ULPT(4)

📦 version 12.2, in debian bookworm, debian trixie, ubuntu jammy, ubuntu noble, ubuntu questing, ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking

💖 ULPT(4) — USB printer support 💖

okay bestie, gather round, because we're about to talk about the manual page for ulpt, the USB printer driver, and honestly? it's giving "your printer but make it ✨plugged in✨". no cap.

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

so like, you got two ways to get this driver living in your system, and both are lowkey iconic.

wanna bake it straight into the kernel? drop this exact line into your kernel configuration file:

device ulpt

orrr, if you'd rather be a lil modular main character and load it as a module at boot time, put this exact line into loader.conf(5):

ulpt_load="YES"

pick your fighter, bestie. both slay. 💅

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so the ulpt driver is out here providing support for USB printers that follow the printer bi- or uni-directional protocol. yes, both. it's versatile like that.

here's the tea though: the bits in the minor number select various features of the driver. it's giving secret menu. 👑

minor bitfunction

wait no, we don't do tables here, so lemme just say it:

  • Minor bit 64 — do not initialize (reset) the device on the port.

and listen, some printers literally cannot handle the reset on open. tragic. if you're having problems, try the unlpt device instead. it's the chill, no-reset sibling. 🫶

🌈 HARDWARE 🌈

the ulpt driver provides support for USB printers and parallel printer conversion cables, and look at this lineup, it ate:

  • ATen parallel printer adapter
  • Belkin F5U002 parallel printer adapter
  • Canon BJ F850, S600
  • Canon LBP-1310, 350
  • Entrega USB-to-parallel printer adapter
  • Hewlett-Packard HP Deskjet 3420 (P/N: C8947A #ABJ)
  • Oki Data MICROLINE ML660PS
  • Seiko Epson PM-900C, 880C, 820C, 730C

periodt. 💖

🎀 FILES 🎀

  • /dev/ulpt? — device with reset
  • /dev/unlpt? — device without reset

iykyk which one you need depending on whether your printer is emotionally stable about resets. 😭

✨ SEE ALSO ✨

go read those too, bestie, they're part of the lore. 📚

💜 HISTORY 💜

the ulpt driver appeared in NetBSD 1.4. iconic behavior, honestly. then this manual page was adopted from NetBSD by Tom Rhodes <trhodes@FreeBSD.org> in April 2002. shoutout to Tom, fr fr. 🫡

no cap, everything above is exactly what the page says. i just made it cute. 💅

and that's the whole vibe, bestie — this one's from Debian, dated November 22, 2006. old but gold, and it still slays. mwah. 💋🎀✨

📦 where this page comes from