1 3.5 3.9). I have a backup of my OS 3.9 hard-disk before switching to OS4 and there is no PRT DosDriver in DEVS: or storage. Since the classic hardware is standard, some devices may be built in by default. I could be wrong but I couldn't find a PRT DosDriver on my old OS 3.9 install CD either.

I suggest you reboot, open a shell (cli) window and enter the command "assign". At the bottom of the output from that command you should see a list of DOS devices. If PRT and PAR are in that list then you probably don't need the DosDriver that Hypex mentioned.

Back in the 90's CanonDisk drivers were included with Canon printers so you could use the printer on an Amiga. That's really old stuff that is not guaranteed to be compatible with the updated printing system contained in OS 3.5 and OS 3.9. Your problem is probably related to CanonDisk and not your system. I had CanonDisk installed on my A4000 years ago and I had to order the "Studio" software from the author of the CanonDIsk drivers to really get the system working the way I wanted it to.

The CanonDisk docs on my OS3 backup disk mention the problem of not being able to print plain text from other programs to the PRT: or PAR: device. I believe it recommends the use of an "avail flush" command to get PRT: working again but you should read the docs to be sure.

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@Xenic

Hmmn the docs I got seem to have no mention of that:

http://pastebin.com/JXeawV9U

I;m using Canondisk from here: http://aminet.net/driver/print/CanonDisk398d.lha

It says they're 100% compatible Amiga drivers. But even trying to use CanonBJ10 or Generic from OS 3.1 have the same effect.

@danwood
Quote:

Hmmn the docs I got seem to have no mention of that:

Check the readme file in Docs/DriverReadme.lzh
Quote:

It says they're 100% compatible Amiga drivers. But even trying to use CanonBJ10 or Generic from OS 3.1 have the same effect.

They may have been 100% compatible with the Amiga printing system that existed at the time they were released but the printing system was changed for OS 3.5 and OS 3.9. I can't really help you any further because I'm an OS4 user and don't even have a classic system any more. Maybe another OS3 user can help.

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SAM Flex 800MZ with 1GB memory & OS4.1u4

Just bumping this back up as not solved this yet and very keen to!

Any ideas?

@Xenic

Quote:

They may have been 100% compatible with the Amiga printing system that existed at the time they were released but the printing system was changed for OS 3.5 and OS 3.9. I can't really help you any further because I'm an OS4 user and don't even have a classic system any more. Maybe another OS3 user can help.

Indeed, but even using the bundled BJ10 and Generic drivers from 3.9 and 3.1 the result is the same, unless printer.device is broken in 3.9? Can anyone confirm printing works at all in 3.9? I suppose I wouldn't be able to print from Wordworth if it was though?

@danwood

The only thing I can assure you of is the fact that exactly this driver works with AmigaOS 3.9 and Canon printers - I used it in combination with my trusty BJC-610 ink jet for many years. It even worked with Envoy and network printer sharing...

Sadly enough the Canon died some years ago and nowadays I use networked Postscript/PCL printers...

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@cha05e90

Absolutely baffled as to why PRT: output won't work then :/

Even tried printing in raw text mode from Transwrite which just locks up with the sleepy pointer showing. As I said I can print from Wordworth in "Normal" mode, not using Postscript so the printer is obviously working.

I do not have PRT or PAR devices in DOSDrivers though, could this be the problem or not, getting mixed answers as to weather OS3 needs them, my OS4.1 install has them.

I have also tried the printer with my AmigaOne and it prints text mode just fine from there, so the printer is working properly.

Very keen to get to the bottom of this.

@danwood
Did you try opening a shell and entering "assign" as I suggested? That would confirm whether PRT: and PAR: are actually present. They should appear at the bottom of the assign output in the shell window. If they are already present, then adding a DosDriver would probably just produce an error during a boot or reboot.

_________________
SAM Flex 800MZ with 1GB memory & OS4.1u4

@danwood

Well here is what the OS4 one says:


*
* PRT: for A1 Amiga Hardware
*/

EHandler = L:Port-Handler
Priority = 5
StackSize = 2000
GlobVec = -1
Device = printer.device
Unit = 0
Flags = 0
Control = "PAR"


For some reason PRT is not intergrated into OS4 and is mounted the "old fashioned" way but CDx is automatic.

However I think the others are right. The 68K printer.device must add PRT to the system itself. I checked here and no PRT file exists in OS3.1! Well not in my collection. Not in my OS3.9 either.

Now when you printed from the A1 did you also use PRT: and it worked? That is a different OS but I think I may have figured this out. PAR: certainly won't work as you would need to send specific Canon commands the the printer. That leads me to my next conclusion: Your Canon printer is a graphical printer. This was typical of printers post dot matrix in the 90's. I had a BJC-255SP myself. They only support graphics. The PRT: is for sending text to the printer but if it is like mine your BJ30 won't print it because it doesn't print text.

An Amiga printer driver I recall will notifiy if it can print text or only graphics. Hence the error. Now traditionally printer drivers didn't support text by rendering the data itself not did the OS have a plug in for this AFAIK. So if you want to print direct text you are stuck. I wonder if this is the case. I don't know if there was a tool around this.

Last edited by Hypex on 07-May-2012 at 04:08 PM.
Last edited by Hypex on 07-May-2012 at 04:06 PM.

Just tested PRT: on my A1 uisng my HP printer. It works. But that isn't the same as a Canon dirver and printer so results are still inconclusive.

@danwood

Quote:

danwood wrote: I have recently hooked up my old canon BJ30 via parallel to my A1200, I downloaded the Canon Drivers and prefs tools from aminet, it al appears to be set up ok, the Printer prefs shows it just fine. I can print from Wordworth 7 ok, but trying to print raw text won't work. If I try to print from CED it asks where to send output, PRT: just fails and says "Error opening destination". Trying to send output to PRT or PAR from the CLI fails too: ...

Have you tried to use TurboPrint?

I use TurboPrint since the A500 days - if you ask me, its the best printing system.

I just googled for "turboprint Amiga demoversion" and there seems to be a TurboPrint v2 available for download, but I dont know if its legal...

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