Bidirectional Parallel Port Printer Test (bpptest)

The bidirectional parallel port printer test (bpptest) verifies the functionality of the bidirectional parallel port. SBus printer cards have two printer ports: one for SPARCprinters^(TM), and one for any parallel port printer. Use the lpvitest to verify SPARCprinter functionality.

The bpptest verifies that your SBus card and its parallel port are working properly by attempting to transfer a data pattern from the SBus card to the printer.

Two indications occur if the card and printer are functioning properly: First, you can see from the SunVTS Status Window that bpptest made a successful pass, and second, that the pattern transmitted to the printer printed correctly.

If this test passes successfully, you know that the SBus DMA circuitry, the printer, and the device driver are functioning properly.

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Note - Large Postscript files or raster files may require that the printer has 2 Mbytes or more of memory. Otherwise, the printout may appear on two different sheets of paper.

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Printer Test Hardware and Software Requirements

The SBus printer card and device drivers must be installed to run lpvitest or bpptest. A printer must be connected to the SPARCprinter or bidirectional parallel port, and be powered-up. If both a SPARCprinter and a parallel port printer are hooked up to the SBus card, you can test both at the same time.

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Note - For a SPARCstation 10, SPARCstation LX, or SPARCclassic system, you can connect a printer directly to the onboard parallel port to run bpptest.

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If you are testing the SPARCprinter port, be sure the magnets on the SPARCprinter paper tray are set to the correct paper size. For more information, see the SPARCprinter Installation and User's Guide and the label on the paper tray.

bpptest Options

Figure 3-1 bpptest

• Access determines the direction of data transfer; this field is informational only. writeonly is the only option currently available. This indicates that the only data being transferred is going from the SBus printer card to the printer.
• Mode sets the print intervals. This option lets you select the intervals at which the test image is printed. The default setting is Fast. In the online and offline modes this option is set to medium. In the offline mode, the choices are:

· Fast	Prints an image every 10 seconds.
· Mediu	Prints an image every 10 seconds.
· Medium	Prints an image every 12 minutes.
· Extended	Prints an image every 30 minutes.

bpptest Test Modes

This test supports all the three testing modes, namely connectivity, online and offline.

Connectivity Mode This mode verifies that a bidirectional parallel port is configured on the system. The success of the bpptest in this mode indicates that the system has the bidirectional parallel port hardware and the software driver is installed.

Online Mode In this mode the test attempts to verify the functionality of the parallel port and the path between the parallel port and the host memory. An internal loopback test is performed, and if a printer is attached to the port a data pattern is transferred to the printer.

If the port is found to be busy at the time of testing, a message is printed on the SunVTS console indicating that the device is unavailable for testing and the error and pass counts are unaffected.

Offline Mode The testing done in this mode is the same as in the online mode, except that the test registers a failure if the port is found busy. This is because SunVTS tests make the assumption that all the resources will be available for testing in the offline mode and therefore the unavailability of the device is interpreted as an indication of a fault condition.

bpptest Command Line Syntax

/opt/SUNWvts/bin/bpptest standard_arguments -o
dev=device_name,access=writeonly|readonly,mode=mode,loop=disable|enable

Argument Explanation
dev=device_name	Specifies the name of the device. This should be of the form /dev/bpp#, where # is the minor number of the device.
access=writeonly|readonly	Determines test mode: writeonly or readonly. Note: This flag is mandatory.
mode=mode	Sets the test image print rate. The test image is a continuous printout of the ASCII character set. Possible rates are: fast..Prints the test image at 10-second intervals. medium Prints the test image at 12-minute intervals. extended Prints the test image at 30-minute intervals.

bpptest Error Messages

The bpptest error messages are listed below with explanations or probable cause.

6000 Read compare failed, expected:<value>,
observed:<value>

Probable_Cause(s):

a. Suspect DMA circuitry or FIFO associated with bpp

6001 Error occurred while accessing <device_name>; Time out
Error: <value>; Bus Error: <value>; Pin Status: <value>

Probable_Cause(s):

a. <system_error_message>

8000 could not open <device_name>

Probable_Cause(s):

a. <system_error_message> b. Device does not exist

c. Device not configured correctly

8001 Encountered error while writing to <device_name>;
Requested bytes to write: <value>; Bytes successfully
written: <value>

Probable_Cause(s):

a. Device not configured correctly or does not exist b. Too many print requests queued up

c. Printer out of paper

8002 Failed to obtain memory from malloc() system call

Probable_Cause(s):

a. System heavily loaded

8003 Error occurred while attempting to fork a child
process

Probable_Cause(s):

a. <system_error_message>

8004 ioctl fail on <device_name>

Probable_Cause(s):

a. <system_error_message>

8005 error=<number>

Probable_Cause(s):

a. <system_error_message>

8006 Device <device_name> unavailable for testing

Probable_Cause(s):

a. Device is busy

Recommended_Action(s):

a. Retry later