Printing problems under UNIX with Intelligent cards

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Title: Printing problems under UNIX with Intelligent cards
Keywords: intelligent,printing,printer,scounix,xenix,problem,unix
Author: KAM
Date: Oct 27-95
KDB: kdb-116
Distribution: External


Printing problems can occurr under Unix operating systems when using
Connect Tech Intellicon or NT960 cards. The symptom of this problem is
partial completion of print jobs, and if the print job is re-issued the
same problem will occur over and over again.

The solution is to add a cat command in you /etc/rc file to keep the port
open. >Example cat /dev/tty4a > /dev/null &

This can also be done on the command line for testing purposes. The reason
the port stops printing is because the Unix OS transfers the print job
into the Intellicon's buffers, then issues a close or flush command. Unix
has no way of knowing that there is still data in the card. This instructs
the CTI card to stop transmission of data, and in fact the data is lost.
The cat command on the port, keeps the port open and active all the time,
preventing the above from happening. The above recommendation also applies
to dumb serial ports as well.