# lp: driver loaded but no devices found

## wolfger

I am trying to add a printer to my system, and the last boot-time entry in dmesg is "lp: driver loaded but no devices found". I have heard all sorts of horror stories about printing on linux, but simply "device not found" is not one of them. Does anybody have any clues what i need to do? I did not see a "printers" section in the kernel. My lsmod shows  *Quote:*   

> Module                  Size  Used by
> 
> ipt_TCPMSS              4672  1
> 
> ipt_limit               3200  14
> ...

 

From what I can tell, parport should be all I need, right? So why do I have no entries in /dev/printers? If it makes any difference, I am using a Xerox Phaser 3130.

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## NeddySeagoon

wolfger,

In your BIOS you neet to set the printer port to either ECP (Enhanced Sapabilities Port) or the other bi-directional option.

Standard Printer Port is unlikely to work.

You will also need the 

```
IEEE 1284 transfer modes
```

option under Parallel port support in the kernel.

Together, these settings allow bi-diredctional communications over the printer port, which most modern printers demand.

These settings are optional becasue the orignal printer port was output only with a few status signals being input.

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## wolfger

 *NeddySeagoon wrote:*   

> wolfger,
> 
> In your BIOS you neet to set the printer port to either ECP (Enhanced Sapabilities Port) or the other bi-directional option.
> 
> Standard Printer Port is unlikely to work.
> ...

 

Okay... I already had 1284 built into the kernel. I set the bios to ECP, and I detect no change. Same last line in dmesg at boot, still no /dev/printers.

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## NeddySeagoon

wolfger,

Stupid question time ... and the printer is plugged in and switched on ?

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## wolfger

LOL... Yes! Maybe I will try re-seating the cable to the back of the computer just to be sure...

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## wolfger

Just to follow up... No, reseating the printer cable did not help. In the end, I had to hook the printer back up to my wife's Windows box so she could get some work done. :Sad:   I'm still looking for a solution that will let me serve that printer from Gentoo, though.

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## NeddySeagoon

wolfger,

The parallel printer device will be /dev/lp0, for your first printer.

Where did you get /dev/printer from?

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## m_sqrd

if this is a pnp bios did yon add pnp to the kernel ?

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## NeddySeagoon

m_sqrd,

pnp is an ISA bus standard. If you have long black slots on your motherboard and cards to plug into them, then maybe.

Plug and Pray was a late addition to ISA and many cards do not support it. You need to set jumpers on these cards to set IRQ, I/O and DMA. Then its yor problem to set the driver module parameters to match and make sure the resourdes are reserved so nothing else uses them.

If you have a PCI bus (no long black slots) PnP is not needed.

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## wolfger

 *NeddySeagoon wrote:*   

> The parallel printer device will be /dev/lp0, for your first printer.
> 
> Where did you get /dev/printer from?

 

I did an ls on /dev and saw a /dev/printers directory. It is empty, but I assume it will contain links to printers when they are detected, much like /dev/cdroms has a link to my dvd-rw device.

And I do have a PCI bus. And I'm fairly sure PNP is in my kernel anyhow (I can verify when I get home from work, if it's important).

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## NeddySeagoon

wolfger,

I don't know what creates a /dev/printers directory.

udev creates /dev/lpX where X is a number.

Not having a parallel port pinter any more, its difficult for me to test. Do you have a /dev/lp0?

Either a a real device file or a symbolic link?

If its a symlink, does the trail lead to a real device file ?

That will be your first printer.

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## m_sqrd

hmmm 

that funny  as  egrep -i 'pnp' /usr/src/linux/.config give me this and I only see one about ISA

# CONFIG_PNP_DEBUG is not set

CONFIG_ISAPNP=y

# CONFIG_PNPBIOS is not set

CONFIG_PNPACPI=y

# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDEPNP is not set

# CONFIG_IP_PNP is not set

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