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Date:	Tue, 24 Sep 2002 10:59:14 PST7
From:	"J. R. Fox" <jr_fox@pacbell.net >
Reply-To:	scoug-help@scoug.com
To:	scoug-help@scoug.com
Subject:	SCOUG-Help: Re: printer driver meltdown

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> >These objects resisted the shredder, so I resorted to PRNDRV. In my
> >case, it turned out to be a very dangerous utility. I specified for
> >deletion only the printer drivers containing a particular name string
> >(EPSONPRT.EPSON), and it appears to have taken out *every* printer driver
> >on LPT2, including the LexMark ones which obviously don't. What's more,
> >the printer objects *still* show up in the Printers folder, and still
> >appear available for selection by various app.s, but each is now an empty
> >husk that does nothing. I would have been much better off leaving things
> >as they were, and just ignoring the outdated cluttter. Now I'm not sure
> >what to do, other than to try to reinstall each printer driver over
> >again, and hope that does not lead to any bad side effects.

Steven replied:

> What I would do is restore from the WPS backup I made just before
> attempting to fix a problem I did not understand with a utility I didn't
> understand.

Yes, mea culpa -- I was uncharcteristically impatient this time, in part due to the seeming simplicity of the
options described by the PRNDRV command line switches. And the gamble went very wrong. I'd also like to be
able to tell you that the last WPS backup was recent enough to be valid here . . . but I'm not sure I can do
that. (Yup, a disconnect between practice and recent preachment.)

> That said, I've never seen prndrv do what you say it did to you. Either
> you made some sort of typo, like forgetting to quote names with spaces in
> them, or I've still got things to learn about prndrv.

No spaces. Don't think I screwed this up, typing wise.

> In the future, I suggest you might ask more questions before forging
> forward.

Noted.

> Having the ouput of:
>
> prndrv -l
>
> from before you attempted the delete the drivers along with the commands
> as you typed them might have been helpful.

That's all water under the bridge at this point. However, the listing function seemed to bring up a mention
of every installed printer, from both par. ports.

> The husks should not be there. I guess it's another indication that you
> had some sort of WPS problems even before you attempted to delete the
> drivers. Have you tried using unimaint or checkini to clean them up?

Unimaint Yes, Checkini No. Unimaint (the last ver. released, but not Peter's "special" ver.) sees nothing
wrong. As we have discussed before, in other contexts, some pre-existing WPS problems cannot be ruled out.
But note that the pristine install of eCS in another partition also displayed certain anomalies, most notably
the "folders-showing-where-some-drive-icons-ought-to-be" one seen in the W4 partition.

> Are you aware that the WPS can mark objects as NODELETE and that you can use
> Unimaint to clear the NODELETE flag?

No, but I'll look into it.

I thought there might be some shortcut fix for these leftover objects, so I tried re-defining the now blank
"default driver" field for each one, and re-specifiying the correct port assignment. No go. One of the
restore-attempt drivers now crashes an app. if it is selected, another one pegs the CPU meter at 98% with
nothing happening for a very long time, requiring the print job to be killed, at which point a very bad print
job _may_ emerge from that printer. I guess what I need right now is a step-by-step action list for killing
these zombie drivers, and redoing them from scratch. (Or trying a possibly out-of-date WPS backup, but
probably as a later resort.) Can I safely delete the driver files for the printer I got rid of, at least ?
But that won't stop them from showing up as available, I'm sure . . . ?

Jordan

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