apsfilter doesn't work on server

[Christian Ullrich <chris@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hello!

I have apsfilter 7.1.1 installed on FreeBSD 4.4, printing to an 
HP LaserJet 1200 (PS Level2). Printing from the server works just
fine. But when I print from another machine (SuSE Linux 7.3) to the
server, I have all kinds of problems:

- Text is staircased (presumably sent directly to the printer,
  which would then have decided to use it's PCL personality).
- I can print PostScript, but nothing else (I haven't tried raw PCL5).
- When I try to print anything else, say, a tar file, the job just
  goes somewhere and I never hear of it again.

I suspect that local and remote lpd work in concert to drive me 
crazy, by bypassing the apsfilter on the server completely. All
the documentation on apsfilter that I have found yet does a fine
job of maneuvering around that very question.

I've tried what is described in the FAQ as a "bounce queue" on the
server, but  that doesn't work either, all I get is a line in
syslog: "lp: job could not be printed (cfA003ser1.chrullrich.de)"
and an error mail saying that the spool directory could not be
determined.

Is it at all possible to just send the data from the client to the 
server, and let the server do all the file type recognition and 
PostScript conversion? Or do I have to do that on every client 
separately?

printcap on server (with bounce_queue attempt):

# APS1_BEGIN:printer1
# - don't delete start label for apsfilter printer1
# - no other printer defines between BEGIN and END LABEL
raw|PS;r=600x600;q=high;c=gray;p=a4;m=raw:\
    :lp=/dev/lpt0:\
    :if=/etc/apsfilter/basedir/bin/apsfilter:\
    :sd=/var/spool/lpd/raw:\
    :lf=/var/spool/lpd/raw/log:\
    :af=/var/spool/lpd/raw/acct:\
    :mx#0:\
    :sf:\
    :sh:
# APS1_END - don't delete this
# APS2_BEGIN:printer2
# - don't delete start label for apsfilter printer2
# - no other printer defines between BEGIN and END LABEL
real_lp|PS;r=600x600;q=high;c=gray;p=a4;m=auto:\
    :lp=/dev/lpt0:\
    :if=/etc/apsfilter/basedir/bin/apsfilter:\
    :sd=/var/spool/lpd/real_lp:\
    :lf=/var/spool/lpd/real_lp/log:\
    :af=/var/spool/lpd/real_lp/acct:\
    :mx#0:\
    :sh:
# APS2_END - don't delete this
# bounce queue?
lp:\
    :lp=/dev/null:\
	:sd=/var/spool/lpd/lp:
	
/etc/apsfilter/lp/lpr.conf contains "REMOTE_NAME=real_lp".
	
relevant part of printcap on client:

lp_net|remote printer on ser1:\
        :sd=/var/spool/lpd/lp_net:\
        :rm=ser1:\
        :rp=lp:\
        :bk:sh:mx#0:
		
Yes, I did "lpr -Plp_net".

-- 
Christian Ullrich		     Registrierter Linux-User #125183

"Deliver."