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Chris,
I never said to disable the standard driver. The beauty of this remedy is that although the raw printer driver is set as default in CUPS, my normal driver is still default in OS X. With the printer connected to my iBook, it prints fine from the Mac in OS X and it prints fine from VRPC using the raw printer driver in CUPS. I don't have to change anything. I have been using this for some time and it works automatically.
You can see the default on OS X is the standard driver since this one is highlighted in the printer setup utility printer list window, and the CUPS printer window still has the raw printer driver set as default.
The CUPS driver must be a raw printer driver so that it does not modify the print stream coming from the VRPC at all. It simply directs and sends it to the printer, which OS X was not doing.
(Since you weren't aware of it, all modern Macs have UNIX and if you use the Terminal program you can do things in UNIX rather than OS X. This remedy simply uses this facility without having to actually delve into Terminal.)
Roy

Aaron, Roy,
apologies for the delay in replying - I haven't had time until now to give this the attention it merits. I have re-read the instructions and have gained a better understanding. However, I still have the problem of 'garbled' output (non-text printouts) as per below.
Some findings that may be of interest:
1) I have version Common UNIX Printing System 1.3.5
2) I found - possibly due to my trying things out - CUPS can get 'stuck' (no test print) or can appear to be in place but is actually wrongly set up (no test print will emerge using the test print facility from http://localhost:631/printers/) No test print nor RiscOS paper output when 'stuck', though a completed queue entry is shown.
If 'stuck' but correctly set up it later recovers after reboot. Later, a reboot etc seems to result in it 'restarting' then we get a subsequent CUPS test print or activity from RiscOS to work.
VRPrinter-180 VRPC Print Job <user> 3k 1 completed at Tue Mar 18 20:44:47 2008
VRPrinter-179 Test Page guest 17k 1 completed at Tue Mar 18 20:40:52 2008
3) Whereas test prints from the existing /dev/null (as I call it)
EPSON_Stylus_COLOR_740 jobby with Printer Driver: EPSON SC 740 (1) give a most elaborate test page (colour charts, rules etc) I found the VRPrinter gives much 'raw' PDF script, presumably of the same page. Perhaps this is to be expected; it is 'raw' (Local Raw Printer in CUPS)
4) I believe I mistakenly assumed setting VRPrint in as default CUPS upset the Mac printing proper on one occasion. I now believe this was the Mac observing e.g. a paper outage, not due to your method. Apologies. Even with VRPrint as default in CUPS the Mac side is unaffected. I think Roy's post is informing me that the CUPS default is independent of the default printer in OSX, which I hadn't grasped (I must have assumed that CUPS was just a low level way of amending the driver status, not something distinct).
5) Even with an ancient but trusty Epson driver (not the newer '740' one from Aaron's disc), viz. Stylus Color 460, I still get much garbled output from, say, a small Ovation Pro document (two words...). It looks like unresolved printer codes (strange graphics characters, many of them). However a text file will consistently print correctly. Sprites also give garbled output. Perhaps the printer is somehow receiving the graphical stream but failing to interpret it correctly, or maybe some control codes are not getting thru'.
So I am still stuck and would appreciate any further suggestions, although I have learnt a lot so far!

That is normal for OS X 10.5



Do you mean a re-boot of the Mac or Virtual RPC? What do you mean by 'wrongly set up'? Since you set up the raw printer driver, it will use what you have set up. How does it change and to what?

If you cannot print a test page from CUPS on the Mac side without it getting 'stuck' as you put it, then there is something wrong on the Mac which needs to be resolved before you can expect the Virtual RPC to work correctly.

Have you run the disk utility to repair permissions? If that fails to resolve the issue I would try re-installing Mac OS X and starting again.



When you say 'raw' PDF script, do you meaning Printer Driver File or are you talking about Adobe's Portable Document File scripts?

Assuming you mean 'printer driver file' then yes a raw driver will produce a simpler print than the specific printer driver, since the specific driver can use all the printers codes and enhancements.


You need to get the Mac side correct first Chris to eliminate any fault from that side. Re-installing OS X if necessary, will not upset any applications you have installed, and is quite straight forward if you have not done this before on a Mac. If you have upgraded OS X since the original version, you will need to run those upgrades again after the re-install. (so if your DVD is 10.5.1 and you are now at 10.5.2 you will need to chose Archive and install to go back to an earlier version, then once installed, click on software update to get it to check for the latest updates).
If you are not that familiar with OS X or the Mac, and are not happy about changing the OS, re-installing, etc. then consult your local Mac store expert if you have one nearby or the dealer from whom you bought it.
Roy