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Printing in DosBox using USB printer (in command line it works)

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First post, by poao

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Hi,

I have an old DOS program that I need to run under Windows XP. I tried first to run the program using windows XP own command line (Run -> cmd) but the program did not run very well (worked partially). In Dosbox the program runs perfectly fine. The only problem left for me is to be able to print from DOSBOX.

I have read a fantastic tutorial about printing from DOS programs under windows xp (http://members.shaw.ca/bsanders/printfromdos.htm). After following the tutorial I am now able to print when I start the program from windows xp command line (but some parts of the program don't work while in dosbox the work fine). The problem is that this tutorial did not help me to print from Dosbox (it's just works when I print form windows command line - when the program is running from dosbox nothing is printed).

Is there any way to fix that ?
By the way, I also tried running dos2usb and it didn't help to get the program print when running from dosbox.

Thanks
Poao

Reply 1 of 12, by MiniMax

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Check out h-a-l-9000's unofficial DOSBox build:
DOSBox SVN Builds

DOSBox 60 seconds guide | How to ask questions
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Reply 2 of 12, by poao

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Thanks for the quick reply...

I tried the link and it seems to be a little bit better (because now the printer is at least detected) but just before the printer starts to print dosbox crashed (many times I tried).

All combinations did not work. The most successful was the dll's combined with "Parallel Port Passthrough" (the printer was detected) but the program crashed just before printing...

Any thing I can do to fix this ?

Thanks

Reply 3 of 12, by h-a-l-9000

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The parallel port passthrough patch does not work with USB printers. You could try the virtual printer part instead.

1+1=10

Reply 4 of 12, by poao

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Thanks for your reply.

I tried the DLL's with "Mega build #3" (contain the virtual printer). Now when I try to print I don't get a message that no printer was detected (this message appeared when I used the official DosBox).
However, the printer does not print and nothing happens. After a few seconds I get a message that everything was fine (which isn't because the printer did not print anything).

Any more suggestions ?

Thanks

Reply 5 of 12, by h-a-l-9000

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Did you add the fonts in the directory and set parallel1=printer? By default it will create a png file in the dosbox directory instead of printing. And maybe you ahve to press ctrl+F2 to "eject" the virtual page.

1+1=10

Reply 6 of 12, by blulb

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Hi,
I got a very old program that can only print on LPT1 and can only be run in DOSBox, running in cmd.exe doesnt't work. Now I downloaded your build (4.1) and set it up, corrected all settings and so on. Now when I try to print from the program (no matter whether virtual or real printer) the DOSBox says Unkown command, skipping and a smiley followed by a number. Am I doing anything wrong? The output pages only consist of a black circle in the upper left corner. The printer is connected via USB, I got no LPT-Port available. Thanks for your help.

Reply 7 of 12, by h-a-l-9000

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What if you press Ctrl+F2?

That's not a smiley but a printer control code - how does it look exactly?

1+1=10

Reply 9 of 12, by h-a-l-9000

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What kind of printer does that program expect? I.e. laser printers are not supported. If you have a choice use one that sounds like ESC/P.

1+1=10

Reply 10 of 12, by blulb

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Wow thanks! I chose a matrix printer (:D) and now at least the output to a file works! I'm testing output to printer now but that should be no problem 😀
Thanks a lot for your help!

Reply 11 of 12, by Katherine

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I have no matrix printer. Is there any way for printing from the DOS BOX into USB Inkjet printer?

Reply 12 of 12, by Katherine

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I found a lot of special utilities for support printing text on the modern inkjet and laserjet printers: dos2usb, printfil (already tested), dosprn, dosprint etc.

I downloaded these utilities and evaluated them. At last I choose a dosprn ( http://www.dosprn.com ) utility for me. It printed my documents more or less correctly and it is the most inexpensive between competitors.

I'd installed "DOSBox Mega Build 5" release, adjusted DOSBOX settings for saving LPT traffic into file directly and switched DOSPRN to printing this file automatically.

It is not a magnificent but it works at me at least.

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