SUMMARY -*late* PC-NFS

From: David Robson (dave@lpdwhy.bhp.com.au)
Date: Tue Sep 27 1994 - 08:12:38 CDT


Sorry for the late summary - production problems come first! :-)

This summary contains replies to problems with printing. This followed on
from an authentication prob.
My first question that I initialy summarised :

> Hi all!
>
> Good ol' PC-NFS is causing me some pain. :-(
>
> To set the scene:
>
> Printserver: Sparc2 SunOs 4.1.3, using Cap60 to print to Apple lasers
>
> Solaris 2.3(Sparc20) print client of printserver - works great.
>
> 2 x Compaq 486's running Windows for WG and PC-NFS 5.1
>
> Now, we need the PC's to print via the Solaris 2.3 machine.
>
> I had this working from one PC briefly, and then I set up authentication and
> updated pcnfsd from 5.0 to 5.1 and it stopped working! :-|| (The clients are
> 5.1)
>
> The strange thing is, I can trace a file being printed from the file manager
> to the /var/spool/pcnfs/pcno1 directory. Or at least it looks that way. The
> files in the spool area are of zero size in the format:
>
> nfs10025 nfs11930 nfs15897 nfs205
>
> Also the file created while not using athentication are in /var/spool/pcnfs/
> and of zero content, except for two which are adobe postscript. (They should
> all be postscipt.)
>
> Can anyone steer me right?

Then I got over that hurdle, only to face another:

This is an early summary due to me resolving (almost) the problem.

Firstly, I must have told myself a thousand times "Don't use graphical admin
tools" !
But, I used admintool to add a printer, which doesn't set the printer type.
In this case it needed to be PS (postscript).

Once I changed this it worked fine - almost.

For some reason beyond me, Microsoft Word 6.0 does not print, complaining
about the printer setup. :-||
Excel, Access, Write, Notepad, all work fine.

It would appear that Word 6.0 does not hook into the printer control panel in
the same way as the others. It cannot see the server and so cannot see the
printer.

Don't you just love PC's :-]

>
> Once I changed this it worked fine - almost.
>
> For some reason beyond me, Microsoft Word 6.0 does not print, complaining
> about the printer setup. :-||
> Excel, Access, Write, Notepad, all work fine.
>
> It would appear that Word 6.0 does not hook into the printer control panel in
> the same way as the others. It cannot see the server and so cannot see the
> printer.
>
We observed the same behavior of Winword 6.0 together with PC/NFS and
Windows for WG. The only work-around is to print Postscript to a file
and send this file to the printer. These problems do not exist with
MS Windows 3.1 and PC-NFS 5.1. So I recommend to switch back to 3.1 if
possible.

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Dave,

Yeah, we've seen that problem with WFW 6.0 not printing via PC-NFS.

You've got the first part of the fix (PC-NFS 5.1). It won't print
at all under earlier releases. Apparently, Microsoft played
some interesting games with how they handle printing in these
new releases. I also heard Novell administrators muttering under their
breath about printing problems, so it isn't restricted to PC-NFS.

Now go into control panel->printers under MS-Windows and connect the
printer as lptx:dos *instead of* simply lptx:. This should do the
job for you.

By the way, we've also seen the same problem with Excel 5.0, although
only intermittantly. There's also a problem with file corruption of
Excel files under PC-NFS 5.1. There's a debug-based patch for pcnfs.sys
that fixes the latter. Let me know if you need it and I'll send you
the directions.

Good luck!

Steve Ehrhardt stevee@sbei.com
SBE Inc. (510)355-7773
San Ramon,CA
"The opinions expressed are those of the author. His employer would disavow
        any knowlege of them, presuming they knew that he had any."

Dave,
        We run PCNFS 5.1 and CAP 60 here, but both give me enough trouble
to make me wary of trying anything which depended on both!
I guess most of this list of suggestions is obvious but it may help...

1) in autoexec set up printers with

        C:\NFS\PRT -T10 *
        .
        .
        net use LPT1: lwserv0:sw

2) check that you authenticated properly with `net name' command.

3) check the /etc/pcnfsd.conf file on the 2.3 machine for the uidrange
and spooldir.

4) try connecting the printers via control panel using the lpr protocol
rather than the `net use ' command. The lpr protocol does not go via the
pcnfs spool directory. (But it is the BSD lpr protocol, so 2.3 might not
be the best machine to try printing to).

5) check that the pcnfs spool directory is exported (shared in
2.3-speak) correctly- you should be able to mount it from th pc and write
files to it.

Richard Davis
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Dave -
        I am having similar PC-NFS 5.1 problems. The release notes for 5.1
say:
        "PRINTING WITH MICROSOFT WORD 6.0
When configuring the printer port for Word for Windows 6.0 you must use the
LPT1.DOS or LPT2.DOS port. You may also need to use these ports for other
applications in the Microsoft Office suite, such as Excel and PowerPoint"

I don't know if this helps. The LPRclient in Windows does not seem to allow
for connections from LPT1.DOS to network printers. Personally I wish I had
just left things alone with 5.0...

                                Mark

Hi

This sounds like the normal PC-NFS + WFWG problem. The fix is to make
sure that the "Fast Printing Direct to Port" box (under Control Panel
-> Printers -> Connect) is not checked and also to make sure that the
"Send Documents Directly to Network" is unchecked (Print Manager ->
Options -> Background Printing).

If you are using MS-Word then you may also have to increase the
TimerCriticalSection value from 1000 to 5000 in the [386Enh] section
of your system.ini file.

If you are using PC-NFS v5.1, with MS-Excel, then you should also be
aware of BugId 1171233 - see included message for fix. BTW, if you
use this fix, you should remember that your PCs are probably using a
copy of PCNFS.SYS in the Windows directory - not the one in the NFS
directory.

Hope this helps
Mark
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hz01930@hx.deere.com (Jay D. Anderson) writes:

>I am running PC-NFS 5.1 with printing using the pcnfs option, and Excel 5.0.
>After printing several (5-10) jobs from Excel, prints will no longer be sent
>to the printer. The job is queued to the mounted spool directory, and the
>filename is of the form nfs12345, but it is never sent on to the Unix print
>queue.

>I have tried using the lpr option for printing, but I have not tested this
>extensively because it would stop printing as well.

>Anyone else seen this problem or have ideas for solving it?

>Thanks.

I was also having file corruption problems when saving from Excel. I
finally stumbled across the solution for that problem, and it appears
to have fixed the printing problem as well. Sun has released a patch
that is simply instructions to run a simple debug against PCNFS.SYS.

Here is the patch:

Patch-ID# 101931-01
Keywords: pcnfs,5.1,excel,4.0,file,data,corruption,network,drive,file,saving
Synopsis: PC-NFS 5.1: Data corruption saving Excel 4.0 files on networked disk
Date: Aug/03/94

Solaris Release:

SunOS Release:

Unbundled Product: PC-NFS

Unbundled Release: 5.1

Relevant Architectures: PC

BugId's fixed with this patch: 1171233

Changes incorporated in this version:

Patches accumulated and obsoleted by this patch:

Patches which conflict with this patch:

Patches required with this patch:

Obsoleted by:

Files included with this patch:

Problem Description:

    Saving large spreadsheets or workbooks from Microsoft Excel 4.0 to
    a network disk, mounted with PC-NFS 5.1 in non-sharing mode, causes
    the resulting file to be corrupt.

Patch Installation Instructions:

    On the system where PC-NFS is installed, save the existing PCNFS.SYS
    file. Use DOS debugger to modify two bytes in the PCNFS.SYS file.
    Reboot the system.

    Select the drive where PC-NFS is installed.

        C:

    Change to the directory where PC-NFS is installed.

        CD \NFS

    Save the original PCNFS.SYS file.

        COPY \NFS\PCNFS.SYS \NFS\PCNFS.FCS

    Start the DOS debugger.

        DEBUG PCNFS.SYS

    At the debug prompt (-), enter the following debug commands.

        -e b7d6 <RETURN> 90<space>90<RETURN>

    Output from the debugger after editing will look similar to this:

        2CB7:B7D6 8B.90 DE.90

    Write the changes to disk and quit.

        -w
        -q

    Reboot the PC.

    All drive letter and directory name references are PC-NFS defaults.
    If you have installed PC-NFS on a different drive or in a different
    directory, substitute your drive and directory names in the example
    commands.

>--
>Jay D. Anderson jay.anderson@hx.deere.com
>John Deere Harvester
>1100 13th Avenue (309)765-6063
>E. Moline, Illinois 61244 FAX: (309)765-9010

--
Jay D. Anderson			jay.anderson@hx.deere.com
John Deere Harvester
1100 13th Avenue			(309)765-6063
E. Moline, Illinois 61244	FAX:	(309)765-9010

Hi!

The problem should be on the PC side. If I remember correctly: print directly to the printer port, don't use print manager and turn off word's background printing option.

If this is not correct, ask me again. I can ask a collegue of mine.

ciao, Peter

DDD L RRR | Peter Baumann D D L R R | Abt. SM-ES, DLR, Bunsenstr. 10, W-3400 Goettingen, FRG D D L RRR | Tel. (0551) 709-2190 FAX: (0551) 709-2800 DDD LLLL R R | internet: baum@kirk.es.go.dlr.de

David,

Background printing may be causing the Word 6.0 printing problem. To turn off background printing, select Tools->Options->Print and unmark Background Printing under Printing Options.

I have a problem faxing from Word 6.0 and Microsoft told me to try this, but it still doesn't work! Hopefully you'll have better results!

Bill

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- William J. Maggio Lan & Computer Integrators, Inc. 242 Old New Brunswick Road Email: bmaggio@lci.com Suite 100 Voice: 908-981-1991 Piscataway, NJ 08855 Fax : 908-981-8083

Hello,

I have had the same problem with Word 6 on a Pc with PC-Nfs 5.1. The way I have found to resolve the problem was :

- On the Pc launch Ms-Windows 3.1 - Start "Gestionnaire d'impression" (Print Monitor ?) - Select "Option Reseau" (Network option ?) - Do NOT activate "Imprimer directement sur le reseau" (Print directly on the network ?)

This had worked fine for me (and my Pc).

- Frederic Piard -

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