Troubleshooting - Novell LINUX ENTERPRISE SERVER 11 - ADMINISTRATION Administration Manual

manufacturer-PPDs. YaST cannot use any PPD file from the
manufacturer-PPDs package if the model name does not match. This may happen
if the manufacturer-PPDs package contains only one PPD file for similar models,
like Funprinter 12xx series. In this case, select the respective PPD file manually in
YaST.

10.8 Troubleshooting

The following sections cover some of the most frequently encountered printer hardware
and software problems and ways to solve or circumvent these problems. Among the
topics covered are GDI printers, PPD files and port configuration. Common network
printer problems, defective printouts, and queue handling are also addressed.
10.8.1 Printers without Standard Printer
Language Support
These printers do not support any common printer language and can only be addressed
with special proprietary control sequences. Therefore they can only work with the op-
erating system versions for which the manufacturer delivers a driver. GDI is a program-
ming interface developed by Microsoft* for graphics devices. Usually the manufacturer
delivers drivers only for Windows, and since the Windows driver uses the GDI interface
these printers are also called GDI printers. The actual problem is not the programming
interface, but the fact that these printers can only be addressed with the proprietary
printer language of the respective printer model.
Some GDI printers can be switched to operate either in GDI mode or in one of the
standard printer languages. See the manual of the printer whether this is possible. Some
models require special Windows software to do the switch (note that the Windows
printer driver may always switch the printer back into GDI mode when printing from
Windows). For other GDI printers there are extension modules for a standard printer
language available.
Some manufacturers provide proprietary drivers for their printers. The disadvantage of
proprietary printer drivers is that there is no guarantee that these work with the installed
print system or that they are suitable for the various hardware platforms. In contrast,
Printer Operation 123