<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class="">Having fixed the LPFORMS, SYSTEM.CMD and SYSJOB.INI, and enable lp20 in simh, I still couldn’t get it to work until I did the shutdown and startup as below. Now it prints. Hurrah!<div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: Menlo; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class="">14:18:09 Printer 0 -- Not available right now --</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: Menlo; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); min-height: 13px;" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class=""></span><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: Menlo; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class="">OPR>shutdown printer 0</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: Menlo; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class="">OPR> </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: Menlo; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class="">14:18:14 Printer 0 -- Shutdown --</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: Menlo; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class="">OPR>start printer 0/device:lpt0</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: Menlo; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class="">OPR> </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: Menlo; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class="">14:18:27 Printer 0 -- Startup Scheduled --</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: Menlo; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class="">OPR> </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: Menlo; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class="">14:18:27 Printer 0 -- Started --</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: Menlo; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); min-height: 13px;" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class=""></span><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: Menlo; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class="">14:18:28 Printer 0 -- VFU error --</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: Menlo; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class=""> Reloading RAM and VFU</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: Menlo; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); min-height: 13px;" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class=""></span><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: Menlo; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class="">14:18:28 Printer 0 -- Loading RAM with 'LP64' --</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: Menlo; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); min-height: 13px;" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class=""></span><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: Menlo; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class="">14:18:28 Printer 0 -- Loading VFU with 'NORMAL' --</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: Menlo; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); min-height: 13px;" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class=""></span><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: Menlo; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class="">14:18:28 <1> Printer 0 -- Align Forms and Put Online --</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: Menlo; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class=""> Type 'RESPOND <number> PROCEED' when ready</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: Menlo; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); min-height: 13px;" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class=""></span><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: Menlo; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class="">OPR>respond 1 proceed</span></div><div class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class=""><br class=""></span></div><div><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class="">On 21 Mar 2018, at 12:43, Timothe Litt <<a href="mailto:litt@ieee.org" class="">litt@ieee.org</a>> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><div class="">
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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 21-Mar-18 08:24, Jordi Guillaumes
Pons wrote:<br class="">
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<a href="mailto:jg@jordi.guillaumes.name" class="" moz-do-not-send="true">jg@jordi.guillaumes.name</a><br class="">
HECnet: BITXOW::JGUILLAUMES<br class="">
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<div class="">On 21 Mar 2018, at 13:19, Timothe Litt <<a href="mailto:litt@ieee.org" class="" moz-do-not-send="true">litt@ieee.org</a>> wrote:</div>
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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 21-Mar-18 07:02, Jordi
Guillaumes Pons wrote:<br class="">
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Some years ago I wrote a note to myself:
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<div class="">- Enable printing:</div>
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<div class="">1) Create file SYS:LPFORMS:INI with the
following content:</div>
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<div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal;
line-height: normal; font-family: "Andale
Mono"; color: rgb(40, 254, 20);
background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.901961);" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures:
no-common-ligatures" class="">NORMAL:ALL/BANNER:01/HEADER:01/LINES:66/WIDTH:132/TRAILER:01</span></div>
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<div class="">2) In OPR: SHUTDOWN PRINTER 0</div>
<div class="">3) In OPR: START PRINTER 0/<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="device:LPT0" moz-do-not-send="true">DEVICE:LPT0</a></div>
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<div class="">I don’t remember what problem I was trying
to solve, but right now this file exists and printing
works. Hope it can help you.</div>
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normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px;
text-transform: none; white-space: normal;
word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width:
0px;" class="">Jordi Guillaumes i Pons<br class="">
<a href="mailto:jg@jordi.guillaumes.name" class="" moz-do-not-send="true">jg@jordi.guillaumes.name</a><br class="">
HECnet: BITXOW::JGUILLAUMES<br class="">
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LPFORM.INI tells LPTSPL how to process forms (the paper
stock on which a job is printed).<br class="">
The default form is "Normal". Form names with the same 4
initial characters use the same stock; no operator
intervention is required to change among them. (This is
used to allow specifying soft parameters, such as the
number of banner pages, per job.) If a job requires
different stock, the operator is notified.<br class="">
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<div class="">IIRC the problem was the print spooler didn’t got started on
boot and a command to tell OPR it had the default form mounted
was required to start printing. Defining LPFORMS.INI avoided
that problem and the print spooler started automatically. Does
it make sense to you?</div>
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<div class="">Blurred memories also tell me there was some alignement test
involved. After telling OPR the printer had the form mounted it
asked to confirm the form was correctly aligned.</div>
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<div class="">Doh, memory…</div>
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Not exactly. The default form is NORMAL. The printer is started by
OPR; as long as INITIA runs, it will start OPR, which will take
SYSTEM.CMD. SYSTEM.CMD is what configures the galactic components.<br class="">
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LPTSPL is started by QUASAR whenever it's needed - that is, a stream
is started and there's a job in the queue (or has been recently).
QUASAR maintains the printer state, so LPTSPL doesn't have to stick
around when idle. It's possible that LPTSPL prompts for a form if
LPFORM.INI doesn't exist - I believe there's a default LPFORM.INI on
the distribution tapes, and I don't recall running without one in a
VERY long time :-)<br class="">
<br class="">
Alignment is invoked when the mounted stock changes and /ALIGN is
specified in LPFORM.INI; it's used to match the VFU to the paper -
e.g., when printing labels, or pre-printed forms (e.g. invoices,
checks, greenbar). <br class="">
<br class="">
It is likely that that without LPFORM.INI, LPTSPL conservatively
asks for alignment. As I said, it's a good idea to have one.<br class="">
<br class="">
However, the OP wasn't getting that far - the printer status shown
is "not available", indicating that the stream is assigned to a
device that doesn't exist or is assigned to another job. The most
likely cause is failing to enable it in SimH.<br class="">
<br class="">
I'm not inclined to read the code to refresh my memory of what
happens without LPFORM.INI - having one is a good idea, and I don't
think it relates to the OP's issue.<br class="">
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