Configuring LPR/LPD

To configure line printer requester/line printer daemon (LPR/LPD) printing, follow these steps.

Note: You should only consider using this method if your printer does not support the Printer Job Language (PJL), Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), or Internet Printing Protocol (IPP) printing methods. This method of printing has a number of limitations. Restrictions when using this method include, but are not limited to:
  • No page range support.
  • Limited or no printer status.
  • Limited or no error recovery.
  • Limited or no control of a spooled file after it is sent.
  1. Start LPD on the print server, PC, or System i® product that you are printing to. If you are printing to another System i product, you can start LPD with System i Navigator:
    1. Click Network > Servers > TCP/IP.
    2. Right-click LPD and click Start.
  2. Use the Create Output Queue (CRTOUTQ) CL command to create a remote output queue. From a character-based interface, type CRTOUTQ.
  3. On the CRTOUTQ display, press F9 to display all parameters.
  4. Specify the following values:
    Parameter Value
    Output queue (OUTQ) The name of your output queue; for example, myoutq.
    Library The name of the library where your output queue is located. It is recommended that you set this to QUSRSYS in case you need to use a dummy device description for some of your applications; for example, qusrsys.
    Remote system (RMTSYS) When configuring a remote output queue, you can either specify the printer's IP address, host name, or DNS name. If an IP address is used, the Remote System (RMTSYS) parameter should be set to *INTNETADR, and then the printer's IP address should be specified in the Internet address (INTNETADR) parameter. If a host name or DNS name is used, that name should be entered here.

    Verify that the system can reach the printer by using either the PING or Verify TCP/IP Connection (VFYTCPCNN) command with the IP address, host name, or DNS name.
    Remote printer queue (RMTPRTQ) This specifies the print queue value that the printer or print server accepts for LPD print requests. The remote printer queue is hardware specific. Refer to your manufacturer's information or see the IBM® Software Knowledge Base document Recommended Remote Printer Queue Values for Remote Output Queues (RMTOUTQs)Link outside Information Center (search for the document title at www.ibm.com/support/) for recommendations on the value to use for some popular printers.
    Writers to autostart (AUTOSTRWTR) This should be set to 1 to automatically start one writer.
    Connection type (CNNTYPE) This must be set to *IP.
    Destination type (DESTTYPE) This should be set to *OTHER.
    Host print transform (TRANSFORM) Set to *YES so that SNA character string (SCS) and AFP data stream spooled files are converted to the printer's data stream.
    Manufacturer type and model (MFRTYPMDL) This value indicates the type of ASCII printer and is used by the host print transform when converting spooled files. For recommendations on the value to use for some popular printers, see the IBM Software Knowledge Base document Information on Printers from Various ManufacturersLink outside Information Center (search for the document title at www.ibm.com/support/).
    Internet address (INTNETADR) This must be set to the printer's IP address when the Remote system (RMTSYS) parameter is set to *INTNETADR; for example, 192.168.0.2.
    Destination options (DESTOPT) This should be set to 'XAIX' to allow multiple copies to be printed on printers that start printing right away. When XAIX is specified, the remote printer writer opens the connection to the printer and sends multiple copies of the data file and control file. Each control file contains one print command for the preceding data file.

    This should be set to *NONE on printers that close the connection after the first copy is sent and that are capable of buffering all of the print data. The data file and the control file are sent once. The control file contains multiple print commands for the preceding data file. Depending on the specific printer, this might result in multiple copies being printed.

    If you specify 'XAIX' when using a printer that closes the connection after the first copy is sent, a condition might result where the print data is resent, causing a loop condition where the data is printed continuously.
    Print separator page (SEPPAGE) This setting might be overridden by the print server, so setting this parameter might not have the effect you want.
    All other values can be left as the default value.
  5. Press Enter.
  6. The remote writer associated with the remote output queue should automatically be started. Use the following tasks to manage the remote output queue and the remote writer:
    • Start the remote writer.
    • Stop the remote writer.
    • Display the remote writer status.
    • Change the remote output queue description.
  7. Optional: Create a dummy device description. Dummy device descriptions are typically used when printing from applications that do not support printing to an output queue. Dummy device descriptions can also be used if you want to manage output associated with a printer rather than an output queue. For more information, see the IBM Software Knowledge Base document Creating a Dummy Device Description to Use with a Remote Output Queue (RMTOUTQ)Link outside Information Center (search for the document title at www.ibm.com/support/).
Parent topic: Configuring printing
Related concepts:
Starting a remote writer
Stopping a remote writer
Displaying remote writer status
Related tasks:
Changing remote output queue description
Related information:
Create Output Queue (CRTOUTQ) command