usbprinter.device problem if printer not turned on

[Hypex]

Are you saying that the problem has been fixed by Update 4?

Are you saying that you missed my post?

[xenic]

@ChrisH

Are you saying that the problem has been fixed by Update 4?

No. I spoke too soon. The first time I start FinalWriter 5, I only get a single requester and Ringhio notification on the WorkBench screen. However, if I quit FinalWriter 5 and start it again then I get multiple requesters on the WorkBench screen and multiple Ringhio notifications on the FinalWriter screen. It turns into a real mess.

@Hypex
Originally I thought that I didn't have a problem with Media Toolbox. I opened it repeatedly with no problem. However, I just discovered that after I have opened FinalWriter 5 and got a requester + notification; opening the Media Toolbox window brings up lots of requesters and notifications. Either you've been opening MTB after opening another program that accesses the printer.device or usbprinter.device or some program in your WBStartup or user-startup accesses one of those devices before you start MTB. Can you try booting with no WBStartup and nothing started from user-startup to see if MTB brings up the requesters then?? It would be helpful if we could identify a program that starts the repeated requesters and is readily available to ChrisH for testing. As far as I know, there is no legal way to obtain FinalWriter for testing.

[Hypex]

Originally I thought that I didn't have a problem with Media Toolbox.

Sorry for my delay. Been away for my A1 for almost a week and wanted to test it before but...

Can you try booting with no WBStartup and nothing started from user-startup to see if MTB brings up the requesters then??

I can do one better. I just added a fresh install of Update 4 to my A1 for purposes of testing. I will do that on a clean system and see how it goes.

As far as I know, there is no legal way to obtain FinalWriter for testing.

We don't need too. Any program that reads the device list is fine. The WB ones I listed as examples. And my number one for testing is DiskMonTools.

[swoop]

The printer support in OS4 has always been sadly lacking (we can't use anything from OS 3.9 and Turboprint barely runs because of its old bugs).

I use it every day, and the only 'bug' I have experience of is not being able to change to another printer device.
Detleif (I think that was his handle) did tweek the OS4 printing system to allow this (one of the pre-releases), but the change was not included in the next update, nor since.
Which is a shame as some times I would like to test the AmigaOS printing system see here, but currently I am not been able to.
If someone could look back at detlief's changes, it would be a help.

[swoop]

I find that I have to go to printer prefs and change my settings to use the parallel printer device instead of usbprinter device, save and reboot, and then any time I want to print, go change my printer prefs to use usbprinter device (whiile my usb printer is turned on and is connected) and then reboot so I can print.

That reminds me, it was Detlief's fix/tweek, in the parallel.device that allowed printer devices to be changed correctly on OS4
.
I have to go through the same procedure as yourself, of changing settings and rebooting to use the AmigaOS printer drivers rather than Turboprint, and although TonyW mentions many times Turboptint bugs I haven't seen reported that I can reproduce on my system, and I use turboprint exclusively.
So if someone could provide any links, or descriptions of how to trigger such bugs, I am quite happy to test them out.

Is there a fix for this, or will there be in a future update?

Thanks.

I think you have found the only fix you are likely to get, at least for a while, as printing is not of a high enough priority for the developers. Which is a shame, as usually the first thing you buy after you have bought a computer is a printer.
User's and Developers (and investers ie TrevorD) are crying out for the OOlite port, but it isn't very useful if you can't print.

[Hypex]

@xenic

Okay I just ran some tests on my fresh OS4.1 install. I turned on my printer so I could select the usbprinter.device in Printer and select the driver. I have "Init Printer" off. Isn't it annoying how there are no drivers in there and you have to drag the one you want into Devs then restart Printer? Surely this should be in the GUI by now!

I then loaded up MTB and it went crazy! So I rebooted and ran it again. It was silent!

But then after some more reboots and testing I found a solid test case:
Run RawDisk. You may see one nag, there could be five. Close it. Run MTB. Nag hell is back!

It does seem random at times when MTB runs perfectly.

[Hypex]

Hi guys.

I have figured a way that anyone can test this without needing a printer. After
all it is caused by havng no printer on or attached so it makes sense you don't
need a printer to test it!

All you need is to download this USB Printer prefs file:
http://home.lizzy.com.au/dmaen/download ... nter.prefs

Okay here is how to set up the system. I tested this on my X1000 Update 5
Workbench and confirmed this can be tested without needing a printer.

1. Move the HP_DeskJet_1120C driver from Storage and put it into DEVS:Printers.
2. Load up Printer Prefs. Select Open and load in the USB_Printe.prefs file. * Ignore the errors (Cancel) and press the Save gagdet to store them.
3. Soft reboot the system.
4. Perform RawDisk and MTB test as told above.
5. Enoy the requester onslaught!

* You could probably also replace the prefs file directly in ENVARC:Sys but I haven't tried this.

[xenic]

I have figured a way that anyone can test this without needing a printer. After
all it is caused by havng no printer on or attached so it makes sense you don't
need a printer to test it!

You gave them a way to reproduce the problem and still no fix in Update5. Arggg!

Here is an even simpler way to reproduce the problem:
1. Turn off your printer or disconnect it.
2. Open Notepad and enter some text.
3.Select the "Project/Print..." menu item.
4. Select "OK" in the "Print this text?" requester.
5. Cancel any resulting NotePad requesters and close NotePad.
6. Open Media Toolbox.
7. Have fun cancelling a multitude of USB Printer requesters accompanied by as many Ringhio notifications.

EDIT: The problem doesn't exist with usbprinter.device version 52.8 (03/11/2008). After you try the above steps, temporarily replace the your current usbprinter.device with the old one and you will see that the multiple requester problem doesn't exist with the older device.

[Hypex]

You gave them a way to reproduce the problem and still no fix in Update5. Arggg!

Yes I know!

Well I guess if it doesn't crash the the priority is low. But I don't know why such an annoying "feature" was put in there in the first place!

If it ain't broke don't fix it. So they fixed it so it broke. Or so it annoys the hell out of you.

It looiks like I will have to replace mine with the older version. Thans for the tip.

[xenic]

Yes I know!

Well I guess if it doesn't crash the the priority is low. But I don't know why such an annoying "feature" was put in there in the first place!

If it ain't broke don't fix it. So they fixed it so it broke. Or so it annoys the hell out of you.

It looiks like I will have to replace mine with the older version. Thans for the tip.

I think there is more to the problem than just the newer printer.device. Media Toolbox shouldn't be identifying PRT: as a storage device and trying to access it like a partition. It seems that all DOS devices using "port-handler" can show up as storage devices. If you enter "mountinfo PRT:" in a shell, it displays partition information (i.e. LowCyl, HighCyl, Dostype).If you enter "mountinfo PIPE:" in a shell, it displays the info from the mountfile as it should.