"Printer not connected" with parallel HP4100 on FreeBSD

[dexter clarke]

I'm using:

FreeBSD 6.2
CUPS 1.3.3
HP LaserJet 4100

The printer is connected to the parallel port (/dev/lpt0).

I have seen various posts around the internet that give
various solutions to this problem and yet none of them work.

I can print to the printer using the raw device:

cat test.ps > /dev/lpt0

But cups always complains that "Printer not connected; will
retry in 30 seconds...".

Output of various lp commands:

$ lpstat -v
device for hp4100: parallel://dev/lpt0
$ lpstat -p
printer hp4100 is idle.  enabled since Wed 17 Oct 19:27:09 2007
        Printer not connected; will retry in 30 seconds...

Permissions on /dev/lpt0 seem to be correct:

crw-rw----  1 root  cups    0,  61 17 Oct 18:01 /dev/lpt0

I read somewhere that one can use file://dev/lpt0 as a workaround
for a bug that causes this problem (that has apparently been fixed)
but that didn't work either ("device busy").

The printer config:

<DefaultPrinter hp4100>
Info hp4100
DeviceURI parallel://dev/lpt0
State Idle
StateTime 1192643688
Accepting Yes
Shared Yes
JobSheets none none
QuotaPeriod 0
PageLimit 0
KLimit 0
OpPolicy default
ErrorPolicy stop-printer
</Printer>

I appear to be using the HP LaserJet 4100 Foomatic/hpijs currently.

I'm at a loss. Anybody got any ideas?

--
dc