H-P Printers, JetDirect software and Solaris 10
The most popular printers that we hear about are the models from Hewlett-Packard. You could say they are a "de-facto standard". The HP Unix printing software is "JetDirect" (which is also how HP refers to the printer's network interface). A call I had yesterday reminded me just how useful the JetDirect software/interface can be and why this nifty little package will save the sysadmin hours of frustration.
The customer was configuring printers and had trouble getting proper printouts and on some of the queues, any printouts at all. He was using Solaris 10 and mostly HP printers. The queues needed to be able to handle output from a financial program with lots of columns and landscape orientation.
I asked the customer why he was not using the HP software. He told me that he couldn't find the version for Solaris 10, so he assumed that HP no longer provided this support for Solaris.
This is an easy conclusion to come to if you are lucky enough to find the page on the HP website where you can download JetDirect. Here's the real story.
There is only one version of JetDirect software and it's SOLe134.PKG. This works for Solaris 2.5.1 through Solaris 10 (in the global zone).
It can be a challenge to find and it seems that the page changes often. There is one article on BigAdmin that contains a link to the download page.
Here's how to find the page everytime if the link shifts:
1. start at hp.com. Click the Software and driver downloads link. At that link "Download drivers and software (and firmware)" and search on: Printer Installer for Unix. NOTE: if you search on "Solaris", you will get a page that lists both JetDirect AND JetAdmin for Solaris. JetAdmin was EOL by HP in 2002.
2. This should give you a search page with a "HP JD Printer Installer for Solaris".
3. At the Printer Installer link, you will see a list of Solaris versions. Here's a tip: they are ALL the same and while Solaris 10 is not specifically listed, SOLe134.PKG will install and run in the global zone.
So why does HP hide this? HP has their own OS to support and, like any sort of search, knowing what to search FOR can make all the difference.
The customer I worked with had a working test queue up and running literally in minutes.
Thanks for the link. I had to return back a printer as I couldn't get a proper driver for my Solaris box. The drivers I compiled in were not working properly and consistent. I'll check this out.
Posted by Pavan on December 14, 2007 at 05:37 PM EST #
So you add the printer into the global zone and that passes down to the local (ie non-global) zones?
Since I'm going to be facing this issue in the near future I'm curious how this all plays out.
Yes, I am installing SOLe134.PKG in the global zone.
Posted by John Kotches on March 10, 2008 at 05:25 PM EDT #
You install in the global zone for the global zone; it doesn't flow into the local zones. In other words, you are making the global zone the print server for your HP printers. Local zones (either on the same machine or others) can be print clients.
In theory, you should be able to install jetdirect in a local zone that is installed as full root (i.e. no shared directories with global zone). To be honest, the last time I tried that was shortly after Solaris 10 came out and I never got it to install, but a lot of issues with zones (as well as enhancements) have been addressed since 2005.
One of the first tasks we like to try when a new version of Solaris is released (major version, like Solaris 10, not the kernel updates) is to see if the jetdirect software will install and run. (We understand it is in wide use and that using vendor software is what we have recommended for years, so we want to be ready). To date, the only snag we've ever encountered is the Solaris 10 local zone.
The bottom line is that using the vendor software is critical to being able to use special printer options; akin to using a vendor's windows driver as opposed to a generic driver provided with windows.
Posted by ML Starkey on March 12, 2008 at 12:34 PM EDT #
Thank you for the information.
http://www.cebeci.info
Posted by new software on June 09, 2009 at 05:05 PM EDT #