3 Known Problems and Workarounds
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1. Introduction
Note: Packaged with your software is a separate sheet that
contains the Software License Agreement. This
software is provided to you solely under the terms
and conditions of the Software License Agreement.
Please take a few moments to review the Agreement.
This document contains the following chapters:
1. Introduction
2. Installation Information
3. Known Problems and Workarounds
4. Documentation Errors
1.1 Release_Identification_Information
Following is the release identification information for the
Printing Tools Product:
Software Product Printing Tools
Version 1.2
System Software Requirements IRIX 5.2
1.2 Online_Release_Notes
After you install the online release notes for a product
(the relnotes subsystem), you can view the release notes on
your screen.
Note: You can read the online release notes for most
products before installing the software. Refer to
the booklet in your CD-ROM case for more information.
If you have a graphics system, select ``Release Notes'' from
the Tools submenu of the Toolchest. This displays the
grelnotes(1) graphical browser for the online release notes.
Refer to the grelnotes(1) man page for information on
options to this command.
If you do not have a graphics system, you can use the
relnotes command. Refer to the relnotes(1) man page for
accessing the online release notes.
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1.3 Product_Support
Silicon Graphics, Inc., provides a comprehensive product
support maintenance program for its products.
If you are in the U.S. or Canada and would like support for
your Silicon Graphics-supported products, contact the
Technical Assistance Center at (800)800-4SGI. If you are
outside these areas, contact the Silicon Graphics subsidiary
or authorized distributor in your country.
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2. Installation_Information
This chapter lists supplemental information to the IRIS
Software Installation Guide. The information listed here is
product- and release-specific; use it with the Installation
Guide to install this product.
2.1 Printing_Tools_Subsystems
Printing Tools includes these subsystems:
print.sw.desktop Includes the software support
for desktop printer icons, the
printer manager (printers),
the printer status panel
(printstatus), and the printer
job submittal tool
(printpanel). Also includes
the File Type Rules necessary
to allow drag and drop
printing on printer icons.
print.man.desktop Contains the manual pages for
the desktop printing tools.
print.man.relnotes Contains the release notes you
are currently reading for the
printing tools.
2.2 Print_Tools_Subsystem_Disk_Space_Requirements
This section lists the subsystems (and their sizes) of the
Printing Tools product.
If you are installing this product for the first time, the
subsystems marked ``default'' are the ones that are
installed if you use the ``go'' menu item. To install a
different set of subsystems, use the ``install,''
``remove,'' ``keep,'' and ``step'' commands in inst to
customize the list of subsystems to be installed, then
select the ``go'' menu item.
Note: The listed subsystem sizes are approximate. Refer to
the IRIS Software Installation Guide for information
on finding exact sizes.
Subsystem Name Subsystem Size
(512-byte blocks)
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print.sw.desktop (default) 4761
print.man.desktop (default) 64
print.man.relnotes (default) 12
2.3 Installation_Method
All of the subsystems for Printing Tools can be installed
using IRIX. You do not need to use the miniroot. Refer to
the IRIS Software Installation Guide for complete
installation instructions.
2.4 Prerequisites
If you want to install release 1.2 of the Printing Tools
product, you must have IRIX release 5.2 or later installed.
2.5 Other_Installation_Information
Printing Tools contains portions of the 1.1 release of the
Impressario Client software package. If you install
Impressario 1.1 on top of Printing Tools, there will be no
problems, but if you remove Impressario 1.1, the Printer
Manager included in the System Manager tools will not be
able to launch the Printer Status Panel, and the Printer
Tools may not work properly. Therefore, if you remove the
1.1 release of Impressario after installing Printing Tools,
you must reinstall Printing Tools.
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3. Known_Problems_and_Workarounds
Known problem with the product and ways to work around them.
o If you install and remove release 1.1 of the
Impressario product after installing Printing Tools,
you must reinstall Printing Tools. If you do not, then
the Printer Manager will be unable to launch the
Printer Status Panel and drag-and-drop printing will
not function.
o On Indy systems, there is currently a 2m (6 foot)
maximum cable length limit on SCSI devices instead of
the normal 6m (18 foot) maximum cable length. If you
experience "SCSI Bus Reset" problems, try a shorter
SCSI cable, and especially try a high-quality SCSI
cable. The importance of proper cabling and
termination cannot be overstated.
o If you are unable to save option settings for a
printer, delete the printer and install it again.
Printers added to the system prior to the installation
of either IRIX 5.2 or Impressario 1.1 may experience
this problem. Configuration directories used by
Printing Tools 1.2 and Impressario 1.1 did not exist in
previous releases.
o The PrintPanel (glp) program accepts filenames that
begin with a '$' sign. Typically these filenames
reference environment variables (e.g. $HOME/foo).
However, if a filename is specified that begins with a
'$' and does not have a directory component (e.g. $foo)
and there is no file or environment variable
corresponding to the filename and the program was
launched from a shell window, the PrintPanel program
will hang. The same is true of filenames beginning with
the '#' character. Note that this only effects
PrintPanel programs launched from a shell window and
not from the File Manager or desktop. The occurrence of
these types of filenames is rare and the need to print
such files is even more rare. There are two
workarounds. First, if you are printing a filename
that begins with '$' or '#', escape the character
(.e.g. $foo should be specified as \$foo). The second
workaround concerns dealing with a hung PrintPanel. If
the program hangs you can simply kill it from the shell
in which it was invoked.
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o If two PrintPanel programs request a printer specific
options panel for the same printer at the same time, it
is possible for one options panel to appear over one
PrintPanel while being managed by the other PrintPanel.
The effect of this is that when one PrintPanel is
iconified, the options panel for the other PrintPanel
is removed from the screen and vice versa. This problem
does not effect the setting of printer specific
options.
o The busy cursor may not return to normal after a
printer specific options panel is displayed by the
PrintPanel program or the Printer Manager. This does
not effect the operation of the options panel. The
problem exists only with the options panels provided by
certain third party printer products.
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4. Documentation_Errors
o There are no known documentation errors at this time.
The online Insight documentation for the printing tools
is contained in the IRIS Essentials manual and the
Personal System Administration Guide. If you do not
have these manuals installed, you may want to do so
now. They came on your IRIX operating system CD.