xref: /netbsd-src/share/man/man4/man4.vax/va.4 (revision cda4f8f6ee55684e8d311b86c99ea59191e6b74f)
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32.\"     @(#)va.4	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/5/93
33.\"
34.Dd June 5, 1993
35.Dt VA 4 vax
36.Os BSD 4
37.Sh NAME
38.Nm va
39.Nd Benson-Varian interface
40.Sh SYNOPSIS
41.Cd "controller va0 at uba0 csr 0164000 vector vaintr"
42.Cd "disk vz0 at va0 drive 0"
43.Sh DESCRIPTION
44.Bf -symbolic
45(NOTE: the configuration description, while counter-intuitive,
46is actually as shown above.)
47.Ef
48.Pp
49The Benson-Varian printer/plotter in normally used with the line printer
50system.
51This description is designed for those who wish to drive the Benson-Varian
52directly.
53.Pp
54In print mode, the Benson-Varian uses a modified
55.Tn ASCII
56character set.
57Most control characters print various non-
58.Tn ASCII
59graphics such as daggers,
60sigmas, copyright symbols, etc.
61Only
62.Tn LF
63and
64.Tn FF
65are used as format effectors.
66.Tn LF
67acts as a newline,
68advancing to the beginning of the next line, and
69.Tn FF
70advances to the top of
71the next page.
72.Pp
73In plot mode, the Benson-Varian prints one raster line at a time.
74An entire raster line of bits (2112 bits = 264 bytes) is sent, and
75then the Benson-Varian advances to the next raster line.
76.Pp
77.Em Note :
78The Benson-Varian must be sent an even number of bytes.
79If an odd number is sent, the last byte will be lost.
80Nulls can be used in print mode to pad to an even number of bytes.
81.Pp
82To use the Benson-Varian yourself,
83you must realize that you cannot open the device,
84.Pa /dev/va0
85if there is an daemon active.
86You can see if there is an active daemon by doing a
87.Xr lpq 1
88and seeing if there are any files being printed.
89Printing should be turned off using
90.Xr lpc 8 .
91.Pp
92To set the Benson-Varian into plot mode include the file
93.Aq Pa sys/vcmd.h
94and use the following
95.Xr ioctl 2
96call
97.Bd -literal -offset indent
98ioctl(fileno(va), VSETSTATE, plotmd);
99.Ed
100.Pp
101where
102.Ar plotmd
103is defined to be
104.Bd -literal -offset indent
105int plotmd[] = { VPLOT, 0, 0 };
106.Ed
107.Pp
108and
109.Ar va
110is the result of a call to
111.Xr fopen
112on stdio.
113When you finish using the Benson-Varian in plot mode you should advance to
114a new page
115by sending it a
116.Tn FF
117after putting it back into print mode, i.e. by
118.Bd -literal -offset indent
119int prtmd[] = { VPRINT, 0, 0 };
120\&...
121fflush(va);
122ioctl(fileno(va), VSETSTATE, prtmd);
123write(fileno(va), "\ef\e0", 2);
124.Ed
125.Sh FILES
126.Bl -tag -width /dev/va0xx -compact
127.It Pa /dev/va0
128.El
129.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
130The following error numbers are significant at the
131time the device is opened.
132.Bl -tag -width ENXIOxx
133.It Bq Er ENXIO
134The device is already in use.
135.It Bq Er EIO
136The device is offline.
137.El
138.Pp
139The following message may be printed on the console.
140.Pp
141.Bl -diag
142.It va%d: npr timeout.
143The device was not able to get data from
144the
145.Tn UNIBUS
146within the timeout period, most likely because some other
147device was hogging the bus.  (But see
148.Sx BUGS
149below).
150.El
151.Sh SEE ALSO
152.Xr vfont 5 ,
153.Xr lpr 1 ,
154.Xr lpd 8 ,
155.Xr vp 4
156.Sh HISTORY
157The
158.Nm
159driver appeared in
160.Bx 4.0 .
161.Sh BUGS
162The 1's (one's) and l's (lower-case el's) in the Benson-Varian's
163standard character set look very similar; caution is advised.
164.Pp
165The interface hardware is rumored to have problems which can
166play havoc with the
167.Tn UNIBUS .
168We have intermittent minor problems on the
169.Tn UNIBUS
170where our
171.Xr va
172lives, but haven't ever been able to pin them down
173completely.
174