Why Statusreadback?
A lot of newer printer models offer the possibility to report their status
much more verbose than this would be possible via the 3 lines "Paper error",
"Error" and "Offline". These printers offer a lot more information. One is
able to read installed fonts, available paper trays or installed printer
memory. Data is transmitted from printer to the host computer.
Unfortunality the printer port in the PC is write only and therefore you
have to use the status and acknowledge lines together with some tricks to
get bytes from the printer back to the host computer.
How do I do a readback?
A protocol defined in detail in IEEE1284
is used. Bytes that are to be transferred from the printer back
to the computer are split up into so called nibbles,
a group of 4 bits. They are transferred over the existing status
lines, e.g. "Paper error". A fully cabled printer port
cable is needed for this. Especially very cheap or homemade
cable are sometimes missing some status lines. The cable
can be used for simple printing, but readback could possibly not
work.
How do I configure my Linux kernel?
In the meantime the patch is avilable for quite some time now in the
Linux kernel. Most distributions are using the information provided
by the IEEE 1284 compatible devices, in most cases a printer.
What can I do now?
Now it is interesting for you to know: "Does my printer support this
feature"? For example a lot of "laserjet" printers from HP are capable to
report their status this way. I myself had a HP Laserjet 6P and so are all
examples derived from this printer. On the next
Page there is a description of PJL commands, unfortunality only
available in german at the moment. As small example we can execute the
following command line as user "root". If your printer starts to print the
line then it does not support PJL.
Example
# echo -e "\33%-12345X@PJL\n@PJL INFO ID\n\33%-12345X" | \
cat > /dev/lp0
# cat /dev/lp0
@PJL INFO ID
"LASERJET 6P"
As you see everything works on the command line. The only thing missing now
is a user mode program that benefits from the enhanced possibilities.
Take a look at the PJL commands.
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