NetWare Clients Printing to German FPNW Cannot Use All Certain Flag Combinations (180113)

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256986 Description of the Microsoft Windows Registry

SYMPTOMS

When using Capture.exe that ships with File and Print Services for NetWare (FPNW) and printing to a German File and Print Services for NetWare (FPNW) server using a command similar to the following:

   CAPTURE L=2 S=fpnw-srv Q=printer NT

The job does not print although it does show up in the queue for a very short time.

CAUSE

To reflect the options entered when capturing the printer, FPNW uses the job data types of the Windows NT printing system. Here is how the CAPTURE options map:

   <no option>: TEXT
   NT NFF: RAW
   NT: RAW [FF appended]
   <other cases>: default data type

In German FPNW, RAW [FF appended] is localized to RAW [FF angehaengt] where ae is a German Umlaut. This string is not localized in the Windows NT printing system.

Because the datatype RAW [FF angehaengt] is rejected by the printing subsystem on the German server, FPNW cancels the print job and returns the NCP request with an error message.

RESOLUTION

WARNING: If you use Registry Editor incorrectly, you may cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that you can solve problems that result from using Registry Editor incorrectly. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.

FPNW has registry entries to set the strings for the data types used above. The path below shows the location of this registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\FPNW\Parameters.

This is the list of entries and their default values for US-English Windows NT:

Value name: DefaultTextDatatype Data type: REG_SZ String: TEXT Value name: DefaultRawDatatype Data type: REG_SZ String: RAW Value name: DefaultRawFFDatatype Data type: REG_SZ String: RAW [FF appended]

The entries do not exist and have to be added manually.

To solve the problem, add a new value DefaultRawFFDatatype with the string RAW [FF appended] and restart the FPNW service. To do this, perform the following steps:

Start Registry Editor (Regedt32.exe) and go to the following subkey:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\FPNW\Parameter
From the Edit menu, click Add Value. Type the following information and then click OK.

Value name: DefaultRawFFDatatype Data Type: REG_SZ String: RAW [FF appende
Quit Registry Editor and restart your computer.

MORE INFORMATION

The problem occurs if you run NetWare clients with some MS-DOS applications where you do not want to use tab expansion (description below), but want the server to append a Form Feed to the print job.

Using Capture.exe that comes with FPNW, this would be an example command line:

   CAPTURE L=2 S=fpnw-srv Q=printer NT

Windows NT tells the system not to expand tab characters (ASCII 0x09) in the print job to spaces. It does not matter whether you use Microsoft's or Novell's version of Capture.exe or if you use the Nwuser.exe tool under Windows to capture the LPT port.

The problem is that the job does not get printed. It shows up only for a short time in the Windows NT queue.

In a network trace you can see a NCP request Create Queue Job Extended sent to FPNW, but the response frame contains error code 0xD0 (Queue Error).

Without the Windows NT option or by adding NFF (No Form Feed), the print jobs get printed but you have side effects like distorted printouts or you manually have to add a Form Feed.