Re: Printing on FreeBSD -- LINUX5250

So I edited /usr/local/etc/rc.d/prtas400.sh as follow and gave it run
permissions:

[SNIP - delete script]

I tried your script, and it worked for me. (FreeBSD 6.0-RELEASE-p5, i5/OSV5R3M0)

I noticed that you're using an old-style rc.d script. Are you running avery old version of FreeBSD? Which version are you running?

Also, is there a reason to put all of the options into the script itselfinstead of creating a configuration file? Wouldn't it be easier to createa tn5250rc and put all of the options there?

Now lp5250d starts on boot, but I cannot print anything through as400.
Notice i can print anything with lpr, so that part of the setup is ok.

Okay... Is there any errors on the AS/400 side? Where do you have themessages for this printer going to? Have you looked for any errormessages? Is there a job log produced? What does the job log say?

Second problem is that the daeomon will sooner or later die without
issuing any message.
I could solve this by letting svscan run it, but I would need some
switch to tell lp5250d not to fork in background. Does such a switch exist?


I'm not familiar with svscan. Is that something you installed from ports?

There's no switch to stop it from running as a daemon. If you look in thecode for lp5250d, you'll see the following code. If you comment that codeout, it'll stay in the foreground:


     if (tn5250_daemon (0, 0, 0) < 0)
       {
         perror ("tn5250_daemon");
         exit (2);
       }

I could add a +nodaemon config option, that'd be a trivial change to thecode. Then you'd have it in a future release...

Is there any way to increase verbosity in order to get something useful
in the log file?

The trace file is intended to keep a log of every byte of sent/receivedfrom the AS/400 as well as every keystroke you make. That way, adeveloper can use it to reproduce problems with the 5250 data stream.

Unfortunately, in your case, it doesn't look like you're getting that far.There's no data exchanged between your FreeBSD box and your AS/400. Thisimplies that you're not connecting successfully, or that the AS/400 isunable to provide a device for you to use.

For that reason, there's no data to put in the trace. Perhaps we shouldadd more diagnostic messages relating to making a connection to the logfile. But, if the error is on the AS/400 side, there won't be anydiagnostics to include, since they'll be on the other side of theconnection.