Re: Help, my printer port is on fire!!!

["Robert G. Brown" <bob@xxxxxxx>]

Yes, it's in lp.c in recent kernels, having migrated down to about line 
440. To me, it looks like any error that is NOT "Offline" or "out of paper" 
is an "on fire" error. Given the number of printers on the market and 
possible error conditions, it's no great surprise that a catch-all is 
needed. At least you can put away that extinguisher, Bruce! :)

Wesley Leonard <marshall@pacdemon.org> wrote:
>I've heard of this one... I think it means there's some unknown error.
>
>I read about this a while ago but I can't remember where...
>
>AHA!  Here we go:
>
>> From: "Marko Siladin" <msiladin@athos.mas.vcu.edu>
>> Date: Mon, 18 Nov 1996 21:01:21 -0500 (EST)
>> Subject: Re: Printer on fire - I feel like an idiot
>> 
>> > 
>> > In article <9611172030.AA16550@athos.mas.vcu.edu>,
>> > "Marko Siladin" <msiladin@athos.mas.vcu.edu> writes:
>> > >
>> > >Sorry guys I really must appolagize to post something to this mailinglist
>> > >without enough investigation. Anyway the reason I got that strange kernel 
>> > >error message was that the "Pause" button on my printer was pressed. 
>> > >The front of my printer is hidden under my desk so I don't see it (
>> > >it's an Epson LQ-570 btw). . Anyway to cut the story short pressing
>> > >the pause butten solved the problem. Maybe there should be some 
>> > >better messageing - like not on-line?? Sorry again for
>> > >the unnecessary posting. 
>> > >Regards and happy linuxing
>> > >-- 
>> > 
>> > `lp0 on fire' is a age-old UNIX joke. It was in the earliest kernels
>> > of UNIX. Linux is just trying to conform ;)
>> > 
>> > Seriously, it's for unknown errors - off line is reported when the 
>> > printer is off-line, out of paper is reported when the printer is out
>> > of paper, on fire is reported when the kernel doesn't know.
>> > 
>> > See .../linux/drivers/char/lp.c at around line 250 (assuming 2.0.24;
>> > I expect it's about the same for other versions but I don't know)
>> > 
>> But the problem is that my printer was - off-line and that the driver
>> did not detect that. Now I understand that there are many printers out
>> there and that it is not easy to write an universal driver. But the
>> point is that lp did not recognize that my printer was off-line.
>> The pause button on the printer is the closest thing I
>> can see to an off-line (except the power switch :) )
>> 
>> - -- 
>> ...Marko
>-- 
>
>Wesley Leonard
>marshall@pacdemon.org
>
>http://www.pacdemon.org
>"...I want Linux to be on the cutting edge, and even a bit past the
>edge, because what's past the edge today is what's on your desktop
>tomorrow."
>	--Linus Torvalds
>
>
>Bruce Smith wrote:
>> 
>> Can someone explain the last line from /var/log/messages?
>> 
>> Jun 25 12:20:43 pc1h kernel: parport0: PC-style at 0x378 (0x778) [SPP,ECP,ECPPS2]
>> Jun 25 12:20:43 pc1h kernel: parport0: detected irq 7; use procfs to enable interrupt-driven operation.
>> Jun 25 12:20:43 pc1h kernel: parport0: no IEEE-1284 device present.
>> Jun 25 12:20:43 pc1h kernel: lp0: using parport0 (polling).
>> Jun 25 12:20:47 pc1h kernel: lp0 on fire
>> 
>> P.S.  My printer seems to be working fine,
>>       and my smoke alarm hasn't went off yet.
>> 
>> --------------------------------------------
>> Bruce Smith                bruce@armintl.com
>> System Administrator / Network Administrator
>> Armstrong International, Inc.
>> Three Rivers, Michigan  49093  USA
>> http://www.armstrong-intl.com/
>> --------------------------------------------