VOGONS


First post, by mattdaily

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Greetings!

I want to print from my DosBox Windows 3.11 installation. This is a network printer, so here's what I have so far. I am hosting DosBox in Windows XP SP3. The printer is a HP Color LaserJet 2840.

Mapped my printer to LPT2 in XP like this;
net use LPT2 \\server\\printer1

Then in my .conf file;
serial1=directserial realport:LPT2
(not sure if I need anything else other than this)

In my 3.11 on DosBox I have installed a printer using LPT1.DOS port(which I assume is now mapping to serial1 then LP2 then my network printer). For some reason I need to use LPT1.DOS as LPT1 hangs my print server indefinately.
This prints just fine from Notepad, which is obviously plain text, when I try to print more complex documents from Write they enter the 3.11 queue but then disappear. They don't reach my print server.

I hope someone can help with this.

Thanks

Reply 2 of 18, by DaveDoesIT

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Matt do a search on AllowIO. It is a little complicated to follow but I have w3.1 printing to a 3rd party printer driver just fine.

Also as QBix has pointed out you have assigned LPT to a serial control.

Dave

Reply 3 of 18, by h-a-l-9000

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AllowIO has nothing to do with DOSBox.

1+1=10

Reply 4 of 18, by DaveDoesIT

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Hal,

The OP is using win 3.1 and wants to print.

I am running DosBox under XP to run win3.1 and you need AllowIO for DosBox to pass through to the printer especially bi-direction printer ports.

Dave

Reply 5 of 18, by h-a-l-9000

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DOSBox has no way of making use of AllowIO.

1+1=10

Reply 6 of 18, by DaveDoesIT

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OK if you say so, but I have had it running for about 6 months.

Must be magic. <sigh>

Dave

Reply 7 of 18, by mattdaily

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Hi Dave, is there anything else you can tell me about your win3.11 installation? Can I ask what driver you are using for your printer and do you have any special port configuration.

Thanks

Reply 8 of 18, by h-a-l-9000

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> OK if you say so, but I have had it running for about 6 months.

Try without, maybe you made another change together with allowio which actually made it work. Other than NTVDM, DOSBox never executes port I/O directly, unless you have some nonstandard build.

1+1=10

Reply 9 of 18, by DaveDoesIT

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HAL,

Why would I try it without when I know it does not work without it. Hell I spent the best part of a week getting win3.1 to use a bi-di printer port.

C:\Documents and Settings\Blade S>cd \win31\dosbox

C:\Win31\DosBox>allowio dosbox.exe 0x378
AllowIO for PortTalk V2.0
Copyright 2002 Craig Peacock
http://www.beyondlogic.org
PortTalk: The PortTalk driver has been successfully started.
Address 0x378 (IOPM Offset 0x6F) has been granted access.
Executing dosbox.exe with a ProcessID of 1428
PortTalk Device Driver has set IOPM for ProcessID 1428.

C:\Win31\DosBox>DOSBox version 0.72
Copyright 2002-2007 DOSBox Team, published under GNU GPL.
---
CVS build compiled on Dec 21 2007 - http://home.arcor.de/h-a-l-9000
featuring parallel port passthrough rev. 7
---
CONFIG:Loading primary settings from config file dosbox.conf
SDL:You are running in 24 bpp mode, this will slow down things!
MIDI:Opened device:win32
The port at 0x378 was detected as ECP port.

Reply 10 of 18, by DaveDoesIT

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Hi Matt,

See my reply to HAL for the output from installing AllowIO and PortTalk. You will need to follow the instructions for AllowIO and PortTalk. It is too complicated to go through it here and the instructions are understandable if you have a reasonable knowledge of DOS.

I am sorry I can't be more helpful, but it was 3 to 6 months back that I got it working and I don't recall exactly what I did. I do recall the instruction being pretty much correct and helpful.

Once it is set up you actually call AllowIO and it takes over from there and runs DosBox. I am using it to drive a laser engraver from around 1992 which is driven by a specially written printer device driver for win3.1 and it is working fine.

I will try to remember to post a copy of the batch file I use to launch it all.

I have to say I am most grateful for DosBox, AllowIO and PortTalk.

Dave

Reply 11 of 18, by h-a-l-9000

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Well you said nowhere that you use my build...

1+1=10

Reply 12 of 18, by DaveDoesIT

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You said nowhere that it would work with AllowIO and YOUR build.

I don't know the intricacies of this stuff, I am a user of the technology and not a developer. I was trying to be helpful to Matt and you never once offered him a suggestion that ALlowIO would work to solve the problem he was having.

Saying it will not work was already known to Matt otherwise he would not be asking here. I do not understand your philosophy for "Help."

If it was "your build" then why didn't you take it from there and help by saying, "Matt get my build from here... and follow the AllowIO instructions?"

Thank you for your build and I do appreciate the effort you have put into it to allow it work for my application.

Point is now moot as I have installed DOS 6.1 on an older laptop and installed win3.1 directly with it.

Dave

Reply 13 of 18, by wd

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This forum is NOT for cvs builds, modified or not, so ALL discussion
is about regular dosbox releases.

Reply 14 of 18, by MiniMax

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I would not be so categorical about it, wd.

I agree, that the assumption - unless specifically stated otherwise - should always be that we are discussing the latest, official build of DOSBox (as of now 0.72).

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Reply 15 of 18, by DaveDoesIT

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Yeah, but HAL was not assisting the original poster with even a suggestion of where to look. Then flatly announcing AllowIO would not work and not mentioning the build that HE had done does work.

Any way as I said, moot, the laptop is working fine under DOS 6.1 and win3.1

DosBox saved me a lot of aggravation over the past few months and I am grateful for that so thank you to you guys that develop and maintain it. I will get out of your hair now. 😀

Dave

Reply 16 of 18, by wd

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He would have posted that if YOU would not have posted wrong information
beforehand, namely that AllowIO gives you printer access in dosbox.
Which is plain wrong as hal said.

Reply 17 of 18, by Dominus

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Yeah, but HAL was not assisting the original poster with even a suggestion of where to look. Then flatly announcing AllowIO would not work and not mentioning the build that HE had done does work.

look at the order of the posts. In the context and the little information that you gave HAL was correct to point out to the OP that AllowIO does not work with Dosbox.
Just following your first post, the OP would not have been able to use AllowIO with Dosbox. If you use a special build you need to point that out when asking for help and especially when trying to help others here.

Any way as I said, moot, the laptop is working fine under DOS 6.1 and win3.1

We don't know whether this is moot now, since this thread has not been about your printing but about Matts...

Reply 18 of 18, by h-a-l-9000

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> Yeah, but HAL was not assisting the original poster with even a suggestion of where to look.

What do you think how much the parallel port passthrough in my build would help mattdaily with his _Network Printer_ ?

There is the virtual printer patch too but it a) only understands Epson codes and b) is somewhere between alpha and beta quality wise.

1+1=10