Re: tn5250 0.15.7 problem?

On Thu, Feb 17, 2000 at 04:56:42PM -0800, jsanchez@cyberdude.com wrote:
>
[snip]
> Anyway, here's my problem: I'm kind of new to the Linux 
> environment (don't worry, I've read FAQs, HOW-TOs and all kinds 
> of documentation I've been able to find...) and was given the task of 
> connecting some IBM 3151 terminals to an AS/400 through a Linux 
> machine. We're accomplishing this by connecting said 3151's to 
> the Linux machine via a MaxSpeed card (an ISA card with 8 RJ11 
> (RJ12?) ports which in turn connect to the serial port on each 3151) 
> After much troubleshooting, we were finally able to connect to the 
> AS/400 using a regular telnet session. Of course, it doesn't work 
> quite well, and that's where tn5250 steps in. 

You've just lost me.. serial port to what?  What kind of protocol?  What
are you doing?!?

What's a 3151?  A 'nix dumb terminal of some sort?  A thin client?  (Why can't
IBM *name* anything?

No offense, but this seems like a _really_ weird setup.  I'm assuming it's a
'nix dumb terminal unless told otherwise.

> 
> To make a long story short, the only way I could make the 3151s 
> display any screen properly was by emulating a TVI920, setting the 
> TERM variable to TVI920 and running tn5250 thusly: tn5250 -m 37 -
> u -y IBM-3196-A1 s10b0001 (where s10b0001 is the host name.) 
> BTW, this was version 0.15.6 of tn5250. Success! We're able to 
> login to the AS/400 and every screen displays nicely (too bad I had 
> to use the -u parm...oh well!)
> 
> My next quest was to get the AS/400 to print to the local printer in 
> the Linux machine. Unfortunately, version 0.15.6 of tn5250 doesn't 
> work quite well when trying to make a printer connection. Waited a 
> couple of weeks and 0.15.7 finally solved the problem. Downloaded 
> the RPM (remember, I'm a Linux newbie...), installed it and tried a 
> printer session. Success! We're able to print to our Epson LX-300 
> (yes, a 9-pin Dot Matrix printer...oh well...) but for some reason, 
> some columns are not aligned properly, and there are spaces 
> between some words (example: Qua rterly Report). So I 
> downloaded/installed apsfilter, recode and a2ps. Lets try it again 
> with the following command line:  tn5250 -P "lpr -Plp" -s RPRT0000 
> -T *IBM6412EP s10b0001. Once again, it works...kind of. Still have 
> a problem with the alignment...but it sure looks better than by 
> using the -T *EPLX810 parm. 

We should probably add debugging support (tracefile support) to
lp5250 (wait, is that already done?).  To debug this kind of thing, we'd
need a look at the data stream.  Mike?  ;)

> 
> Okay, let's try to print from a session running on a 3151. We get 
> the logon screen, type in the username, tab over to the password 
> field, enter password and then hit the Enter key. Nothing 
> happens...I mean, the cursor moves down, so I hit Enter 
> again...moves down one more time. Hmm...I hit ESC and then 
> Enter. It works this time. What the??? I monitor the mailing list 
> archive. No reports of such a problem, so maybe I'm missing 
> something. Looked at the ChangeLog file which I found in the 
> source code tar of 0.15.7. It says something about giving configure 
> the parm --enable-old-keys, so I give that a shot. Still the same 
> problem.

I'm as confused as you are here.  First, if you are using a dumb terminal
and setting 'TERM', make sure you next run 'tput init' to send the terminal
a set of terminal initialization strings specified in it's termcap entry.
See if that helps..  It could power on with a really awful keyboard map, or
enter and newline are switched (sometimes happens).  Also, with a dumb terminal
and a serial line, you have to make sure the terminal and Linux agree on
stop-bits, parity, and data word length.  There is such a thing as an 8-bit
versus 7-bit termcap entry, see if there's a TVI920-7 or TVI920-8 termcap
entry.

Other than that, I've only set up dumb terminals in theory (read: I just
thought about it now, and that *should* work :)

> 
> So, there it is...I said it was a long post, and accept my humble 
> apologies if this is something very simple I missed in the 
> documentation, but I've tried almost everything and still nothing. 
> So, I went back to 0.15.6 to get the terminal emulation to work at 
> least, and am waiting to see an RPM of lp5250d sometime in the 
> future...unless someone can give me a push in the right direction!

I hope this helps.

> 
> Thanks in advance for your help...
> 
> Jose Sanchez
> Tech. Support Specialist (yeah, right!)
> Don Roberto Jewelers, Inc.
> San Clemente, CA USA
> (Yeah, why not add more crap to this already long message...)

-Jay 'Eraserhead' Felice
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